>>8054869The feature bloat and "adventure" stuff really took away from the core survival experience. Having an endgame or boss battles was never the point near the beginning, and that was important to the feel of the games progression. The survival sandbox gameplay was carried on the weight of the atmosphere of that world. The texture work was reminiscent of that era of RPG that inspired the game, from Dwarf Fortress, to Ultima, to Might & Magic, or Daggerfall. But unlike those games, filled with NPCs, monsters to slay, and quests to complete, minecraft was a mostly empty world. The music complemented this stark difference between those action packed titles and this never ending sandbox where the only spelled out goal was to survive. It was a collection of slow, somber, electronic tunes that created a contemplative mood reminiscent of artists like Aphex Twin or Brian Eno. That atmosphere felt lonely and isolating and that made the things you populated the world with feel important, and the steps toward survival feel like real achievements. Now you can come across prebuilt structures all the time and if you don't feel like mining you never really have to, and sure you have a food bar but that is totally pointless because you never run out of easy ways to get food.
