Minecraft Review

By Alec Meer Published 18 November, 2011

Built to rule.

Version tested: PC

How would you review Tetris, if you were reviewing it today? "The puzzling is very tight, and the soundtrack is catchy." That's the thing - Tetris is so much more than that by now, but it's almost impossible to disassociate it from its cultural resonance. Minecraft, the free-form building and survival game, hasn't yet seeped into the global consciousness to the same degree, but it has become something far more than a mere game.

It is one that over four million people have already paid for and played. It is the brightest example of an indie success story you could name, having never been near a publisher or even an investor. Its lead developer, Markus 'Notch' Persson, is all but a celebrity - that one-word nickname guaranteeing instant press and gamer attention for any and all pronouncements it's attached to. There are T-shirts, there are costumes, there are conspiracy theories about an in-game nemesis who doesn't exist, there are podcasts, there are more YouTube videos than one human being could watch in a lifetime, there is a dedicated video commentary site starring a girl with pink hair who has her own frighteningly loyal fanbase.

Identifying quite where the game stops and where its online legend begins is a tall order. Review Minecraft? Might as well review Justin Bieber. ("The hair is very shiny but the voice quite weedy; 7/10.")

Except, somehow, Minecraft wasn't released until today, and thus today is the day it is intended to be reviewed on. It's been in alpha then beta for a couple of years now, with any and everyone who coughed up the eminently reasonable sum of first £10 and later £14 granted immediate access to the latest build and all future updates. There isn't even any mystery around the 'release' version, with a near-finished build having been available for the last week or so. Review Minecraft? Oh, go on, then.

'Minecraft Review' Screenshot 1

Endermen: nightmarish teleporting bastards who are utterly vital to accessing the endgame.

Back to basics: here's what Minecraft, the game, really is. It's a block-based sandbox with two key player abilities: to create and to destroy. With one mouse-button you give, with the other you take away.

Hit something - almost anything - with your cuboid hand or whatever tool it holds and, after a few good thwacks, it'll disintegrate. Pick up the debris left behind, and you'll have a piece of building material. You can then drop that in the world, where it'll appear as (usually) a cube. Mine more materials, stack other cubes onto and around your first blocks and, with even the gentlest smattering of imagination, you'll have created something.

It could be a giant tower to nowhere. It could be an elaborate Gothic castle with spires that pierce the very sky. It could be an operational minecart and track. It could be a crude phallus. It could be Justin Bieber. It could be almost anything, and that is Minecraft.

It is so spectacularly simple in so many ways, and yet capable of being so fiendishly complicated, if you decide to set yourself an ambitious construction project that requires time, patience and ever-rarer types of block. But you don't have to. Be you the most casual clicker or the most diligent digital architect, you will make something of which you feel proud.

The game splinters off into two key, additional forms beyond this delightfully minimalist, Lego-like core. One is a multiplayer mode, wherein the patient efforts and bubbling imaginations of a group working together result in what tend to be the most spectacular sights you'll find in this or almost any other game. Find a popular server and you'll see amazing things: impossible cities in the clouds, vast underground mines, waterways carved into functional circuitry, working farms and, yes, quite a few phalluses.

'Minecraft Review' Screenshot 2

Oh no, I didn't mention the animals, did I? Fight 'em, coo at 'em, but most of all harvest, cook and eat bits of them to stay alive in Survival mode.

With simple 'recipes' of materials, which thanks to the mildly annoying lack of a tutorial you'll need to look up online or use shape-based guesses to come up with, you can make tools, structures, weapons, fire, portals, doors, ladders, all sorts. Whenever a new block type has been added to the game, Minecraft's building potential has grown exponentially. The endlessly reshapable world, paired with the developers' canny, programming-minded sense of what new block types could theoretically be used for, makes for a wonder of electronic possibility - the fundamental 'what if?' that video games can pose.

Of course, most of us will never participate in such grand creations, because we're too lazy and panicky and easily distracted. Most of us will dig a big hole in the ground, stick some torches on the walls and feel like we're home. And that, I think, is Minecraft at its most important.

No matter how crude, hapless and infantile your creations, they're yours. The hole in the ground will feel like home, because you're the one who made it, you're the one who couldn't work out the block combination that creates a ladder so built a disjointed staircase to nowhere instead, you're the one who desperately patched up that hole in the roof you accidentally made just as a monster tried to creep in.

Ah, the monsters. That leads me on to the other key facet of Minecraft: the one that might be a little less vital to the game itself, but is the zeitgeist-y heart of Minecraft's online fame. Creepers, Ghasts, Endermen, zombies, skeletons, spiders: lumbering and stupid block-beasts, the lot of 'em, but if they see you, they will home in on you and relentlessly try to kill you. Fortunately, they mostly come at night, mostly.

In the brief daytime, you build. In the long night-time, you hide. Or you fight. It is about survival - creating first shelter and later weapons and armour to fend off these single-minded, cartoonishly crude and yet effortlessly menacing hunters. Rarer blocks and ever more complicated mining and crafting creates sturdier gear which will keep you alive for longer - although, in most Minecraft modes, death is but an inconvenience that loses you whatever you're carrying and flings you back to the geographical start point. The real loss is your location and whatever precious, precious blocks you were on the verge of mining, which can be hard to find again if you've not been smart about marking locations.

