Game Review: Minecraft (2009)

An Almost Perfect Sandbox Game

Overview

    Minecraft is, by orders of magnitude, the most popular video game of all time. It is the best selling video game, boasting roughly 350,000,000 copies sold, which dwarfs Grand Theft Auto V (the second best-selling video game), which has about 215,000,000 copies sold. Despite being officially released in 2011, it remains extremely prevalent online. A Minecraft Movie (2025) is a perfect example of the game's continued success; the film was a global sensation, amassing nearly a billion dollars in box office revenue.

    Minecraft is a "3D Sandbox Game developed by Mojang Studios." The first ever playable edition of Minecraft was released in 2009, a version now known as Minecraft Classic. This version was very limited in creative scope, serving mainly as a proof of concept; it can be played online. Java Edition 1.0.0 was the first full version of the game. Since its official release Minecraft has been updated several times; it is currently at Java Edition 1.21.9.

    In Minecraft, players explore a random, procedurally generated cuboid world made up of different biomes, from forests to deserts to oceans. Players can mine resources, craft tools, and build anything they desire. Depending on the mode, a player might focus on surviving against monsters, adventuring through caves and villages, or expressing creativity in a practically infinite world.

    Reviews of Minecraft are very favourable. IGN scored it a 9, Metacritic a 93, and IGDB an 8.4. Overall, Minecraft is regarded as a great game. In what follows, I explain the objective of Minecraft, then discuss what I consider to be its strengths and weaknesses, ultimately concluding with a rating.

Objective

    Unlike most games, Minecraft does not have an easily definable objective. Instead, the player is granted an immense amount of freedom, allowing them to create their own meaning within the worlds they generate. In order to "complete the game" (activate a credit scene), the player must defeat the Ender Dragon. This is a boss battle; to emerge victorious, it is common to spend several hours preparing. 

Examples of different play styles are as follows:

    Traditional: In this play style, players aim to experience the full breadth of Minecraft’s progression, advancing from basic survival to defeating major bosses like the Ender Dragon and Wither. The goal is often to complete all achievements and explore everything the game has to offer.

    Creative: Players focus on self-directed expression and experimentation. Whether in Creative or Survival mode, objectives are defined by the player and can shift over time. Such objectives include building, designing, or simply exploring without a fixed endpoint.

    Hardcore: Similar to Traditional play, but with the added tension of having only one life. Death ends the world permanently, demanding careful strategy and risk management from players seeking the ultimate survival challenge.

    Speedrun: Players attempt to complete specific goals as fast as possible, such as defeating the Ender Dragon or collecting all achievements.

    Roleplay: Players engage in story-driven or socially structured gameplay, often on multiplayer servers. Each participant assumes a distinct role or responsibility, and the focus shifts from completing the game to collaboratively creating and living out a narrative world.

    The diversity of these examples highlights the freedom Minecraft offers. While some may assert one objective is the proper way of playing, there is no "right" way. In fact, much of the allure of Minecraft emerges due to how boundless the game is. I, for example, enjoy playing Minecraft at a moderate pace, best described as a mix of the traditional and creative play style. Unfortunately, some of the things that make Minecraft great are also what make it bad.

The Good

Graphics: The graphics are very simple. Each block in the default texture pack is 16 by 16 pixels. The game is by no means low quality; the simple look is a stylistic choice made by the developers. The cuboid style of the game adds both charm and novelty.

Player Autonomy: Player autonomy is the best feature of Minecraft. Few games successfully allow such freedom while still maintaining a coherent story structure.

Accessibility: Minecraft, for the most part, is a very easy-to-play game. Both younger and older audiences can play with little difficulty. This is not to say the game is mind-numbingly easy, just that it is very user-friendly.

Versatility: Minecraft can be played across various platforms. For example, the game can be downloaded on a smartphone, Xbox, PlayStation, computer, and more.

Affordability: The Standard PC Edition of Minecraft is $29.99, which is relatively cheap for a game so popular.

The Bad

Replay Value: Minecraft has a somewhat low replay value. Once the player has become sufficiently experienced, the game may seem repetitive or even boring.

Not Minimalist or Maximalist: A recent flaw Minecraft has been experiencing is that it is neither a minimalist nor a maximalist sandbox game. This can create an awkwardness while playing as there is a strong desire to have more content to satiate one's creativity, or less content to ensure play autonomy can be maintained.

Progression: Once moderately skilled, progressing from an inferior set of equipment to a superior set of equipment is far too straightforward. This results in progression being very linear.

Adventuring Incentives: Due to certain biomes being better than others, the player may lack strong incentives to explore new areas.

Rating

    Minecraft is a very good game, but it has significant flaws. To me, the biggest flaw Minecraft faces is the fact that it is neither a minimalist nor a maximalist sandbox game. However, I still very much enjoy the creative freedom it grants the player. With these considerations in mind, I will give Minecraft a 7.9 out of 10.