Review: Minecraft

You know that moment in the movie Castaway when Tom Hanks makes an imaginary friend out of an old, washed-up football? It's such a heartbreaking moment, the realization that Hanks has gone loony from being utterly alone on an island.

And now you can have that feeling too with Minecraft.

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I know I'm late to the Minecraft party. So, so very late when countless people have already waxed lyrical about this ultimate sandbox game that throws you in the deep end from the get-go.

The notion of leaving players defenseless, unknowing in a procedurally and randomly generated world is frightening, and one that many modern big-name developers just don't have the balls to attempt. It's gaming excellence for the very concept of letting us discover for ourselves what we are capable of, kinda' like letting a baby figure out which building blocks go where if left alone long enough. It's a very simple form of play and yet capable of such complexity.

In Minecraft, you start with nothing, possibly on a beach somewhere, or in the middle of the woods, or even by a cave, but you have this realization that this endless world is laid out before you. You start exploring, and explore some more, and come across some charming lo-fi graphics cutesy pigs or cows that hop about the landscape. Then you notice the sun come down over the horizon, and then it is soon dark. Pitch black even. Your heart rate quickens, uh oh, it's pretty scary out here with no lights and no sense of orientation.


Then you hear the twang of some bow, some arrows fly in your direction. Or maybe a blood-curdling groan or hiss. You fumble around in the dark and then boom! Something hits you. Your life depletes. What the hell is going on!? And then you DIE a horrible death.

You learn the hard way that by nightfall, this peaceful and cutesy blocky land turns evil with all sorts of ghouls out to feast. That you're completely and utterly alone makes it even more frightening, and so your first objective is organically realized. To find or build shelter for the night.

Everything in Minecraft is breakable, from the trees, to the dirt, to every block of stone in the mountainside. And then they are all reformable into various objects/tools/furniture that will make your life easier in the world of Minecraft. Need a shovel? Simple, just join some planks of wood in a straight line to make the handle, and add a block of stone to the top for the shovel bit. Or form a series of planks in an arch to make a door. There's a very intuitive feel to all of this, no one tells you how to build this or that, but you just have a sense that by putting this and that together, it'll surprisingly form the thing you were needing. For instance, I know I needed glass, and science has taught me glass is made from sand. So I just went and shoveled some of that, threw it on a fire, and voila! Sand.


For a city-dwelling urban rat such as myself, a game that lets me put things together with my "virtual hands" is satisfying in that "nature retreat" novelty way that a lot of urban-types like to do once in awhile. We think we're outdoorsy just cause we get out there and prop up a tent. But there's something more to exploring an untamed landscape, deciding "here, this is where I shall build my next home", and actually carving a hole out of a mountainside, or laying the foundations to your castle. And at night, you sit in it all safe and sound whilst monsters bay for your blood at the threshold.

Play long enough and you settle into this tranquil rhythm. Morning arrives, and you are out again searching for resources or exploring more landscape. By mid-day, you'd have wanted to head back to your base, or if you're nomadic, you're pushing forth and looking for the next place to set up camp. Nightfall comes, you build your base and spend the night forging various things on your furnace and workbench. All this to some very light piano tinkles that add a very mellow, melancholy, and almost spiritual air to the whole game.

It's absolutely lonely too. There is no one ever. It's like you're the only person in the entire universe, you know this fact, and you're doing everything you can to stay alive instead of succumb to the monsters. And for what? To keep building shelters, structures, and super-structures that no one but only you can marvel at? What is the point? Is there a higher being out there somewhere that will ever come to your salvation? Is this a personal hell or heaven?


There is some inherent philosophical musings to take away from Minecraft, but the bottomline as far as gameplay is concerned, is that it is a very strong foundation for future possibilities in complete sandboxing. Its only limitation is that after awhile, you do wonder "what do I do now?" And unless you have a strong penchant for crazy wild ideas and experimentation with engineering feats of wonder, you will perhaps lay this game aside after sometime. But the beauty of it is that you can always come back to it just as easily. There is no pressure, no hindrance of game structure. You're dropped back in the world, and it's like you never left.

The graphics is far removed from the shininess of more expensive triple-A titles. It's a game that can run on your dingy old laptop too, it just needs some RAM to ensure smooth rendering of the never-ending world as you venture forth into it. I feel like the lo-fi graphics actually adds to the game's charm, distills the concept of survival in a foreign world to its essence. Because heavy duty, photorealistic graphics like the kind you'll find in Crysis will only serve to distract you from the tight game mechanics.

The most interesting thing about the graphics however, is that despite its lo-fi engine, there is a deep beauty to the game's setting. The natural rock formations, over-hangings, waterfalls, steeps, canyons, rivers, forests all are a sight to behold. You stand atop a hill and look at the vast natural untouched lands before you, and it really is something. And that it is all procedurally generated makes it even more of a wonder.


I know there's a multiplayer component, but that's still being tweaked, not entirely bug-free, and takes Minecraft to a more cooperative level. But the singleplayer is the game's core, you make what you want in the world; your entertainment comes at the price of your hard work, but the rewards are deeper rather than superficial.

I know Notch (the game's founder) is continually adding content to Minecraft, and for its relatively cheap price, you're getting more than you paid for. And if you buy it now rather than later, it is also going to be cheaper in the long run. So go do so here if you want a different experience from the whiz bang explosions of 2010.

PS. My little bit about Castaway at the start of this post? Well, it's relevant to Minecraft because I got so lonely in the game, I started talking to a pumpkin. Bobby the Pumpkin was my constant companion.

PPS. For the infinite possibilities that Minecraft affords, I leave you with the image below.