New-ish to Minecraft, but front and centre in the release version, are an experience system and an endgame. Killing things gets you experience, and experience is, in a roundabout way, spent on an overcomplicated buff/enchantment system. This latter-day element of the game is frankly not its strongest, and encourages grinding more than it does imagination, but it's due to be expanded further still in time and will hopefully become something more than a MMO-style layer of stat-chasing.

Similarly undercooked, if clearly ambitious, is the pursuit of a climactic boss battle by attaining the rarest substances and building portals to the game's two additional dimensions: an underground hell realm and its ethereal inversion, The End. Harder fights, yet more uncommon materials and, eventually, a bloody great dragon await you here.

'Minecraft Review' Screenshot 3

One day my son, all this will be yours. If you can be bothered to build it, that is.

This final fight is ridiculously and intentionally tough, its reward is an arguably too-big-for-its-boots 'poem' and, well, it just doesn't quite feel in the spirit of Minecraft proper. But it is a concrete goal to aim for, and for some people that may well be necessary: both the kind of player who finds it hard to drag themselves away from the main quest in Skyrim, and the kind who absolutely has to achieve everything. This aspect, and the levelling, seem a long way distant from the simpler virtues of construction and survival that first made Minecraft the internet's darling, and I worry slightly about this toybox of a game staggering under the weight of such additions if more are to come.

More on Minecraft

Then again, these narrative and role-playing elements are entirely optional - as is everything in the game. Just build a tunnel to nowhere if you like. Or yet another rocky phallus, most likely. Minecraft is yours to do with as you please: its single greatest feature is that, every time you start a new game, it gives you a new, random and infinite world, strangely beautiful in its blocky minimalism (very much thanks to truly lovely lighting and music), a new adventure and a new, endless box of digital Lego.

Minecraft is a towering achievement in the very possibilities of gaming, and it does this without losing itself to either esoterica or cynicism. It is a game anyone can play and anyone can get something out of, no matter how skilled or imaginative they are. They will make something and they will have an experience that feels like theirs and theirs alone.

The last two of years of public-eye development also make for a vital and joyous lesson for modern gaming itself: go your own way, listen to your players, celebrate what human beings can do rather than what you can make them do. Minecraft might be inseparable from its own fame by this point, but one thing's for sure - it deserves every bit of it.

10 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Alec.

About Alec Meer

A 10-year veteran of scribbling about video games, Alec primarily writes for Rock, Paper, Shotgun, but given any opportunity he will escape his keyboard and mouse ghetto to write about any and all formats.

Read more articles from Alec by visiting the Alec Meer archive page.

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Comments (125) Latest comment 3 months ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • evild_edd #1 3 months ago

    Not sure how you can put a score rating on a game like this really - you get as much out of it as you put in....

    You have to wonder how EG would have treated it if it didn't come with momentum of millions of devotees.

    Still, this is one of those releases that will be looked back upon in the years to come as a stand-out release, whether it proves to be a one-off, or the herald of things to come.

  • the_dudefather #2 3 months ago

    "It could be a giant tower to nowhere. It could be an elaborate Gothic castle with spires that pierce the very sky. It could be an operational minecart and track. It could be a crude phallus. It could be Justin Bieber."

    SOLD

  • Omroth #3 3 months ago

    Nail on the head. "How would you review Tetris, if you were reviewing it today?". Love it.

  • jonfon #4 3 months ago

    Nice Aliens reference in this.

    As a Java developer I find the technical accomplishment of Minecraft to be the most impressive thing about it. Fire up the wee JAR file and watch it generate an entire pseudo-random world for you to explore. It's pretty darn impressive

  • evild_edd #5 3 months ago

    Oh, and Justin Bieber would be a 0/10, surely? ;0)

  • Benno #6 3 months ago

    Its so strange seeing a review of this only now :p

  • Dave52 #7 3 months ago

    I often come home from work to find my Son and a few of his mates encamped in my dining room, hunched over laptops, all Minecrafting. It's an addictive monkey to be sure... 10/10 seems about right.

  • jarvisio #8 3 months ago

    I thoroughly enjoy Minecraft and I'm pleased that it has got a 10/10. I think the visually unique style helps sell it and I find that I keep returning to it when other games have dried up. It isn't getting a look in since The Elder "Scrolls" : Skyrim is around though :)

  • Stoatboy #9 3 months ago

    Perhaps the most deserved 10 ever IMO. It's become a thing in my life rather than just a game. It's always there in a browser tab, ready for me to dive-in. It's a place to be, rather than a thing to do.

    I buy lots of other games.

    And then I often play Minecraft instead.

  • Bosthian #10 3 months ago

    This game is really fantastic!!!
    Can't stop playing.

    One of the best games of all time.

  • pauleyc #11 3 months ago

    Very good review for something that is probably the ultimate sandbox experience.

    The only thing to add would be these two links to Penny Arcade.

  • andywilkie35 #12 3 months ago

    Now I know what this is, I might have to actually get it

  • disappointed #13 3 months ago

    Now, I like a crude phallus and I like Justin Bieber, but which is better? There's only one way to find out...

