Minecraft gets an official Jurassic World DLC today, which adds frighteningly realistic dinosaurs to Mojang’s sandbox title. Previously, prehistoric creatures were only available through unofficial add-ons developed by Minecraft's active modding community.
Although officially developed content is always a delight for Minecraft fans, long-time players often turn to all sorts of user-created mods, assets, and resource packs. One of the most eyebrow-raising recent fan works was the utility allowing a player to launch the Minecraft client within the game itself with blocks serving as individual pixels. Obviously, there are also plenty of less extreme mods aimed at adjusting Minecraft's inventory design, enriching crafting, and improving the game's graphics. Mojang also continues to update the game with new content.
The enticing Jurassic World DLC released today for Minecraft, as revealed by a delightful trailer filled with an assortment of new gameplay mechanics as well as nostalgic references. According to Mojang, players will be able to become managers of a fully functional Jurassic Park with dozens of dinosaurs to create and a bunch of facilities to build and operate. Not only that, but the DLC will also introduce vehicles to the game, such as helicopters and cars, and the ability to discover new prehistoric DNA for further research. Last but not least, the content pack includes more than 20 new skins and a whole army of NPCs to make the park management an entertaining experience. And hey, the global treasure that is Jeff Goldblum is also briefly shown in the video.
Unfortunately, dinosaurs from the content pack are not included in the base game, which is a shame considering that a handful of new creatures could be a valuable asset for Minecraft. Still, the Jurassic World DLC almost feels like a whole new game within a game, given all of its innovative additions. It could very well become a separate title on its own, just like the recently released action game Minecraft Dungeons. Mojang’s action-RPG is a wholesome spin-off, which is set to receive its very own DLC with tons of new content next month. The game is slowly but surely turning into an exciting and feature-rich title worthy of belonging to the Minecraft family.
While the Jurassic World DLC is a nice addition to Minecraft, there’s a slight concern about the chosen distribution method. The base game is loved for its freedom and a rich set of features, and hiding some of them behind the paid DLC is not the best way to engage the community. However, some of the introduced mechanics, such as helicopters and vehicles, won’t necessarily fit the game in the regular Survival mode. In other words, it makes sense that the opportunity to build a fully functional Jurassic Park is kept separate from the base game, otherwise Minecraft would have to become a completely different beast.
Minecraft is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, and mobile devices.
Source: Minecraft/YouTube