More than 10 years ago when I first reviewed Minecraft for Plugged In, it felt like a curious little building game with blocky, pixelated characters and creatures set in an easy-to-break-down-and-build-up world. There were no instructions. You had to find your way through its building processes, item recipes and nightly creeper battles all on your own.
In the years since, this quirky and creative little game has become a global phenomenon, with somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 million active users as of 2025. And some of those players likely weren’t even born when it first hit the scene!
So, what is Minecraft today? Well, the game has evolved considerably over the last decade. Updates have added new features, content and mechanics. But in a real sense, it’s the same digital sandbox of open creativity that it always was.Getting started in the Minecraft world is easy. Gamers choose between Survival or Creative modes right out of the gate. If you just want to roam (or fly) through this vast world, exploring, building and crafting without threats from a scary nightfall, Creative mode is the way to go. Players in that mode don’t have to worry about hunger, health, or being attacked by enemies.
If, however, you want more of an adventure, you’ll choose Survival mode. (More on that in a moment.)
Whatever your initial choice, single players and co-op pals are plopped down in a randomly generated 3D panorama of forests, mountain ranges and deserts, or perhaps golden plains or frigid ice fields. It’s a different-every-time biome that’s vast and pretty … and still purposely pretty primitive looking, since it’s all constructed of virtual blocks. Even your own little avatar looks like he or she stepped out of an 8-bit game from oh so long ago.
However, in 2025 the biomes around you are far more varied and distinctive. There are vast mountain ranges now; ancient underground cities; new unique villages, ruins, dungeons and monuments; and seven discernably different oceans to explore. There are even new biomes in a dark dimension called the Nether that you can discover, investigate and battle through.
For those who have never dipped their toe into the Minecraft waters, the basics of gameplay remain very much the same. When you first arrive, you quickly realize that the undisturbed landscape around you is not meant to be left undisturbed. With a bit of experimentation, you discover that the blocky bits of the world can be broken down and turned into raw materials. And those raw materials can be used to build things.
You might start by chopping down a tree or digging up a cube of ground, which will give you dirt, stone and wood that you can use to form rudimentary tools, which then help you more quickly break down and build things back up.
As you identify new resources, you’ll also discover that the game’s crafting mechanic is a very complex system which incorporates hundreds of different “recipes.” The right combinations (which you find by trial and error), laid out in a crafting table menu, can allow you to concoct incredible structures and even energized machines—from magic armor to intricate puzzle mazes to enormous castles (complete with a moat and drawbridge).
For those who want to take on the Minecraft world in Survival mode, they first get to choose from four different settings: Peaceful, Easy, Normal and Hard. Making the right choice is important, since it will determine how aggressive this world’s enemies will be.
Along with new animal mobs, such as a goat that will butt you off a mountain top, there are a variety of new monsters that will attack you after the sun goes down. In this mode, then, the first order of business is building a shelter and weapons, as well as stocking up on some health-charging foods.
Gamers can play on their own in single player, invite three other friends to join them on a local console (Xbox, PS and Switch), or team up in an online server “realm” with up to 10 friends.
I originally compared Minecraft to a digital version of LEGOs and Lincoln Logs. But over the years since then, this influential game has shown itself to be so much more than that. The game is simple yet expansive, throwing the door open for creativity. It has also helped to teach many kids about coding and been used in schools to teach logic and math.
It’s an attractive game that can be played simply for its imaginative crafting aspects or as an explore-and-build adventure. And updates have offered new resources (new building materials and power supplies) that can be used in scores of new crafting recipes.
I should also reiterate that in Creative mode, younger players have access to an unlimited number of in-game resources (along with the ability to fly anywhere) without the threat of attack. With a full coffer of materials to use, players create and explore to their hearts’ content.
Minecraft also offers child accounts that help parents manage and monitor their kid’s gameplay and online chat access. This includes default features that limit the ability to interact with strangers or make in-game purchases.
In Survival mode, players encounter numerous enemies—especially because the in-game sun sets every 25 minutes or so. These adversaries include spiders; zombie-like creepers; skeletons with bows and arrows; villages of aggressive pillagers; Nether-dimension Piglins; an incredibly powerful Ender Dragon; and a new super baddie called the Warden. Indeed, the boss list in this game is long and growing.
These baddies aren’t that scary, of course. They’re made of blocks, too, after all. But there is some bloodless battling if they catch you unawares in the dark. Smack them just the right way and they disappear in a blink of smoke.
But if those foes land enough repeated blows, say, in the narrow confines of a darkened cave, the monsters can take players down to the point of death—where they lose all the crafting loot they may be carrying. Players then respawn somewhere else in the world.
The violent content is not gory. Enemies and other creatures simply fall over and vanish after they’re defeated. (Animals can be attacked and they turn into pieces of raw meat that can be used for food.) Players can also craft swords and axes, bows and arrows to defeat those foes. Dynamite can even be crafted to blow up enemies and terrain. And players can expire after repeated attacks, and from falling, burning and drowning.
Dimensional portals can be built and powered up to transport players to dark dimensions such as the Nether: a place filled with lava, corruption and evil mobs (non-player characters), such as Ghasts, Wither skeletons and Piglins. These creatures attack with swords and other weapons. Players use these domains to search out valuable resources, but they are decidedly dark and at times demonic-feeling.
There is in-game merchandizing of DLC content, mini games, maps, player created content and textures that can be purchased with real-world cash.
And, as alluded to above, players can interact with people they don’t know online if parental controls are not used to prohibit that kind of engagement with others.
As the years have passed, Minecraft has expanded. The creativity and simple play, though, has only gotten better. But parents of younger players should note that some areas and modes of play can feel a bit more dark and aggressive these days than they might have originally.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