  • Madder-Max #14 3 months ago

    So its now Sky-rim-block.......

    /see what i did there.....its clever
    Edited by 1 at 18/11/11 @ 13:29

  • Beano #15 3 months ago

    10 is not a surprise - not that Minecraft is near worth a 10 in my opinion. I like Minecraft a lot and respect Notch's accomplishments, but Minecraft is almost a religion to many and trendy to like because it's modern-retro style and indy. If EA or Activision had published Minecraft, it would be never be this popular. The negging of this post will prove my point.

  • MattEdWithCheese #16 3 months ago

    This+Skyrim+Zelda+Mario if my woman doesn't leave me in the next few weeks, I might just marry her...

  • Triggerhappytel #17 3 months ago

    Reading about this kind of makes me want to play it, but I don't really do PC gaming and I think I'm the kind of gamer who needs a more traditional, linear experience. I'm also not very creative, and games like this or LittleBigPlanet are ultimately wasted on me.

    Still, it sounds quite amazing and I'm glad games like this exist.

    PS - what score did Fortresscraft get...?

  • ED209 #18 3 months ago

    Here's a considered argument for you Beano - Shut the fuck up. Its 10 out of 10 because it lets you be creative. The last game I'm aware of with this kind of creative aspect was Dark Chronicle and that was very restrictive. Obviously there are level editors and the like with other games, but they are tools. In Minecraft the tool is the game itself. However in real life you are a tool... perhaps a dirty hoe?

  • cyacomini #19 3 months ago

    Mine what? Never heard of it.

  • jonsaan #20 3 months ago

    It's a truly great game. And an amazingly creative tool in the hands of my kids. This is one game you don't mind them playing. It is so creative.

  • Mister-Wario #21 3 months ago

    It's a remarkable game, and for the life of me I can't understand why I haven't given it a proper look. This is basically the Lego Creator of the 21st Century.

  • PaulieWaulie #22 3 months ago

    Post deleted at 14:23:40 06-01-2012

  • ED209 #23 3 months ago

    Just realised Dark Chronicle was 2003! Yipes! Apparently ive been living under a rock for the last decade. And now i have emerged my first plan is to burrow into a underground cave searching for precious ore. See you in 2020! (Hopefully whilst garbed in iron pantaloons).

  • Ranger101 #24 3 months ago

    @Beano I think the real thing to consider about Minecraft is that it is a game that wouldn't be the amazing game it is EXACTLY today if it was an Activision or EA game. The very nature of it's creators and the way in which it was built is at the heart of the 10 it deserves.
    This is a game coded by Mojang, but it's soul was designed by gamers. The amount of feedback, glitches, suggestions and features that made it through via places like Reddit (a community notch engages with regularly) and Twitter, is beyond what any traditional publisher could ever hope to implement. The closest anyone has come is probably Capcom.

  • Xabarin #25 3 months ago

    Spot-on review. This game makes me proud to be part of the pc gaming community, the only place where a project like this could be accomplished.

  • Toothball #26 3 months ago

    @pauleyc

    Regarding sandboxes, I'd go as far as saying that Minecraft is one of the few real sandbox games. Other games like GTA claim to have sandbox gameplay, but they present you with toys instead of sand. You have your cars, guns, a city to wander about in filled with good and bad people. And you make your fun with these toys at your disposal, for the most part having fun in ways that the designers intended. More like a toy box than a sandbox really, although there's nothing wrong with that in itself.

    Minecraft instead gives you sand, this time in the form of wood, stones, metals and also actual sand. And then it leaves you to it. You can build any kind of sandcastle you want with the sand you have available. It's only limited by imagination.

  • Alivada #27 3 months ago

    It's not a 10. This review seems to be here to please the fanbase.

  • technotica #28 3 months ago

    It's gone gold? Hmm my Minecraft still says Beta, when does the gold version get released for download?

  • jonfon #29 3 months ago

    @technotica
    Good question, no mention of it on the Minecraft.org website

  • arcam #30 3 months ago

    It goes live during Notch's keynote speech today. Here is a countdown. 6 hours to go.
    Edited by 1 at 18/11/11 @ 15:02

  • Yeoung #31 3 months ago

    And yet, somehow, I still haven't played this thing

  • aplsin #32 3 months ago

    @arcam
    Doesn't seem to work very well, it says 4339 days.
    When is the release in GMT?

  • layleeloo #33 3 months ago

    TEN? You're having a laugh aren't you. Tried it a few months ago on PC and thought was a bit pants. Gave it another go yesterday when I wasted £5 on the iPhone version and it's still pants

  • arcam #34 3 months ago

    @aplsin

    Hah, you're right, dunno what happened because when I posted it said 6 hours.

    The release of 1.0 is supposed to happen during Notch's speech at Minecon, and his speech is from 9pm to 10:30pm GMT.

    Although you could also look at this as the time the Minecraft servers are going to crash ;), because it's gonna be hectic when it finally goes live...
    Edited by 1 at 18/11/11 @ 15:32

  • aplsin #35 3 months ago

    Minecraft Launch with Notch - IGN MineCon Live!

