Luke Plunkett's great Minecraft review on Kotaku

I highly recommend Luke Plunkett's Minecraft: The Kotaku Review. He does a great job of capturing the essence of the game and how it rises above its shortcomings.

I take issue with just a couple of points.

The first is that I think he's overly negative about solo play. I play solo almost exclusively and don't seem to have the issues he does. Of course, I'm now using mods to eliminate some of the tedium. And I basically ignore the Nether and End dimensions.

Then he says:

Tell me that any other game needs such extra-curricular dedication and I'll tell you it's a game not worth playing, but there's just something disarming about the way Minecraft does it that makes it all OK.

I certainly agree that games should be more self-sufficient when it comes to information, but has he forgotten MMOs such as World of Warcraft? You'll waste much time and play poorly if you don't refer to external sources of information while playing WoW. But maybe he doesn't like WoW, for this reason. It's unclear.

Plunkett really nails it in his penultimate paragraph:

It does something that's very important to a lot of people, so important that they're willing to put up with its flaws and quirks. And that something is allow freedom. Expression. Creativity. Minecraft gives you the means to truly play a game, to bend it to your whims, and not just press buttons to advance someone else's story. [my emphasis]

You make the story. No cutscenes. No voice from Headquarters in your ear explaining your mission. Just complete freedom.

Overall a terrific review of Minecraft by Luke Plunkett, check it out.