(Quick Note: This Review Would've Had Pictures, But They Somehow Got Lost, So Apologies About That, I'll Update This If I'm Able To Get Them Back.)
SO, Minecraft has been on my radar for a while,
And to celebrate the end of the year, I thought, what better way is there to go out with a bang (or a creeper explosion) than to talk about it.
Little bit of MY backstory first (Making myself sound like an evil villain about to monologue!):
My history with Minecraft starts off in 2014. During the midst of its 1st peak popularity, specifically, it's YouTube page. I loved Stampylonghead, iBallisticSquid, and DanTDM, as they introduced me to the game Minecraft was back then. Unlike most people, my actual introduction to playing the game came from the Xbox 360 version made by "4J Studios".
In 2015, I bought Minecraft and a pre-owned Xbox 360 console, and I fell in love with the game, spending countless hours on end playing, from day to night, for weeks.
I'm actually thankful for Minecraft, as it helped me cope during my parents' break-up which happened around the same time, it also formed memories around playing it with my friends, (which still sticks at -20, no wait, -19, wow a new record!)
So yeah, this game means a lot to me, not just that, it's also where I got the “Crafter” part of my name from.
Minecraft Backstory:
Minecraft, I mean, let’s be honest, who doesn't know this game! It's the most popular game ever, selling 238 MILLION copies altogether across all of its platforms and versions.
It's a great game, except for the bedrock edition, a.k.a the one I'm reviewing today.
Gameplay:
But as much as I do have problems with Minecraft Bedrock (or simply just Minecraft), I'd be lying if I said this doesn't work.
If you've played Minecraft for a while, you know everything about this already.
But for all 1 of you who haven't played Minecraft before, what do you do? well, you mine... and you craft... Thanks for coming to my TedTalk!
Ok, there's a lot more to Minecraft than meets the eye, this is a survival, building game about you, the player, as you build stuff, but avoid dying along the way to the game's mobs.
What are mobs? the main ones you should know about are Creepers, green creatures that explode if they get too close to you, Zombies and Skeletons (who burn in sunlight), the Enderman, inspired by The Slender Man, and Spider's, who only attack at night unless provoked.
These characters are what helped make Minecraft the game it is today, no Guardians, no Phantoms, mobs like that came later on.
Now, the more recent introductions to Minecraft stuff have been quite controversial. people have loved them upon announcement, but not too much upon release,-
-the phantoms especially., people find them annoying, and they are, but I feel as if they add some importance to Minecraft,
See, Minecraft has a night cycle system and you can craft beds to skip through the night. If you were to go outside, it would be more dangerous, as the rate of mobs spawning would be much higher. and Phantoms only spawn if you don't go to bed for more than 2 Minecraft days. ultimately, before their introduction, the night cycle and the beds, were useless features since there were no proper consequences for not using them, yeah it's dark, hard to see, and you would be more vulnerable to mobs, but you're also vulnerable in the day, considering mobs like the Enderman, Spiders, Drowned (underwater zombies) and Creepers, all still spawn (not to mention skeletons who are either armored or shaded from sunlight).
Again, are Phantoms annoying? Yes, but to say they don't play into what makes Minecraft fun, and sometimes intense, would be unfair.
Something I see as a pro and con about this game is how big it’s getting, there’s some pros and cons to it all
The Pros? there's always something to do when you get bored. tired of just roaming around a forest? or a dessert, or plain non-weed growing green lands? go find and make armor to explore a cave and find materials for you to craft more items.-
- or maybe, you're feeling more risky, and want to break the rule of digging down instead. Or, go to the open ocean and maybe raid some underwater temples along the way.
Or, gear up, and go to "The End" to fight "The Ender Dragon". This kinda serves as the ending to Minecraft, but it's only optional, and it's just there to be a thing where you can go "Hey, I did that!"
There is also "The Nether", which basically is just a giant red cave. no joke, it's cool, but there's nothing there to do being honest (apart from gathering up certain materials to craft more items, some of which are in the main world itself).
