Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition Demo Review 9.5/10

    It’s getting dark. I was told that monsters come in the night. I don’t know what kind and I don’t want to know. I’ve decided my best option is to add a combination of dirt and wood to what looks to be a broken house. Half of the walls are there and if I can just build them up and enclose myself, I should be ok. My blood pressure rises as I realize that I don’t have enough blocks to fully enclose this house. I then decide to stagger the blocks (every other) so that nothing will be able to get inside. Whatever is out there will be able to see me and smell me, but hopefully not eat me.

    It’s now dark. Correction. It is now pitch black. I’m hiding in a corner of my ceiling-less house. I hear something. It sounds like faint hissing. I look out the makeshift window to see the only light in the area right now. What was that?! Something just walked past the two torches in the distance. It was too fast for my eyes to discern.

    I’m being attacked. I can’t see. The hissing is now immediate. I’m trapped and my hearts are quickly dwindling. I have to get out. I have to run...

    This is my second playthrough. I hope this one goes better. I’m not wasting any time so instead of waiting around in the tutorial area, I run to the small town I’ve been promised. It consists of a church, a well, and a couple of houses dotting a very short cement road. I’m impressed. There’s a person. Maybe one of the people who built and lives in this place? Something seems to be wrong with him. Trying to play it safe, I run inside one of the well built houses and shut the door behind me. This one has a ceiling. Sure enough, as this person walks up to the door, I can see that he seems to be a zombie and therefore a threat. It begins to rain. A tarantula is now also knocking on the door. But I’m safe. And there’s a bed here. I’ve been taught that if I sleep, then in the morning all my problems will go away. I hope the door holds.

    In the morning my guests are still waiting to get in. I’m trapped yet again. I don’t seem to have many options. I can’t go out the door. If I break down one of the walls, then I’ll just continue to be running. I could try to dig my way out, but that didn’t work last time. Then it dawns on me. I can run up. I can build myself steps leading out of the ceiling. I do this and escape as the zombie and tarantula miss my exit. I’m now standing on the roof of a house three doors down. I’m looking out on the vast landscape ahead of me wondering what other adventures await. This is Minecraft.

    The Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition Demo perfectly represents the full game experience in a bite size trial. This game had a timer, but it was done in such a discreet way, not showing on screen until I had 3 minutes left. I have no idea how long I had played before that. This is a good sign that the game is fun and the timed trial was done right.

    The graphics and sound work incredibly well together. They’re both conducive to imagination and creativity which is what this game is about. Everything is made out of blocks, and though this may seem simple, it allows the player to think of something and build it just like that, one block at a time. There’s no need to plan out your project before you begin unless, of course, you want to.

The sound reminds me of the background music you would hear right before a light bulb appears over the head of your favorite Looney Toons character. Like the graphics and art style, it feels as though it’s aiding you in your creative thought processes. And when you're in danger, the music ups the ante, creating a sense of urgency that’s at both times fun and scary.

Throughout the demo I was asked If I wanted to purchase the game because I kept unlocking achievements. Usually this would happen after I crafted something for the first time. The game wouldn’t pause, but I lost control of my character until I essentially answered yes or no. It wasn’t annoying the first time, but the 5 or so times after that began to upset me. It would have been better if the demo would have just told me the first time that subsequent achievements would not be saved. That would have been enough. Minecraft doesn’t need help selling itself. The achievement reminders weren’t necessary.

The Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition Demo has a robust tutorial that gives you options the entire way through. It starts you off with the basics of building and steadily works it’s way up. In fact, in the tutorial area of the demo the night and day cycle seemed to be drastically slowed down, if there at all. This allows you to experiment without feeling the rush of danger the night brings. The tutorial pops up when you begin to do something new, and if at any time you’d like to skip it, it gives you that option too.

One negative about the tutorial is that it does take out some of what makes Minecraft special. Instead of letting the player figure out all the inventions they can create, one at a time, the demo shows you everything from the start. I believe that in the PC version you had to think of everything and then actually create it. In the demo, and probably the full game, you’re given most every recipe you need. I understand that Minecraft on Xbox 360 is being marketed to a different audience than on PC, but still. It does detract from the overall experience, but for the demo it makes sense.

I played the demo twice and each time had a very different experience. I can’t say exactly how long those sessions lasted, but I never felt like it wasn’t enough. Not to say that I was tired of it, on the contrary, I wanted to play again. That’s one of the reasons this trial shines over others. The Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition Demo boasts one of the most replayable demos ever and I didn’t even get a taste of the easily accessible split screen multiplayer.

I hope you liked the stories I told at the beginning of this review. I certainly enjoyed sharing them. I decided to start the Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition Demo Review in this way because that’s what this game is about. Some of the best game experiences I’ve ever had are the ones that lend themselves to easily sharing with other people. The game does this and it does it better than any game I’ve played since Grand Theft Auto III.

The Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition Demo receives a 9.5/10. It’s a near perfect demo that gives you so much freedom that even if you didn’t buy the game, you could be entertained for hours.

    If our resident Lord of the Rings expert, Skye, didn’t already purchase a copy of Minecraft for me, I would be buying this game at full price. Thanks dude!

One thing to note if you’re going to buy it, consider whether you would like to have a more original Minecraft experience. I believe you would find that in the PC version. It’s a trade-off though because the Xbox 360 Edition has split screen and Xbox Live co-op. With all this said, I assure you that even if you don’t do your research, you’re going to have a great time.

- lvl 99