Minecraft 1.8 Review

Minecraft 1.8 has been eagerly anticipated for several weeks by Minecraft fans and now that it has been released, we decided to review it (all scores apart from the total are out of five)...

Presentation: 4.0
This has always been one of Minecraft's (many) strong points, simple presentation with no extra menus to search through. If anything, 1.8 has improved presentation, with a new start menu, new options for gameplay and a server list (something which really should have been in the game from the beginning). However, you still need to be reasonably technically gifted to download any mods, and even texture packs can be a hassle.

Gameplay: 4.5
1.8 has made some changes to gameplay that initially seem radical and inconsistent with Minecraft's policy of simplicity, but they are easy to get used to and make perfect sense within a few minutes of playing 1.8. The inclusion of a hunger bar initially seemed to me to be a ridiculous change, sacrificing playablity for realism, but now I understand it I can see that it is undoubtedly an improvement. However, for players new to the game there is still a distinct lack of any tutorial, and you will definitely find yourself consulting the wiki at http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Minecraft_Wiki . Endermen are a nice inclusion, but they are not quite scary enough, even on 'Hard' difficulty and their ability to pick up blocks is not fully explored.

Lasting Appeal: 5.0
Some may find this shocking, but I think that  Minecraft 1.8's lasting appeal goes way beyond that of any other game. I mean, I'll use Halo Reach as an example of how. The campaign takes about ten hours to complete. You may want to do the campaign again, making the total about twenty hours. Extras such as firefight and the Forge feature may add another ten hours onto that (more if extremely dedicated), with multiplayer adding between five and twenty more hours. This totals fifty hours, and a  time of about three months at the very most. I've been playing Minecraft for twice as long as that, and I'm not bored yet. And all this at slightly more than ten pounds.

Overall: 5.0
I'd like to point out now that I lost interest in singleplayer at around update 1.5 and have focused entirely on multiplayer for the past few months. Since 1.8 have not logged on to a single multiplayer server, and that is not just because most of them are down while they update. 1.8 has really brought back the true spirit of Minecraft  that was lost in previous, slightly dull updates. Singleplayer building and exploration is rewarding again. So give up your misgivings and press the 'update now' button. I promise you won't regret it*.

*Promise not legally binding.

-PWN-