I’m gonna be honest... I think the OG Minecrafters who were hating on Minecraft Beta 1.8 were kind of right. I don’t think this because of the hunger bar at all; but even though Minecraft as it is today is really good, ever since late Beta its been losing touch with its former atmosphere. (Atmosphere is not necessarily linked to difficulty/danger, but I’ll get into that a bit later.)
Don’t know what I’m talking about? Well let’s just say that deep-seated Minecraft nostalgia exists for at least one reason: the original paranoia and fear of singleplayer survival.
Whether or not you believe the best development phase was Alpha, Beta, Full Release, or even Classic Mode, one thing has me gripped with certainty; earlier versions of Minecraft were scarier.
I don’t know if anybody else is feeling it, or even agrees with me, but right now I can play Minecraft 1.11 in hardcore mode and don’t feel anything in terms of suspense or paranoia (outside of maybe “I’d rather not lose this game”), and going back to normal-difficulty-Alpha even as a hardened veteran makes me feel a lot of tension.
I’ve been playing Minecraft Alpha as part of a let’s play series lately, and I’m pretty well geared up with some sizeable landmarks already built.
But it’s still kind of scary to walk around in. Even if only a little bit, it’s still creepier to me than recent Minecraft is when I play it. I don’t know if Minecraft Alpha is more difficult or not; hell, I think it might be less considering how there’s less monumental things that you’re encouraged to achieve. The thing is that before Beta 1.8 (maybe not immediately before), the way the game was designed had so much more of a propensity for inspiring uneasiness and dread. When I walk around at night in Minecraft Alpha, even today I still worry that there’s a Creeper nearby, and treat that possibility as a serious threat. I don’t know if it’s because of the way they are currently conceptually handled or the difficulty or the fact that I can sprint, but modern Minecraft Creepers just don’t scare me. It’s probably because old-timey Creepers always strafe to the right.
The only problem is, Minecraft Alpha and Beta have like 30% of the total of FR’s current amount of features. So I mainly play the newer versions of Minecraft, which are fun even if they aren’t very scary in my eyes.