  • JamieR #36 3 months ago

    I love minecraft but i think 10 is a bit too kind. I hate the update where the Endermen takes your builds apart and you die of hunger and how glitchy the weather system is and how AA don't work with it at all. but i do spend more time on minecraft than other games so maybe it is a 10. how the hell do you score this game.

  • captain-future #37 3 months ago

    who cares about Minecraft? where's the Saints Row: The Third review??

  • marmaduke #38 3 months ago

    Oh come on, this is easily an 8. Laggy multiplayer and no official servers, hackers everywhere, creepers are TOTALLY overpowered, and... er...

    Sod it. Yeah, it's a 10, provided you've got some friends who you can team up with to build your Chuckle Brothers monument.

  • superdelphinus #39 3 months ago

    Wow, EG seem to have a load of tens to offload before Xmas!

  • makariel #40 3 months ago

    Halo is better than Justin Bieber then?

  • Desheep #41 3 months ago

    Damn right this is better than MW3.

  • magicpanda #42 3 months ago

    A fully deserved 10. I can see this being one of the classic videogames like Tetris etc.

  • Microbat98 #43 3 months ago

    I'm not new or old to Minecraft, I started playing it in February (Beta 1.2), but I'm probably one of it's biggest fans! I've looked at everything there is to look at about it! It's definately one of the best games of all time! Although I haven't liked 1.8 much because it's not like a free game anymore. There's TOO MUCH to do! It's like it isn't the sandbox game it once was! I AM looking forward to the actual release, but I'm not as excited about it as I was about all the other updates. The thing I'm least looking forward to is the End Game thing! Minecraft isn't supposed to have an end game! Anyway, the point is I have no point in this comment...

  • casodi #44 3 months ago

    the score was expected

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #45 3 months ago

    In response to a few comments.

    Playing the mobile versions is nothing like playing the main version and the hacks, mods and multiplayer are all optional and have nothing to do with it's score.

    I have to say I didn't get this game at all when I tried the free version. I then plumped for the full game and loved the sense of urgency before your first nighttime. However after a week I got bored...

    I then revisited it a month later and in conjunction with the wiki, started a new world and got crafting. I built a small room in the side of a mountain that is now a four roomed fort with lookout point at the peak and a little moat side dock. I've got torches lighting up it's doorways & staircases, and from a distance at night in the rain, it's a beautiful beautiful thing.

    The solitary feeling you get of being in a unique world with just home and exploration for company is something to behold.

    I've now dug a long staircase down from my fort and have come across a hug labyrinthine abandoned mine with ravines so deep I can't see the bottom.

    In short, this game can take a while to click and the 'classic'/mobile versions are not an indication of what this game is like.

    It's definitely a 10/10.

  • Collymilad #46 3 months ago

    So this is a 10/10 even if you like playing games rather than making your own?

    :p

  • Neil__ #47 3 months ago

    10/10.
    You are definitely smoking crack at the cult of Notch.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #48 3 months ago

    @Collymilad It's not really like that. It's nothing like 'game creators' such as LBP2. You're in the game and playing it. You're crafting, exploring, fighting and farming just as you would in any number of RPG/Sim games.

  • Neil__ #49 3 months ago

    This game is creative in the same way crayons are to a 5 yr old. In other words, this game would be perfect for adults with learning difficulties.
    Any intelligent adult with an actual creative talent couldn't possibly be stimulated by this simplistic and mind numbingly dull waste of time.
    And before you start with the fan-boy hate, I have tried this game, I’m also a musician and I explore my creativity in the real world, not with virtual lego.
    Edited by 1 at 18/11/11 @ 18:03

  • caesar_ #50 3 months ago

    As good as Skyrim then. ;)

  • OJSlaughter #51 3 months ago

    11/10 considering I bought it for £10 and have put more time into it then any other game I have ever owned, ever!

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #52 3 months ago

    @Neil__ For an 'intelligent adult' you seem to have done an astounding job of looking like a fucking spastic.
    Edited by 1 at 18/11/11 @ 18:33

  • Bombonera #53 3 months ago

    Minecraft is a poor man's LittleBigPlanet. And I didn't think LBP was actually that good.

  • mcmothercruncher #54 3 months ago

    I know, as a serious gamer, I need to have a look at this, but every time I see screenshots I'm ashamed to say I think "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrghh! my eyes!!".

  • uknortherner2000 #55 3 months ago

    @Neil__ "Any intelligent adult with an actual creative talent couldn't possibly be stimulated by this simplistic and mind numbingly dull waste of time."

    So, what's your excuse?

  • apoc_reg #56 3 months ago

    I play games to be immersed, so this I just don't get.

    I'm sure it's great if your looking to explore your creative energy but it's not for me.

    Back to sky(ward)rim!

  • soviet_ #57 3 months ago

    In some ways I can see it being classed as a unique gaming experience, unrivaled by its simplicity and an example of what games can be but in as many other ways I can just see it as a bandwagon, it could even be the very realisation of a pointless waste of time that ultimately accomplishes nothing.

    As much as I am impressed by the amazing things people create and the many stories of their experiences in the game I could never play this game regularly and while I don't agree with the perfect score, I can understand the reasons why it could and should be given

  • Dirtbox #58 3 months ago

    I wish I hadn't got bored of this a year ago so I would care enough to get addicted to it again.

