Minecraft is what you make it to be.
Minecraft has a great menu system and a great setting. The entire world randomly generates around you and there is an infinite number of things to do. The game feeds your imagination, and you use your imagination to explore and mine through the world, crafting it as you go. No game has caused me to go into a state of pure creativity and exploration as Minecraft.
The game has a really nice art-style and since the game isn't aiming for realism, this is perfect. The game looks great on max settings and I was able to run it at 60-70 fps most of the time. Sometimes the framerate dips for no reason though, and parts of the world don't load at times and you see a giant gaping hole in the world until you walk near it. The game has an overall nice polished look though.
The music in Minecraft is amazing. The people who composed the music, C418, did wonders for this game with its amazing tracks. The game has a mixture of piano solos and 8-bit, calming tunes that make up fir the moment. One time I was watching the sunset and this calming piano solo came on. It was one of the most amazing moments I'd had in a video game for a long time. The sound effects are great to, but with music this good I barely pay attention to them.
This game provides an insanely deep gameplay system with tons of branches of crafting and mining. Want to be a chemist and sit around experimenting with potions and couldrons? Want to mine for diamonds hoping to make a gleaming diamond sword that you can later enchant to do tons of damage. There are so many possiblities. The multiplayer is good, but no where as the single player. When creating a world, you can choose between Survival and Creative mode. In Survival, you spawn with nothing and have to build up your inventory and scavenge for supplies while finding food and making shelter. Monsters come out at night and terrorize the world allowing you to either cower in fear or fight them. Creative is a fun mode where you have infinite blocks of all types and can build and fly around. While Creative is fun, it gets boring fast and you don't get that sense of accomplishment you get from building a house in Survival. What's the best feature in Minecraft though? The randomly generating worlds. As you move forward through your world, the world randomly generates adding for infinite possibilites and a new world every playthrough. I do have a few gripes though. The hunger bar was added in the 1.8 Beta, and while it added a challenge it grew annoying since I would sometimes loose all my items because I forgot to pack food. Also, The game sometimes has problems rendering the enviorment as described in my graphics paragraph, these make up for glitchy gameplay and lots of falling through the earth. Though overall, the gameplay is nearly flawless.
Minecraft is the biggest video game I have ever played. The constantly generating worlds and the vast amount of gameplay features are overwhelming and this game practically has ∞ hours. You can put years into this game and still be able to have fun. I have put 50+ hours into just my single player world and I'm no where near bored after playing for 2 years. Minecraft is an amazing game and a must buy at the price they are selling it for.
Presentation: 10, great menus and large world.
Graphics: 9, a pleasant art-style, but the game suffers from performance issues. Even on my fast gaming PC, I could sometimes have lag spikes on lowest settings.
Sound: 10, some of the most beautiful soundtracks every made. I want to give this section an 11.
Gameplay: 9.5, tons of expansive options and endless possiblites that are hurt by bugs.
Lasting Appeal: 10, ∞ hours of gameplay. I don't think any game has ever offered something like that. Overall, Minecraft is a must buy game that is totally worth $21.95.