Every great story begins with a novice setting out into the world to become someone great. Zhemnadia is no different. This is, to all effects and purposes, a minecraft RPG map in which you play the role of someone aspiring to be a Templar knight.
This is the first minecraft adventure map I’ve ever played that started with credits. Like a move. Plot twist: player dies right at the beginning. Fortunately for us all, this is minecraft and death is not an end, just a precursor to respawning.
This map also comes with a strategy guide (unlockable with a $1 donation). After the credits comes the ‘Temple of Spawning’. Also the ‘Room of Begging’ which contains an empty leaderboard, instructions for donation and a few signs naming prominent YouTubers, which makes the casual minecrafter screw up his or her face. This would be better placed at the end of the map, when the player has had a chance to realize just how good it is, rather than at the beginning where it just gets in the way.
There’s an awful lot of storytelling via the command block, which I like as it beats the heck out of the old ‘open note 1 now’ storytelling style.
Level One: Karrington
The map appears to be set up ‘level style’ as in, you are teleported to a ‘level’ and presented with objectives to be completed at that level. As you are but a poor noob wanting to join the Knights Templar, a lot of the initial quests are fairly simple, like ‘get a hat’. But it’s not as simple as just going to the right room and getting a hat from a chest, no. First you must mine the coal to trade for emeralds to buy a hat, so the basic mechanics of minecraft also come into play during the game itself.
Zhemnadia Lore
There’s plenty of lore about the place, which will please the sort of people who go about collecting books in the Elder Scrolls games.
Mini Games
Now this is where the map starts to get really exciting. Instead of being an entirely linear experience, Zhemnadia allows the player to find multiple routes to complete a quest without cheating. For example, that coal mining quest I mentioned above? It can also be completed by finding and winning a mini game hidden in Karrington village. Now we’re cooking with coal!
Survival Mode!
This adventure map also incorporates survival mode. That means it is up to you to work out how you’re going to eat. I much prefer this approach to the adventure map approach where chests of pork chops sit around every corner, as it means you interact with the world a great deal more, rather than being some sort of weird ghost player capable only of reading books and opening doors.
See my hat!
Bonus Quests
Who doesn’t like stumbling across an old boot and discovering that the item starts a quest? Nobody, that’s who.
Secret Areas
I so very rarely find secret areas and hidden items in RPG games that having stumbled across just one makes me feel like the greatest gamer of all time. This minecraft adventure map has secret areas and bonus items in abundance, so you too can marvel at the ingenuity of the designer.
Heard enough?