  • siro #59 3 months ago

    I'm always thinking I should check out what all the fuss about this one is. I really should, one day.

  • Azazel #60 3 months ago

    In the words of the NME reviewing Generation Terrorists - 10 and fuck the marking system.

  • Neil__ #61 3 months ago

    @ redbarony
    Glad to hear I'm not alone, almost but not completely.

    @uknortherner2000
    In the light of what I wrote that comment doesn't make the blindest sense and considering it has up-votes only goes to add credence to my thoughts on the intelligence of Minecraft cultists.
    Edited by 1 at 18/11/11 @ 21:04

  • Stratix #62 3 months ago

    I wouldn't say that the game was perfect (and I know 10/10 doesn't represent that) but it is bloody good fun, and strangely addictive.

    I would quite like an option to make a persistent character like Terraria (with a server option to disable this if required of course.)

  • RedSparrows #63 3 months ago

    @SpaceMidget75 bang on. Amazing how immature the masquerade of maturity can be.

  • Kanjin #64 3 months ago

    'Justin Bieber. ("The hair is very shiny but the voice quite weedy; 7/10.";) '

    That's what made it my favourite review for YEARS.

  • ThinkingGamR #65 3 months ago

    Tetris has been reviewed today. Tom Bromwell gave Tetris Evolution for the Xbox 360 a 4/10 in Eurogamer. That just goes to show how obnoxious and pretentious this site's approach to game reviews is. Give Tetris a 4/10, but use Tetris as the grounds that some random PC freeware is just "so great it transcends perfect scores!"

    I can't believe your nose is so far up your ass, you had to stop and tell everyone that Minecraft is a 10/10. And no, we won't remember Minecraft in 30 years the way we remember Tetris. If that was your argument, it indicates a fundamental misunderstanding about what makes games endure as products. You are an embarrassment to the profession of game writing.

  • Chibi-Kibou #66 3 months ago

    'Fun to read but ..

    Personally I'd have bunged a 9/10 on there and set aside the cultural phenomenon, at best. Minecraft is a wonderful, wonderful game, but every computer I put it on, the demands of the java-based engine are massive to the point of putting frightening amounts of heat out of my machine .. and .. well, I know a fair few other games have been marked down for crafting systems that can only be understood in large-part by looking stuff up online.

    I am so going to get whacked with negative votes for that >.>
    Edited by 1 at 18/11/11 @ 23:13

  • bobtucker #67 3 months ago

    I reckon Neil should start exploring his creative side as a musician, and stop attacking the fans of an awesome game just because he can. It doesn't have anything to do with age, as said in the review, anyone could play it.
    Like most other people would agree, he should stop acting like the youngest person here.
    Sure the graphics of Minecraft are different, but you aren't all seeing the bigger picture. All the games with good graphics throw boundaries and limitations at you, left and right. You can't go here, you can't do this. You need to complete the storyline to make it any farther. Even most of the sandbox games I've played work using the same principles.
    Minecraft has been around longer than your 'musical career', neil. It has been improving since day one when players fell in love with the freedom. And the players have been involved in that improvement.
    And to add on top of that, if you quit your day job to troll, then I don't know or care how well your career is going for you. Find another site to troll on, and good luck to you.
    I love how Neil 'The Centre of the World' ______ can't even figure out the point of what uknortherner2000 had typed. Really goes well to showing his intelligence after attacking us innocent fans. I mean seriously. A game is a game. If you play it, you spend time on it. < No shit.
    It doesn't matter what the graphics look like, or what your character can do on it, as long as you have fun as well as in the case of us fans, help to shape what minecraft ends up like, and watch the game grow (and also welcome more fans with open arms.).
    Anyone who doesn't agree with the score Eurogamer has given, don't worry. Eurogamers reviews are not set in stone, there will be other critics like yourselves, always there standing and watching, skulking in the shady corner of what is Minecraft's spotlight, and degrading Minecraft. You can count on that much. The score obviously isn't based on gameplay, or graphics, and there are other unseen factors, perhaps even unmentioned by the review, but more likely, by yourselves. Charging in headfirst may be a good tactic in few video games, but at least read more than half of the review before you waste your efforts and time, blindly, mind you, telling the fans how shit their game is.
    Your complaints are falling on deaf ears, my friends.
    To anyone who read this far into my comment, I congratulate you on your intelligence, as you have helped to prove neil___ wrong about us fans. We are smart enough to read. Smart enough to decide if a game is worthy of our time, and continue loving that game, and spending money on it, if it is. He has already decided it is not his type of game, yet he spends time complaining about it, not moving on in life. He attacks people directly, and unfortunately the only way to beat that type of troll is to cut off his head. (Metaphorically, of course.)
    Good day to you all, -R

  • Apostle #68 3 months ago

    "You have to wonder how EG would have treated it if it didn't come with momentum of millions of devotees."

    Just as they would any other indie game.

  • Neil__ #69 3 months ago

    Post deleted at 09:51:12 12-12-2011

  • Neil__ #70 3 months ago

    @bobtucker
    Wow, I really hit sa nerve there didn't I?
    I especially like the bit about only intelligent people would bother to read your extended rant. Trust me, an intelligent person would have been able to whitter out that drivel in much less space.

