Minecraft Mod & Modpack Reviews

DeceasedCraft is a really well made pack and deserves a lot of the praise it gets. The gameplay loop is fun (looting/exploring, base building, some tech progression), it offers different types of gameplay for different people, and is overall well built out.

I'd definitely recommend playing on a server with friends, but maybe not a community server. I'm not sure I would've enjoyed this pack much at all without friends.

Personally I didn't end up playing it too much as it didn't hold my interest, but that's more to do with me than the modpack's quality. Give it a try for sure.

it's worth noting that most of my experience with Embers Rekindled is in the context of the Roguelike Adventures and Dungeons modpack. this is basically that modpack's token tech-that-isn't-tech mod, so to speak. it blends well with exploration, offering structures and enemies that integrate well into the world with organic encounters that pique the user's interest.

Embers Rekindled (and, I suppose, Embers) has a lore-heavy guidebook that gives a lot of hints as to how to progress, but therein lies the problem: it more or less offers only hints. as someone already not good with tech, this made it hard to follow. the realizations I would make after toying with positioning things and placing receptors and figuring things out were--in my case--not enough to outweigh the confusion.

all-in-all, it does a really good job at being tech that isn't tech. but it's still tech, and it's very complicated tech at that.

What is it ?

A mod adding adding about two japanese-themed illagers (with a custom dungeon their appear in) and two new piglin-type mobs .

What does it offer ?

Adds new illagers with their own structure : the Castle (which is very japanese-themed);
These illagers come originally from an older mod called wasabi but were added as part of this mod later.

New illagers and features related to them are discussed here :

The Tengu is a creature from japanese mythology and folklore; here found in raids as well as high on top of the Castle belonging to illagers, this enemy has wings he gladly uses to jump & glide in your direction, quickly getting to you before attacking in melee. This enemy can also use his special leaf to push you away with the power of wind

The Ninjar (you already know what it's going to be) is a more resilient melee ninja-like illager which attacks using a dagger while having the ability to perform weird teleportation moves, or turn himself invisible when needed; I just noticed he is wearing the thief armor set from Minecraft Dungeons, just would like to point it out

This mod also includes piglins in the Nether, both listed here :

The Rude Hog feels like it belongs in Minecraft Legends; this mob was actually first present in Hunter's Return (I mod I reviewed previously), and he rides a special boar in the Nether's Wild (or bastion apparently) while attacking his enemies with his sort of club, which can be obtained after he dies, giving +1 reach and more knockback to foes;
In terms of behavior he doesn't feel all that special, just being the basic concept of a piglin riding a hoglin. He looks really good though

The Burner Hog is a ranged tough mob added to the bastion remnants as a sort of chief, he just attacks with regular fireballs kinda like blazes, which isn't all that interesting

In conclusion

I like this small mod and have seen it around for a while, but never got to really play it;
There's not really any way to configure stuff so it's a bit of an all-or-nothing mod unless you use external mods to disable the new raiders from spawning for example.
I especially like the illagers, but the piglins are fine too even if less interesting I feel. This mod is definitely worth playing , as the mobs look good and mesh well with more fantasy-medieval settings (has potential to work great alongside Illager Additions due to it adding some well-animated japanese-themed illagers).

I have heard AE2 can cause chunk corruption with a lot of NBT heavy items, but never experienced it myself. But this mod is a lot more leinant on on resources and apparently doesn't have that issue. I don't have to find a impact crater and pray that no one's looted it yet. Just a lot of nether quartz.

However, that's about as far as things go. Setup is very basic compared to AE2, but it's at least something I'm willing to touch mid to end game. It's also easier to setup connections with simple storage network compared to AE2, so my older systems can be attached as well. (haven't tested integrated dynamics yet with it.)

