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Each additional player gets a different rendition of Steve, "The Minecraft Guy".
With well organized interfaces, tutorials, and in-game features, I can’t think of a better game to play co-op with than Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition. It’s simple enough to give beginners a solid start to the game’s mechanics without being totally overwhelmed, but also expansive enough to keep experienced Minecraft players constantly on the move and surprisingly entertained. The gameplay is anything you decide to make of it, so whatever you or your partners want to do, whether that be adventuring, mining for diamonds, hunting chickens, constructing massive structures, everything will become twice as fun with someone else beside you joining in.
The perk of playing with multiple people makes the amount of time to collect resources (some being extremely scarce) that much smaller. Splitting up the workload between players can allow more tedious chores, such as collecting lumber or cow hides, to be carried out more quickly than any one person could do by themselves. There is also safety in numbers. Say your party wants to continue to scavenge the surrounding area during nighttime, when exploding Creepers and other baddies tend to spawn and aim to murder you. Having more than one sword around to fend off aggressors can be a lifesaver when dealing with hordes of zombies or skeleton archers hot on your tail.
Beginning a co-op game is very simple to do and the game takes care of almost everything for you automatically. When you boot up your online server, make sure your co-op partners are logged in and ready to go and the game will prompt the leader to begin a co-op game automatically; quick and easy. You can also host a game with other online players who aren't split-screening with you, making combo co-op a prime feature of Minecraft: Xbox Live Edition. There are, however, a couple of restrictions to the co-op mode that players should be aware of before playing:
-Local co-op requires an HDTV. Standard definition TVs are not compatible with split-screen play.
-Your co-op partners MUST be either a Gold Subscribed Xbox Live Members or on Guest profiles. Silver accounts will only work in offline games.
-Only players on your Xbox Live Friends List (up to 4 players split-screening plus 4 online players, 8 total) can play in the same server together. This is to deter griefers from coming in and destroying all of your hard work.
Although I have many good things to say about this XBLA title, there are some minor downsides to playing with others on the same screen, or even in a large multiplayer setting, that hinders Minecraft: Xbox Live Edition slightly:
1). Split-screening will make the small, pixilated descriptive texts hard to make out, even with a large TV screen. Therefore, playing with only 1 to 2 players is the most ideal way to play split-screen co-op (Your eyes will thank you later).
2). Players will not be able to take items from other save files or other servers to any other server, even if it's one of their own. Essentially, they’ll come into a game naked, only with a map.
3). Exchanging items between players can only be performed by dropping them on the ground and allowing another to pick them up or taking items from chests, which everyone can access. This can make misplacing or even losing rare items a small problem if players aren’t careful.
4). Players will be able to access everything outside of each other’s personal inventories, making griefing still a possibility. Friendly fire is also a factor when playing with others.
Despite these minor hindrances, Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition is one of the best games to play cooperatively with children, friends, relatives, or with a group of your closest online companions. For only 1600 MS points (less than the PC version’s price point), this game has loads to offer and has one of the greatest replay values of any game I’ve seen. There are also plenty of challenging achievements to unlock, as well as the addition of various Avatar awards to earn and Minecraft-out your Xbox Live avatar. While the argument of the PC version having much more content than the 360 version might seem like a strong argument for not buying this game, don’t be too hasty to let it pass by. Free updates will be made periodically to keep the console Minecrafters up to date and happily satisfied, bringing more content and features that will make the 360 Version on par (if not already) with its PC brother.
Minecraff: Xbox 360 Edition is, undoubtedly, one of the most innovative games of this generation, bringing new meaning to the term “open world” and co-op gaming on the console platform. This game is the must play XBLA co-op title of 2012, so don't miss out! Download the free trial today (Co-op play isn't available in the trial version, unfortunately) and see what all the hype is about!
Verdict
Co-Op Score
Overall
The Co-Op Experience: Up to four players can split-screen to build, hunt, harvest, and explore together offline. Split-screen requires the Xbox 360 to be running at 720P or higher resolution via an HDMI, DVI, VGA, or component cable. Online co-op supports up to 8 players, which can consist of any combination of split-screen players.
Co-Optimus game reviews focus on the cooperative experience of a game, our final score graphic represents this experience along with an average score for the game overall. For an explanation of our scores please check our Review Score Explanation Guide.