'Minecraft: Campfire Tales' Skin Pack Review

Halloween

When Halloween comes around, these skins will definitely tickle your fancy in the area of spookiness. As the “Campfire Tales” skin pack is catered to the idea that the name suggests, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that these skins were designed to bring a new realm of creativity to the player, allowing them to make their own stories in-game or within their imagination. Each skin supposedly has its own story, with Mojang sharing a few of them in their recent post mentioning their existence. These various stories have been noted in the form of poems, with Ol’ Diggy’s and The Sea-Swallowed Captain’s being released.

Ol’ Diggy’s story has been noted as, “In mines and lonely caverns deep, you sometimes hear the sound: The tunk-tunk-tunk- of Diggy’s pick still prying at the ground. But light a torch and no one’s there, just shadows on the wall - No glimpse of Diggy’s greedy shade, still searching for his haul.”

The Sea-Swallowed Captain’s story was released stating, “Upon the black and wicked sea, The Captain did once sail, until it called her to its depths with lightning, wind, and hail. Some say she stalks the salt-stained shores, a briney, weed-wrapped wight, seeking young folk to join her crew, down in eternal night.”

Sixteen Skins

In the "Minecraft: Campfire Tales" skin pack, players can assure themselves that they will have a very large diversity in terms of appearances they can use within the game. Sixteen skins are included within the pack for players to use at their leisure. The diversity included in this pack is enough to keep a player consistently going back and wondering if he or she should change their skin or not. I feel that factor as a whole is a huge point in why this skin pack is great.

While some of these skins may appear “normal” at first, dedicated players will notice their interesting characteristics. On the PC edition of the game (the regular, not Windows 10 Edition), players are limited in terms of what “sticks out” on a skin. A while back, ​Mojang added the support for an extra layer to be added on to certain areas of the "Minecraft" character’s body. These new skins, however, are completely “new” models. While the models interact with the environment like any other model, their appearances are more altered. Some skins like “The Sea-Swallowed Captain” feature a hat extending out multiple pixels past the original length, all the while also featuring interesting tidbits like a skinnier leg to be perceived as a peg-leg.

These various additions bring a new level of artistic vision to what was originally viewed as normal for design in terms of skins for players. While we, the players, are not able to create our own skins in this new “model” nature, we can enjoy the freedom of knowing there are plenty of skins with these specific concepts of design implemented.

The Pros and Cons

There are two sides to every coin and everybody prefers one. Someone might save that coin, while another person may spend it as soon as they get the chance. Sadly, this is where that coin comes into play. If you’ve played "Minecraft" since its original release, you may wonder why a person would pay money for skins. If you’ve recently joined in on the craze, you’d probably wonder how a person doesn’t. For players of the PC (non-Windows 10) Edition of the game, you may look at these skins as a quick cash grab by Mojang and Microsoft, while players who originally started playing on the other editions of the game may look at this as the regular.

Players are allowed to upload their own skins to the Pocket Edition and Windows 10 Edition of the game, however, they are not able to use the skins from the various packs available. When uploading your own skin to Pocket or Windows 10 Edition, you are stuck with the original look of the PC "Minecraft" skins, unable to have added in features like the “Farlander” skin. While these “features” do nothing to aid the player and are purely cosmetic, some people find these cosmetic overrides to be worth it.

Whoever purchases these skins gets the option to wear sixteen different costumes throughout their "Minecraft" adventure. Whether or not you want to shell out that much money, design your own, or use one of the pre-created skins that are available to use in the game, that is up to you.

Aside from the cost of the skin being the one negative, there are loads of positives. The designs are wonderful and fit with the Halloween season, the price isn’t as high as it honestly could be, and the diversity of characters are sure to make you learn everything about their appearance.

Personal Preference

In my honest opinion, what makes this skin pack worth the small charge is a very select few of the skins within. The Farlander skin, the Rancid Anne skin, and The Sea-Swallowed Captain skin are easily my favorites out of the bunch of sixteen. These four skins are enough for me to purchase and use throughout my adventure in "Minecraft’s" Windows 10 Edition or the "Pocket Edition" game.

The Farlander skin has a very intriguing appearance with the floating blocks around its body. With its vague features, yet human appearance, players can either interpret this skin as either a boy or a girl. While players shouldn’t feel constricted to stick with a skin that looks like it is specifically one gender or the other, the fact that the Farlanders skin could be examined and interpreted as either is a nice touch (intentional or not).

While she’s definitely not a Raggedy Anne, she sure does smell bad. Rancid Anne 403 has a zombie-ish appearance, clearly depicted in mid-transformation. Mojang took it upon themselves to take advantage of the new models to push a zombified skin inside the original, allowing them to give a zombified appearance when removing a few pixels from the main “Anne” body parts.

Cropsy’s skin is of a very interesting design. While it may appear to be just a regular scarecrow, it’s actually alive! This skin dons a watermelon, rather than featuring the traditional pumpkin you would find on any other scarecrow’s head. On top of that, utilizing the new models, Mojang also placed a bright purple hat on his head, along with what appears to be a Villager’s nose that has been colored green. This addition makes him much more lively, especially with the haunting face that has been cut out.

The Sea-Swallowed Captain makes his very blue debut in this skin pack, showcasing many of his interesting features. With his hook for a hand, a peg leg, his missing teeth, a pirate hat, and his deep blue skin, it’d be very hard to miss him in a crowd. Out of the bunch, his skin is arguably the most detailed. The colors, layers, carefully detailed body parts, and outright originality used to create this character bring many new possibilities for designing mobs and entities for "Minecraft."

While there are other honorable mentions that were very close to making it to my top four skins within this pack, these are the ones I felt deserved the most recognition out of the bunch.