At first I was completely fooled and filled with hope among other reviews and the promotional material shown. I couldn't find a lot of other info with this pack but genuinely was excited to try this out with my friends. After a pretty challenging early game we finally managed to get our bearings and set our spawn after initially screwing up our one use spawn setter item. My group always prized exploring as a very top priority for enjoying a pack and unfortunately this pack barely has any exploration content at all. There remain very few structures and while you do need to go to certain biomes in order to find gems for your higher tier equipment it still ends up being almost completely barren. The loading screen even talks about how exploring the Underdark (dimension after nether) to find treasure within ruins. There do exist ruins but only with sub par enchantments and diamond gear, even then it is never worth it to ever go find these ruins. I even asked the discord about this and only got told that people go here for ores, I asked about the loading screen and if there were any plans to have anything here but there was nothing. This got me curious about the pack and looked more into progression of the mod, especially the lategame which i try to avoid since spoiling yourself generally isn't enjoyable. I found that the grind would be beyond tedious and that this pack genuinely offers you almost nothing other than an admittedly good soundtrack. Many mechanics introduced aren't that fun or engaging even though i tend to like difficulty and the hordes are absolutely terribly designed. I had constant hundreds of block tunnels just all over, under, and nearby my base since the hordes would spawn anywhere and stay without despawning pathing their way to your base, you could wonder why I don't change my spawn but this mod gatekeeps bed making (and spawn setting as a result) into much more grinding than what would be normal, this is extremely poor design choice since you have no way of knowing if there is a tiny cave somewhere near your base especially in the early game which is the only time you can realistically set your spawn. The hordes aren't even an engaging mechanic and seem to exist only to annoy the player, they are somewhat tanky and damaging but can be easily kited as they are more or less just standard zombies with big giant ones that get broken and stuck on the simplest of terrain and can be ignored for months of ingame time with very little result. Next is the amount of time the mod has been in development, this mod was released around 2020 and has jackshit that makes it feel genuinely unique. There is progression in the sense that you have to beat bosses to get into other dimensions and sometimes get unique items but the amount of unique items pale in comparison to any other modpack. RLCraft as badly made as it is has FAR more content of many kinds and probably has since its release, this is inspite of it being literal youtuber slop being the reason it owes its popularity but still manages to outdo ROTN in nearly every part it tries to even be competent in. The only saving grace of this modpack is performance, which I would sure hope is good considering that there is hardly anything at all to differentiate it from any other modpack, even as a machine hater I would prefer a machine heavy modpack than what is introduced in this one .

TLDR barebones content, forever early release/beta, no exploration, horribly unengaging and easily gameable mobs who also destroy your base and never despawn, Guidebook is terrible, and then just tons amounts of grinding for very little. please do not play this, I was in delusion when I did.

What is it ?

A mod which adds a new Marksman illager, which wields either a flintlock pistol or a regular musket.
This is an addon to ewewukek's Musket Mod in 1.19.2 only, and uses the weapons available with this mod in that version.

What does it offer ?

An illager which can use firearms to attack you, which spawns in place of pillagers half of the time (can be changed), making it appear in outposts, patrols, raids or even possibly some other modded structures.

All illagers deal less friendly-fire damage by default when that mod is loaded due to the Marksman's firepower making him to much of a menace for his own allies (this feature can be tweaked in the configs).

Unlike the Gunslinger from Simple Musket (which is my main example as of now when considering a hitscan gun-wielder mob) they do not try to flee when attempting to reload if the player is too close, making them easier foes (AI just like pillagers with slightly more strength I guess, which I find a bit more boring).

I would say this mod is decent (though I have seen unfulfilled complaints about crashes in the mod's comments on curseforge, but I never had any issues with the performances while playing myself).
This mob isn't the best looking illager but at least he is wearing slightly different clothes than his crossbow cousins (but I would prefer if he stood out more).

In conclusion

Reviewing this as a standalone mob, this is good enough;
This mod is quite nice for players who want gun-wielding pillagers in 1.19.2 , but it seems like the mod has been abandoned before getting a chance to be ported to later versions;
Alternatively, it could be abandoned because this mod wouldn't make sense in 1.20+ versions as the base mod this is an addon for makes it so various undeads + pillagers get a chance to appear wielding a firearm , therefore without needing a whole new mob in these versions anymore.

What is it ?

A mod adding a couple of new old-timey weapons : the musket , the blunderbuss and the simpler flintlock pistol . This mod also makes it so there's a chance for undeads and pillagers to spawn holding fancier weaponry, which they know how to use.

What does it offer ?

Three new craftable ranged weapons , the regular musket having its own smithing table upgrades (them being the bayonet and the scope ) TONS of compatibilities with other mods.
The mod is very configurable, to the point you can really make the mod's weapons behave exactly how you want. There's no custom cartridges outside of the base one nor custom enchantments to apply, but there's the possibility to apply various vanilla enchantments to the musket, flintlock pistol and blunderbuss.

