I’m pretty sure we all remember Legos. As kids we would spend hours constructing our houses, submarines, airplanes, you name it! But now that we’re older, do we really play with Legos anymore? Minecraft is what I like to call the grown man’s Lego. Its playable on PC and Mac and offers hours of re-playability. What exactly is the goal in Minecraft? There actually is none, its completely up to you to decide how you want to play this game. Some people like to build things, some adventure. Whatever it is you like to do, Minecraft is open for your personal interpretation.
To start off this game’s graphics are quite odd from what you’d expect a 2009 game to be, but that’s the beauty of it! If you don’t like the game’s starting graphics, you are free to download additional “texture packs” to get it looking the way you want. This game supports multiplayer as well which is great since playing alone sometimes could get a tad boring. Together you can adventure, create, or destroy! Another great thing about this game is that there are many mods for it. Wish there were more monsters? Download a mod pack with fairies! However, not all mod packs are working in multi player mode so you’d have to sift through and see which ones do if you wish to play with your friends.
There are many friendly faces and unfriendly faces in the world of Minecraft. So far there are cows, pigs, chickens, and sheep. These neutral animals will spawn randomly and wander aimlessly around. Feel free to slay them for things such as porkchops, leather, feathers, and wool. Next up are zombies, skeletons, spiders, and creepers. These monsters are hostile and will attack you on sight. Most of these are generally easy to deal with, but the thing you’d want to pay most attention to are the creepers. These armless four legged green monstrosities will sneak up on you while you’d least expect and KABOOM! They are the bane of almost every adventurer in Minecraft and can be easily dealt with a bow and arrow. (Or swords if you’re that manly!) At the start of, Minecraft you wake up in the middle of nowhere and you have to punch trees to get wood. From then on, you can turn wood into wooden planks and those into a crafting table. With that you’re able to make a wooden pickaxe and more assortments of tools. After harvesting some cobblestone, you basically “evolve” to the stone age where stone tools are more efficient than wooden ones. As you venture deep into the depths of the earth you will stumble upon iron, gold, and most importantly diamond. There is much to learn in Minecraft so if you’re interested, definitely check up the Wiki or watch some videos on Youtube.
The game is currently still in Beta and will cost you €14.95 which is roughly $20.00. Back in Alpha though the pre-purchase only cost ~ €10.00. So if you still yearn for your Legos but are afraid of people laughing at you, pick up Minecraft and set your imagination free again.
