Minecraft: Xbox One Edition Review

When my neighbour first invited me round to play Minecraft, I was a bit dubious. It was a game I had never heard of, and the concept seemed weird to me. He had already started a world so I joined in with his to get a feel for the game. He took me through how the game worked, what to do etc, and he made me a couple of pickaxes to get me started. Before I knew it, my hand was full of cobblestone.... Seriously...every section in my inventory was 64 cobblestone. My friend thought I had gone mad... I hadn't...I was just still a little confused about what I was doing. The more i played it that evening with him the more hooked to the game I got. I put my cobblestone to good use and started making my first house....the squarest of square I may add as well. :D... Such a noob!



Image courtesy of SuperLynz

My partner had been sat there playing with us as well, and when we went home that night she turned to me and said "I'm going to buy Minecraft!" From that moment we have been hooked, and with each different world we have created, we have always done something different with it. Whether it's been exploring down on level 12 for diamond and lava, and trying to find strongholds and abandoned mine shafts or whether it's been creating magnificent houses and other creations.



The main appeal about this game I think, and why it's sold 10s of millions of copies, is that anything goes. All you have to do is search the internet for minecraft creations, and there's people who have recreated things from The Wall and Kings Landing from Game of Thrones to Minas Tirith in Lord of the Rings.



You decide what you want to do. Are you a builder? An explorer? A fighter? This is the beauty of Minecraft. You can do pretty much whatever you want, and all the time new features are being added which enhances the game even more!



Another thing Minecraft has, are mobs. Foes that are there to make your world a living nightmare, however you can choose to switch these lovely beasties off or make them even tougher to defeat. On hard level (which I must admit, it's rare I play on this difficulty... Poosy Level for Joon!) Zombies can break down wooden doors that are on your house. So it's best to go with iron doors... However if you have no iron... Uh oh! You better get some lights around the house to deter them away... Or set traps... Traps are good... Specially when you see a creeper blow up...taste of its own medicine. Itssss a very nice!



If you have the game set to peaceful, then that's what you get...peace and quiet to enjoy the world Mojang and 4J Studios gave you! On this setting it can be used to explore the world more freely without having to look over your shoulder.

There are options as well to have the game set to online so your friends can come and go as they
please. However, use this at your peril as friends prefer to do more mischief than they do good, and there you could have just recreated Caesar's palace or The Coliseum in Rome, then suddenly *BOOM*! One of your friends has just blown it up with TNT... This is the reason why you can set it so you have to give people permission to build or use materials in your world. Which is a nifty little feature.



Image courtesy of SuperLynz

From the 360 version to the Xbox One edition, what is different? Well.... The worlds are 36x bigger. They are massive. Just taking a nice stroll for a couple of minutes and it feels like you travelled the world and then some... But nope, you've barely scratched the surface! These worlds are so vast, and that's not just the land you spawn in. Its the dungeons underneath, the world above, you can build bigger and higher (or lower) than ever before, and i feel we are going to see some epic creations from the community!

We would love to see your creations! Unfortunately there isn't a screenshot feature on the Xbox One version, or the Xbox One itself. I have reached out to 4J about this, and whether or not there going to be re adding this feature in!

Another thing that made me happy when it was announced, was that all those skin packs and texture packs would transfer straight over at no extra cost... BIG plus for Joon!! There are an abundance more of Achievements, mainly because this is 1000G instead of the 400G of the 360 version!

The menus have been improved into a tabbed system to allow more options, and a more tidy look. But this also looks like its being geared up for expansion later! Easy for adaptation of new features and options.

On the Xbox One Edition, Multiplayer is as easy as 1,2,3. Mainly because if your friends see you online, and if you have your world set to 'open' then they can join you at the click of the button. Either from the friends menu or in the Minecraft menu itself, where all they have to do it click your world and boom! Ready to play!

In conclusion, I love this game! Absolutely love it! I love creating things, monster hunting and searching through caves! Its such a diverse game, and there is so much to do! Don't let the graphics put you off...

You can join in with our Minecraft Game Discussion here >> - Come and show us your Minecraft videos and creations!