4.5/5 ★ – Bunkos's review of Minecraft: Java Edition.

It’s hard to describe a game like Minecraft. It holds a special place in my heart and I’ve had countless memories playing it with friends, but sometimes it just doesn’t hit right. Minecraft is a very simple sandbox game that has a very linear progression. The game really isn’t that difficult and is a decently fun adventure on its own. Building anything of large scale though is were the uniqueness lies. You could play the game hunting for all your food and living in a tiny cabin, but nobody ever does that. Making automatic farms and distinct buildings is both gratifying and essential to solving the game’s tedium. Minecraft can get repetitive, and that’s where it’s problems lie. Some things can’t be sped up. Mining and combat are repetitive and boring and make starting up a new world difficult at times. Committing to grand projects is near impossible without friends and sadly disappoints me every time I try to revisit Minecraft. A glimmer of hope appears, however. The caves and cliffs update. A rework to caves and mining is exactly what this game needed. I’ve never cared too much for the aquatic or nether updates, but this is different. If done right, the cave update has the potential to make this game much closer to my favorite of all time.