  • Toonster #71 3 months ago

    This game is one of the most well-deserved 10's. There's something eerily magical about Minecraft

  • Mazrim_Taim #72 3 months ago

    Really not worth a ten in anybody but a fanboys book.

  • syra #73 3 months ago

    fucking hell eurogamer scores are a mess these days... 10 lol?

    It's okay. You are sucking the hype pipe.

  • arcam #74 3 months ago

    @Neil__ You compare it to Lego like it's an insult. If I was a toy reviewer, Lego would be an easy 10/10.
    Edited by 1 at 19/11/11 @ 01:25

  • Stoatboy #75 3 months ago

    @Neil__ As a real world musician I've never heard of you. Good luck with that. :D

    Some talentless twat with a copy of Minecraft is going to get millions more hits on Youtube.

    That's probably what you're railing against.


    It's like the Deluxe Paint of its day - giving voice to millions of talentless bastards, and some of them will strike lucky.

    This shit happens, adapt and move on, and do something better.

    It's also really good. Play it. Have fun.

  • alexbulluk #76 3 months ago

    Deserves the 10. It's a fantastic game, and deserves all the praise it gets.

    And as long as the Mojang team keep updating, Minecraft will never stop getting better.

  • 42 #77 3 months ago

    @Neil__ You're not just successful at being a troll, you kinda look like one too.

  • Liam_Hart #78 3 months ago

    @redbarony I understand your review and I honestly see where you come from. IMO there is absolutely no way to review this game. It has endless possibilities, From Mob Spawner traps, to endless redstone mindf*cks, to A simple Wooden House. You can expand so far and that is what people like. But there are certain types of gamers out there. The FPS fanatic, the creative gamer like myself who enjoys LBP And Minecraft because anything is possible, The RPG player, The strategy player (Which is what you sound like to me :) ) So the game is going to be rated differently by everyone. Btw, the game is a 64 bit, modeled to look 16 bit. And the endless wave of constantly updating mods always adds never ending changes to your world. For example there is a mod where you have to protect a nexus, and certain mobs can dig through your house, certain ones can craft bridges. Like you suggested, constant destruction of your builds :)

  • snym #79 3 months ago

    @redbarony
    Sounds like you have only played singleplayer.

    If you want the challenge of dealing with attackers then join a server that has player vs player combat active and few rules. Then go get resources to build armor and weapons, perhaps build a defensive structure if that'll help. Hunt people. Or goad them into attacking you. Build some traps maybe, nothing better than being pursued by a gang of thugs who think you are a lone easy target and then you pull a lever and the floor gives way below them dropping them all into lava.

    You have to find the right server/people for that though. There are conflicting sides to multiplayer minecraft. There's the creative side in which players cooperate and play lego and the destructive side where players destroy structures and each other. Different servers lean different ways. Most are somewhere inbetween. Many servers try to compromise and lean too much towards creativity IMO, eg banning players from destroying any structures that don't belong to them, banning players from using fire and tnt, banning them from stealing items from other player's chests or having areas of the map where player vs player is disabled.

    Personally I find creative mode boring as hell. I prefer the anarchy of absolute war zones where there are no rules. In those cases any "nice" structures get torn down or burnt by vandals - which is why few servers like that exist. You end up with some apocalyptic landscapes that way with armed rouges occasionally hopping between the ruins as they sit in wait for victims (usually they are spawn-camping).

    Some servers are heavily modded to support team play, so you can join up with a team and each team has it's own territory. You can get battles that way but often I find the creative minded people start moaning about being attacked and the admins clamp down on pvp.

    But yeah if you only play single player you are missing most of the game. 99% of the time i've played this game is multiplayer, I haven't even played singleplayer for months.

  • DoKtoR #80 3 months ago

    It's clearly a 10 out of 10 for the amount of hours it's leeched out of my life building massive underground rail systems and mighty trap-filled fortresses on the summit of cliff-sides, I couldn't think of a game I've played more in the past few years :)

  • davisorle #81 3 months ago

    Like some others mentioned I just dont like knowing that if this game wasnt this popular it wouldnt have been rated with a 10. Im not saying the games isnt worth the score dont get me wrong even if Ive never even tried it myself :)

    Always tempted but I barely have time to play Skyrim which absorbed me from BF3 which BF3 made MW3 look and feel so lame when all those distracted me from my new Rift subscription and so on. So much gaming to go around yet so lil time for it :( Makes me sad really.

    FFS I havent even played more than an hour Uncharted 3 and I havent even unwrapped my Halo remake >.< motherf****r?!

  • TheReaper_87 #82 3 months ago

    Gears of War 3: 8.0, Uncharted 3: 8.0, Modern Warfare 3: 8.0, Minecraft: 10.0



    WTF

  • metalangel #83 3 months ago

    ProTip: Play on a server with friends, with plugins to disable hostile creatures, enable god mode, and let you control the weather, time of day and let you spawn any materials you want. Let your imaginations run wild an build a huge city together.

