Some of my fondest childhood memories are of the times I spent building things out of Legos with my brothers. I loved the idea of taking simple bricks and turning them into unique and creative inventions. I spent hours building everything from cars to entire cities. I was happy to find an app that brought back some of those nostalgic feelings of building unique creations out of bricks. If you, also, long for the “good, old Lego days” or you just enjoy being creative and building things, Eden may be an app you want to take a look at.
If you have played the game Minecraft, you will be very familiar with some of the basic ideas behind Eden. When you begin playing Eden, you are dropped into the middle of a randomly generated world that is made entirely out of blocks. You play the entire game from a 1st person view from which you are able to move all over the world. There really is no objective in the game other than to create things out of 28 different styles of blocks. Unlike Minecraft, there is no collecting of materials and there are no zombies to run from. Rather, you are simply given an unlimited supply of each of the different block styles that you can use to create some pretty impressive creations. Simply choosing a block type from the “block menu” and clicking on the screen will place a block in the game world. Blocks can be stacked on top of each other to create massive skyscrapers, trees, houses, and whatever else you can imagine. The game almost feels like playing with an unlimited supply of Legos. (Though all your blocks are the same shape and size).
Creating is not the only thing you can do, however. If destruction is your thing, Eden provides plenty of enjoyment in this category as well. You are given a pick-axe tool that will allow you to destroy any of the blocks in the game world. Using this tool you can dig deep tunnels into the ground, design elaborate underground caves by destroying layers and layers of blocks, or re-congifure the layout of the land to your heart’s desire. A second tool that you have available to you for destruction purposes is the fire tool. Certain block types burn when you click on them with fire. The TNT block type explodes when touched by your fire tool. I have had fun blowing open huge craters in my game world with large stacks of TNT.
The game seems almost limitless in scope. Despite building some very tall skyscrapers, I have yet to reach a maximum height allowed with any of my buildings. I have also walked for great distances in all directions and haven’t hit any invisible walls. The only direction you seem to be limited is when you dig down into the ground. You can only go so many layers down, but even then you will have to dig to quite a deep depth till you aren’t allowed to dig any deeper. Eden truly does offer you an almost limitless canvas on which to place your creations.
The controls take a little time to get used to, but work very well. There is a “joystick” on the bottom of the left side of the screen which you use to move around. Pressing and dragging on the screen allows you to change the direction you are facing. Anyone who has played a 1st person shooter on the iPhone will feel right at home while moving around. Clicking anywhere in the world either places your currently selected brick type, or uses the pick-axe or fire tools if those tools are currently selected. You are also able to jump by clicking on the arrow at the bottom of the screen. After about 5 minutes of using the controls, I was able to very effectively move about the world and build some rather remarkable creations. The one frustration with the controls is that it is rather easy to accidentally create or delete a brick when you do not want to. Most of the time this is not a big deal and can easily be fixed, but it was a slight annoyance.
One of the neatest features of Eden is the ability to upload your world online. This allows others to visit your world. Visiting the worlds of other players is a fascinating experience. You never know what amazing creations you will find as you trek around the creations of others. It is fun to navigate the buildings, tunnels, and caves of other players and see how other players creatively made use of the bricks to come up with some neat ideas. As I visited the worlds of some other players, I saw everything from mazes, to soccer stadiums, to recreations of famous world landmarks. When you visit another player’s world, you are given your own copy of their world and can modify it or destroy it to your liking. This takes away the worry of having anyone wreck the world you spent so much time creating.
Though it is a simple game without any real objectives, Eden is a game that you can spend hours in creatively building and designing. This style of game will not appeal to everyone, but if you consider yourself a person who enjoys building things or being creative, or if you are looking for a way to scratch that “Minecraft itch” while on the road, Eden just may be the ideal app for you.
Eden is now available in the App Store for $.99.
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