The Cons, however, I’ve pretty much also said within that of The Pros, I like how bigger Minecraft is, but at the same time, there’s a lot of stuff I don’t like, and while I don't think the stuff I'm about to say ruins the game at all, I always felt like the charm of Minecraft always came from how small and simplistic it could be,if you look at the recent "Caves and Cliffs" updates, the changes they brought along, and compare to the caves from 2 - 3 years ago, they're very different in terms of scale and what you’re able to mine.-
-The original look is very iconic, and that still exists in parts, but it's not gonna be that way forever, which saddens me.
Same With The Nether, before, it was just a bunch of red/dark red blocks with nothing else, but I feel as if the new look it's gotten, just doesn't feel right. I don't know, maybe it's just cause I haven't played the original version for about 5 years, maybe it would be boring if it was still that way, we'll never know cause that version doesn't entirely exist anymore.
Also, on a side note, Microsoft promised everybody that every skin pack would be available in the Bedrock edition, both JAVA and Console Edition skins, though it's been 4 years, and less than half are actually in.
On another note, there's a lot to Minecraft Bedrock that should be said, it works, but it's also a buggy mess.
Bugs:
Admittedly, it has gotten better since this version launched in 2017/18, but there's a lot of bugs that still exist, especially on the Xbox and Nintendo Switch.
Endermen randomly attack me without looking them in the eye (which is how they get hostile).
Split-Screen Co-Op buggy as heck, (everything mentioned going forward will happen over time in the same game), after a while, every player's skin in the session will forcefully revert back to Steve or Alex and making it impossible to change their skin back to the one they originally chose, while ALSO making 1 player just do an “A Pose” without any animations playing, and eventually, the same players Minecraft character body parts will clip into each other (literally).
Creatures randomly pop into existence, sometimes without the textures on them, and/or 5 seconds after or before the stuff they're standing on being rendered for your distance, which kinda kills the immersion cause of so (I also think this is why Enderman get hostile for no reason, with them seeing you without you even knowing you're looking right in their direction).
Sometimes the models for blocks you place will still be there if you break them and get it back.
A whole building structure I made just disappeared one day, whether that's been patched, I don't know, but my building isn't back.
And The Main Menu after connecting to Microsoft account, just wouldn't load for ages, and sometimes not at all (this was even worse on the Xbox version of the game, which doesn't even need to connect to my Microsoft account due to the game being played on an Xbox)
Out of all the Platforms, the game works best on PS4 and PC (at least from what I have played), I have a theory that the Xbox and Switch versions uses more cloud saving for its game files (actual file size being 839.25 MB and 1.2GB respectively) than that of the PS4/PC version (PS4's file size is 10GB, PC is 939.89MB, though PC is more powerful, so it probably wouldn't need to be the same size as consoles).
But to the game's credit, most of these bugs haven't been game-breaking or caused any crashes to my knowledge.
Featured Servers:
Now, When We're Talking about Servers, you may be thinking that I'm talking about regular Minecraft worlds, or the realms subscription, since according to the game, they're kind of called the same thing, however, I'm actually talking about mini-game servers,
Ones like "The Hive", which started off on Minecraft JAVA (Rest. In. Peace HiveMC), yes, you can access a bedrock version of those servers, and they're genuinely the most fun experience I've ever had when it comes to this game.
However, considering that these servers are made by a third party, and that they are the best part, despite not actually being something Microsoft or Mojang made themselves, I think that says a lot about the main game itself, and the content packed into it.
(though they are fun, and I would recommend playing on these featured servers if you do decide to get the game)
Overall:
So With All of This Said, Can I Recommend You Get Minecraft Bedrock? Weirdly, Yes, and NO, this game is not a masterpiece like the old console editions and Minecraft Java, nor would I say it's a complete waste of time either
When it works, it's flawless, and pretty much the perfect Minecraft experience, but when it doesn't want to work, which can be like just turning it on one day randomly and it being too slow with frame rate loss, It's unbearable, not worth the time, and it slightly kills my love of Minecraft.
However, It can be a lot of fun, sometimes the bugs are laughably bad, and you'll get a good time out of that, but just like regular Minecraft, it is very well put together gameplay-wise (bugs not included), and In bedrock's case, it's a good game to play on the sly, and a pretty great one to play with friends.
(Also just to say, the game is on game pass and probably won’t go off it since Microsoft owns the game)
Minecraft Bedrock Edition gets a 6.5 out of 10.
- Stick to Java Edition, or Try Out This Version on Game Pass (also don't get it illegally xD).