  • DDevil #84 3 months ago

    What really showed the awesomeness of Minecraft to me was what the Eurogamer community did on our server:

  • ThinkingGamR #85 3 months ago

    Hahah, clearly the entire function of this review and this comment thread is to hose down people with Kool Aid. Its pretty hilarious and pathetic. Sorry folks, even when its released on XBLA, Mine Craft will never actually be a big deal!

  • Yossarian #86 3 months ago

    "Gears of War 3: 8.0, Uncharted 3: 8.0, Modern Warfare 3: 8.0, Minecraft: 10.0



    WTF"

    If you don't understand why, you are what is wrong with videogames.

  • Spekingur #87 3 months ago

    Anything important will either be hated or loved. The comments above me prove this.

  • Spekingur #88 3 months ago

    @ThinkingGamR Seeing how popular the Minecraft clones are on XBL I would dare say that you might be wrong in that assumption. Strange as it may sound it might actually be a console mover (meaning, people will buy a XBox360 to play it) and a Kinect mover.

  • MattEdWithCheese #89 3 months ago

    @TheReaper_87

  • Cobalt_Jackal #90 3 months ago



    If this game was called i dunno something like "building blocks" and not Minecraft nobody would care about it. If it was a game that was exactly like Minecraft in every way, but didn't have its huge sheep like, bandwagon loving, cultist, overly pretentious hipster like fanbase nobody would a give a shit (or as much of a shit as they currrently do).

    I mean c'mon 10/10 are you serious?. I just dont understand how a game (and i use the word very, very loosely) like Minecraft can be put on such a high pedistal and praised endlessly as if its the second coming. People fawning over it like its something special. I mean get some perspective, IMO this whole Minecraft phenomenuem... this fad (and thats what it truly is), Its absolutly ridicolous. It really is. -_-
    Edited by 2 at 19/11/11 @ 16:05

  • Yossarian #91 3 months ago

    It's been a fad for two years now. It has sold four million copies and generated over $20m in revenue.

  • MattEdWithCheese #92 3 months ago

    @Cobalt_Jackal What would you rather call a game that's based around Mining and Crafting?

    The reason I like Minecraft is that it's one of the few sandboxes that I still find interesting; first I build something to protect me at night; then I get bored and go out hunting mobs, then I build a larger base into the side of a mountain and drop water onto the top, so that a waterfall surrounds the entrance. Then I got bored of that and I ditched most of my gear, dug straight down and explored underground caves, treating it as a standard rogue-like.

    But yes, if you have no imagination there isn't much "game" there

  • RedSparrows #93 3 months ago

    wow, had no idea Minecraft engendered the pseudo-intellect to explode so!

    Oh, forgive me, I must be being pretentious, using big words that I understand.

  • AnotherIdiot #94 3 months ago

    This is a good game. My only real gripe is that it doesn't run very well on my pc.. its a slow and heavy java program that makes the circuit boards creak.

    I always wanted him to add a hot air balloon, I imagine you could craft it out of leather and stuff. I know there are flying MODs, but I don't like using MODs on this game.

    It is still good though. A 10 is justified.
    Edited by 1 at 19/11/11 @ 19:43

  • todiwan #95 3 months ago

    Minecraft is definitely an incredible, iconic game deserving of the praise that it receives. However, due to the fact that it was created in Java, it is not without flaws, as Chibi-Kibou has already pointed out.

  • todiwan #96 3 months ago

    @AnotherIdiot I agree with the entire post! However, Notch has stated that he will most likely add something which allows for flying in Survival mode.

  • Squiver #97 3 months ago

    Haters' gonna hate.

  • darkmorgado #98 3 months ago

    @Cobalt_Jackal I do love how you call everyone sheep unless they hold exactly the same opinion as you.

    Oh, and you're a complete moron btw.
    Edited by 1 at 20/11/11 @ 10:32

  • arty #99 3 months ago

    Anyone noticed the top FOUR games on XBLIG are all Minecraft clones at the moment? Kinda weird.

  • zegerman1942 #100 3 months ago

    Reviwing a game that's been played publicly for ages in "Beta" is a bit pointless surely. I guess the lure of several hundred thousands fans as well as potential controversy is too much for Eurogamer to pass on by.

    Seriously though 10/10? It is a huge accomplishment, but giving it a perfect score? Notch up another point as to not trust review scores...

  • UncleLou #101 3 months ago

    If it was a game that was exactly like Minecraft in every way, but didn't have its huge sheep like, bandwagon loving, cultist, overly pretentious hipster like fanbase nobody would a give a shit (or as much of a shit as they currrently do).

    Think about that for a second again, realize the massive logic fallacy, and weep.

  • DDevil #102 3 months ago

    @zegerman1942 A 10 is not meant to represent a "perfect" game. Never has, never will.

  • Yossarian #103 3 months ago

    "Reviwing a game that's been played publicly for ages in "Beta" is a bit pointless surely."

    Well, it was just recently released (officially, as Minecraft version 1.0), so it falls within EG's mandate of reviewing recently released games.
    Edited by 1 at 20/11/11 @ 12:49

  • teknohead #104 3 months ago

    Post deleted at 09:51:12 12-12-2011

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #105 3 months ago

    After reading through the vitriol towards Minecraft here it's clear from their wording that almost none of them have actually played the game and have assumed it really is just virtual Lego (or played the Classic version). Indeed anyone moaning about it's popularity, or accusing it of being childlike would never have spent the money on it in the first place, so it's amazing they feel like they can comment on a 10/10 score.

