Do I actually play all these survival maps I review? You bet your little organic cotton fiber booties I do! Here’s a progress shot from the Death Island Minecraft Survival map, which truly is one of the best survival maps I’ve played in a long time. Note the way the greenery is starting to return to the land under the benevolent view of my squat bungalow.

(Click to enlarge.)

With MC Edit’s development being halted, the citizens of Minecraft have to look for a new way to edit worlds on a large scale. World Painter might very well be the world creator we’ve been looking for. It’s not quite the same as MC Edit, being designed mainly for the creation of large terrain features, but in many respects it is actually better. There have been very few minecraft maps created thus far that are remarkable solely because of their terrain, but I have a feeling that will change as people start to use this tool that allows you to quite literally paint minecraft worlds.

How To Install:

World Painter comes with its own installation package, so anyone capable of double clicking and following screen prompts should be able to get it up and running in no time.

Minecraft World Painter Features include:

Layers, allowing you to directly edit every element of your world map.

Export function, allowing you to play the worlds you’ve edited. (Handy.)

2D and 3D view modes, for ease of creation.

Zoom function, for fine painting.

Flattern Tool, Mountain Tool, Water Flood, Lava Flood.

And much, much more!

Download World Painter!

One could be forgiven for thinking that Minecraft was all about surviving on islands. In this map the island is dead and you must restore the island to life. It’s a nice twist on an established theme, not only ensuring your own survival, but the survival of your environment. One might say it’s a map with a message, but that would probably be going a little too far.

You spawn on the island, which is rather large but contains nothing besides dirt, sand, mountains and a couple of trees. The starting chest contains a block of grass, some sugar cane, a pumpkin, two mushrooms, a melon, a cactus and 64 cocoa beans. Just moments after spawning, it began to rain,which imparted a rather gloomy atmosphere that went very well with the whole ‘dead island’ theme.

What’s nice about this map is that you need to travel to acheieve your goals for survival. Unlike other maps, which cramp you into a tediously small space, this one gives you all the room you could need and more. Of course, it’s up to you to make that space usable. There are surprises hidden here and there, but the map relies on solid minecraft strategies rather than gimmicks. To survive you’re going to need to cultivate the soil, drive off enemies and expand your holdings a little bit at a time. In many respects playing this map took me back to my very first days of minecraft when it was in alpha and dirt and wood were the staples of the game.

For an old school challenge with a fresh face, I reccomend this map.

Download Dead Survival Island Minecraft Map!

Not many survival maps are known for their spectacular landscapes, but this one is different. Survival is difficult on this particular island because one finds oneself continuosly distracted by the epic landscapes. Epic is a very much overused word, (and a wildly misused one at that, as the term refers to a long poem) but I think you know what I mean when I say this survival map is indeed, epic on account of the massive lava spewing volcano that dominates the main part of the map.

What’s very nice about this map is that it comes in three different formats, Creative, Survival and Hardmode. You know what hardmode is. I prefer to use that word because it doesn’t have connotations. This offers a full range of options for people who want to either a) play the map or b) toss random blocks at it in an attempt to be artistic or impressive.

There’s also a texture pack made especially for the map, just in case the massive volcano and surrounding ranges with pouring waterfalls aren’t quite impressive enough for you.

Wordpuncher’s Rating: 9/10 Absolutely gorgeous custom terrain made back when this sort of map was just getting started. Kurow Island is one of the forerunners of the large survival map genre.

Download this minecraft map!

Sewer survival is a minecraft combat and survival map that requires the player (or indeed players, being designed for up to four players) to not only survive but also battle their way through ninety nine waves of aggressive mobs spawned inside the sewer arena.

In the spirit of many other assault style maps. There are four classes to choose from, Chef, Archer, Knight and Tank. Each class comes with its own gear and even its own rooms. I played Archer, though I’m not sure that was wise. A single player might want to play a class with a higher defensive ability.

One thing this map did make me yearn for was a decent AOE effect, it was so easy to get mobbed by a bunch of different monsters, some with great ranged attacks, some with devastating melee capabilities.

Aside from the interesting design, there are many nice touches in Sewer Survival, one of them being the way that there’s a juke box in the center of the room with a bunch of records in a chest nearby. You can choose the soundtrack to your adventure.

A well made and fast paced map, this is a must play for anyone who likes battling waves of baddies and unlocking rewards for doing so. Pretty much all gamers ever then.

Download Minecraft Defense Sewer Survival Map