In conclusion

This mod is probably globally better than the first musket mod I reviewed;
I would like to note that in 1.19 there's an addon adding a Marksman called **
Musketeer Illager** (which likely isn't going to get ported since 1.20+ versions let some undeads and pillagers hold firearms).
I am not comparing the amount of content, the Simple Musket's goal is simply to add one musket and content around it, but shooting your targets is easier with ewewukek's Musket Mod and that makes a difference.

I guess one could say their aim is a bit different

I'm so funny

The world gen is reworked and just looks and feels so much cooler. Many QoL changes and fixes; little things which feel so right. The custom content seemlessly adds so much life to the pack. Also, much better performance. So it's a no brainer playing this instead of the original.

Why play Liminal Industries (any version) at all? Personally, I've never enjoyed exploration so much. The quest book is exquisite (especially in this version). It's like a sandbox, generated, Complete The Monument map where the challenge is building infrastructure and industry in the backrooms. The backrooms is indestructible, and finding solutions for building your contraptions in a predefined, often cramped and maze like space is a constant source of fun. In this version, big open spaces are rarer. This is great aesthetically (to create contrast), and I recommend not basing in them so that you get to build in interesting, restrictive spaces. Go in blind, you will have a unique, genuine, awesome experience!

Throughout Minecraft's history, there's always been mods that stand out from the crowd and inspire hundreds to make mods similar to it, such as the Twilight Forest.

Wonderland, while not nearly the same level, is one of those rare mods. It manages to deliver a unique experience even after the horror craze spawned by the phenomenal Broken Script and various slop dwellers. I love the way it takes its inspiration from liminal spaces and ARGS

Its ambience is also insane, the fear and paranoia you get when getting continuous horrifying events are unmatched.

The only thing I don't really like about this mod is the lore, I'm a huge fan of horror in general, but I do feel that the lore is pushing it and feels too edgy. I also do feel that the mod kinda gets boring once you know all the surprises.

But this is a very solid mod overall, a great horrifying mod!

What is it ?

An unofficial port of a discontinued project by the team behind Dungeons Mobs, adding a bunch of illagers and illager-like creatures.

What does it offer ?

A couple of unused illagers of no particular theme with one custom item being the tribal spear which doesn't do much.

Here are all of the mobs added :
-The Jailor :
Probably inspired by Minecraft Dungeon's implications of an illager jailor existing due to the weapon in the same game known as the Jailor's Scythe, this mob simply attacks in melee...
Yeah, I find it worse than Savage and Ravage's Executioner, even if it at least has custom sound effects and good looks. He is the most common of the new illagers within raids, but doesn't serve any interesting purpose
-The Illager Warden :
Acting as a melee illager miniboss in raids, this mob has several fancy moves it can use to attack you and an almost unpenetrable armor which can only be pierced by using an axe when he isn't blocking (after he performs any attack)
-The Elite Evoker :
A regular evoker with stronger spells (more aggressive fang patterns and possibly larger quantities of vexes)
-The Tribager Warrior :
A form of tribal illager who attack in melee with a custom spear; it seems his attack animations do not coincide with the moments he can actually deal melee damage to you (could be improved)
-The Tribager Chief :
A form of tribal illager who attack in melee with a custom spear; it seems his attack animations do not coincide with the moments he can actually deal melee damage to you (could be improved)
Only difference with the regular Tribager is in their health pool
-The Roving Marketer :
Some kind of Endersent-trader which can't actually be traded with ? the items sometimes float on the side and I don't know why

Most issues with this mod are written as part of the conclusion, but I have not noticed anything notable regarding the performances (had a crash while this mod was loaded once, but I'm pretty sure another mod actually caused it)

In conclusion

In all honesty : only one mob here is actually good (it being the Illager Warden ), while the Elite Evoker is less interesting but still has its place. Most of the other mobs could be improved upon much more .
Thankfully there's a config file which allows you to disable or enable various raiders (while again I would prefer if you could choose the waves they each appear in its still better than nothing);
Globally when a mod is made and updated, the more content is featured , the riskier it is for the global cohesive experience of the player who's messing around with it as one singular bad mob can break the immersion or overall vibe (if this mod only featured the Illager Warden I would have probably put a nicer score, but the majority of mobs act like generic melee mobs, which knocks the gameplay rating down + some of their attacks have their animations not happening at the same time the mob deals damage, I've seen it happen in Dungeons Mobs too).

This mod seems pretty recent , which means that I will have to look back at it in a few months to see if that review is still valid or if it just that plenty of planned things are left in the dust for now.

I don't have high hopes, but I like to be positively deceived sometimes