    They're instead backlashing against it's popularity in some vein attempt to be different and accusing everyone else of being cultist towards this game.

    Seriously, grow the fuck up.

  • cherryuk #106 3 months ago

    I must get this game, someone made a really cool LOST ISLAND that I can't wait to play, this alone is worth the £16.95

  • Astro-Creature #107 3 months ago

    PC game gets 10/10. Film at 11.

  • darkmorgado #108 3 months ago

    Minecraft succeeds because it taps into that childlike desire we all have: to create. It lets us loose in a world where the only limit is what our imagination can come up with. It has some basic tropes that conform to modern design, such as the mobs that put you under siege in the early game. But to judge it by comparing it to more linear exercises such as Uncharted, Assassin's Creed, MMOs, etc, is to miss the point. None of those games allow you the creative expression that Minecraft does. None of them allow you to physically shape the world according to your desire.

    Is it a giant lego set? Yes, it is. Frankly though, I am happy with that because it's a sandbox game in the truest sense of the term. Its stories are dictated by you. Its accomplishments are yours alone, not dictated by scripting or cutscenes.

    To dismiss it as a "cult" or suchlike is to fundamentally miss the point of what makes it such a special game in the first place. It's up there with the greats of gaming and in an age where we are increasingly led by the hand through linear experiences like Uncharted, COD, Assassin's Creed and even supposedly "open" games like GTA and TES, Minecraft is something special indeed. It recognises that you don't need pretty cutscenes and creator-led pacing to craft an epic tale. It recognises that the experience of playing alone is all the story you need. Noone's experience in Miencraft will be the same. Ever. The only limit is your imagination.

    You know another game that had a massively open-ended structure and relied on the player to make their own fun? Elite. Believe it or not, but Elite only has something like 4 actual missions in the entire game. And most of those will never be found by the vast majority of players. But it succeeded because it dumped you in this huge universe and basically just said "ok, get on with it. Do what you want to". It was that sense of sheer freedom that led to it being held up as a gold standard right to this day, some twenty odd years after its initial appearance.

    You don't like Minecraft? Fine. That's your call. You criticise it for not being a more directed, instantly-gratifying experience? You're missing the point entirely. And if you want to criticise Minecraft on that basis, then try dissing Elite, and see how far it gets you.
    Edited by 1 at 21/11/11 @ 03:58

  • Toothball #109 3 months ago

    @darkmorgado

    I'd be surprised if most of Minecraft's detractors had heard of Elite.

  • Spekingur #110 3 months ago

    @todiwan Java is in everything nowadays. Even your washing machine. Java is still getting slag since its early days, most slaggers have no idea what they are talking about - their sources are normally 'I heard it on the internet'.

  • ThinkingGamR #111 3 months ago

    @Spekingur Only a complete fool (you) would believe that.

  • SofiaWills #112 3 months ago

    Great review. I've been playing this game since the start. Love love love it!

  • SofiaWills #113 3 months ago

    My comments dont seem to publish?

  • SofiaWills #114 3 months ago

    @SofiaWills oops! i was expecting them to appear at the top. feel free to deleet this one

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #115 3 months ago

    You should be able to delete it yourself Sofia.

  • Zozzilla #116 3 months ago

    I've never understood people's obssession with Minecraft. Maybe it's because I prefer games with a great story and likeable characters and not something akin to glorified Lego with deformed evil cacti.
    Edited by 1 at 23/11/11 @ 12:19

  • UnConeD #117 3 months ago

    Every comment that is remotely critical of the game gets voted down mercilessly. Sad.

    I get it, I played with Lego as a kid too. But sheesh, stop it with the Disney-like worship. It's creepy. Are you all so stuck in dead-end jobs or getting degrees you don't care about that it offends you so much if someone doesn't like your favorite toy?

    Personally, I would rather go code my own voxel engine than tediously mine meaningless bits on a computer, but to each their own.

  • Abdu@EG #118 3 months ago

    Mind you, this game sucks some donkey's nasty balls

  • gammonbanter #119 3 months ago

    Great review! Minecraft makes me feel something I haven't felt since I started playing games - giddy joy!

  • MattRobson #120 3 months ago

    worth having a look at then?
    i often have the laptop on at home with nothing to actually do on it... would this be such a pass time?

  • Velios #121 3 months ago

    bought it for my macbook, played it for the first time - cannot put it down or get it out of my head!!! amazing game. I wish you could mine in Skyrim and find / build stuff too, imagine!

  • Neil__ #122 3 months ago

    @arcam
    Do you still play with Lego then?

  • SYGUY7 #123 3 months ago

    @Omroth Exactly!! How many of us own or are thinking of getting Tetris on our smart phones

  • Lamb #124 3 months ago

    You left this part out... "And when I close my eyes, I will only see blocks." :p :D

  • P1GEONPOO #125 3 months ago

    Mine Crack would of been a more appropriate name.