Review: MINECRAFT EXPERIENCE: VILLAGER RESCUE, Corner Corner

Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue is a “real-world, Minecraft immersive adventure” designed for families, both players and non-players alike. The show is in a new venue that has been built in Canada Water, Corner Corner, which has replaced part of the Surrey Quays shopping venue.

The experience as a whole lasts about 45 minutes as audience members team up with the other people in their entry time and go through seven different rooms, led by the Orb of Interaction that they receive before entering the experience, a glowing cube that vibrates, lights up and changes colour depending on where the audience member is during the experience. 

The plot of the experience is quite simple - two original characters, Tobin (Patrick Speagle) and Dayo (Jennifer Sun Bell), are going to show audience members how to interact with the world and will then take them into a village to refurbish it and bring in some new Villagers. Things take a turn, however, when the newly refurbished village is attacked by Zombies and the audience memebrs must work together to find the ingredients to make a Splash Potion and save the day. 

Walking into the “Forest” room, one is immediately immersed in the world of Minecraft with status of Pigs, an Iron Golem, a Chicken and, of course, an iconic Creeper! This space is used to allow you to get used to using the Orb of Interaction, practicing chopping down trees and fighting monsters when the sun goes down. Then, when your Orb of Interaction turns green, it’s time to go on the promised adventure. 

In the next room, audience members are set up in front of Crafting Tables to make supplies for their village adventure including pieces of furniture, tools and a few weapons - just in case! There is a screen that shows what supplies audience members need for each object they are creating and there is a mad dash to retrieve the different supplies from where they are located around the room. The staff member in this room was incredibly enthusiastic, assisting kinds and adults alike in learning how the Crafting Tables work. 

There is a room in which audience members gather around a table with screens to help “build” a Minecraft village. No instructions are given, and we must figure out exactly what is going on by ourselves. It turns out there wasn’t much to do, just tap the Orb of Interaction on the table and watch the animated Villagers flock to the newly-created village.

There are some videos to show the action happening within the village itself, including a Zombie attack where the Villagers are turned into Zombies, leading to absolute chaos. We are told by Tobin and Dayo that we need to create a Splash Potion to save the village and, in order to do that, we’ll need to travel across the world of Minecraft. This room feels like just a holding space, which is a shame as it’s where the action really begins - I would have liked to see some theming outside of the table, like a statue or two of a Villager. 

In the next room, there are projections on all four walls and the floor as audience members are transported into a range of different biomes to collect the items needed to create the Splash Potion. This is essentially just several minutes of running around a room, hoping that you are “collecting” the different items required for the Splash Potion as you interact with Pandas in a bamboo jungle, collect Fish in the Ocean and make Snowballs in the Ice Plains. The graphics are decent but it is frustrating that there is no way to keep track of what you are collecting and how you are personally doing in the game. 

Then, the group travels into a mine shaft where they have to find Gunpowder and Spider Eyes for the Splash Potion, fighting off Zombies, Creepers and Skeletons to accomplish their goal. It’s the same situation as the last room in which not many instructions are given are the kids end up running around while the adults stand to the side, listening as their kids explain what Mobs are and how to use Redstone Dust to blow things up in the mines. 

After working together in a room to build a Nether Portal (quite a cool effect), audience members enter the next room. The final battle takes place in the Nether, with audience members throwing physical snowballs at a screen to defeat Ghasts and Blazes to retrieve the final items needed for the Splash Potion. It goes on for a bit too long and nothing really happens, which is a shame as there is plenty of potential for more interaction. There is then a weird “holding space” in which there are two Piglins statues and piles of gold that audience members are meant to “collect,” though it is not explained exactly how they are meant to do that. 

Unfortunately, what could have been a truly immersive experience with a mix of physical sets and digital interaction becomes a walk-through attraction with minimal interaction and little reward. I would have liked to see more rooms that looked like the “Forest,” with a fantastic mix of statues and screens. The staff also appear to not have any interest in being there, with only a few actually being enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the world of Minecraft. A few completely ignored the audience members, not even acknowledging them as they stood quietly in the room as both adults and children wondered if they were doing the right thing. 

Minecraft Experience: Villager Rescue is an impressive technological feat, but it is more interactive than immersive, struggling to fully place audience members into the world of Minecraft. With more physical sets, interactive staff and ways to track personal progress, the experience could truly become a way for people to become Minecrafters in the real world.