Monday, July 13, 2015

Miner Warefare

Developer/Publisher: Heartbit Interactive
Steam: Miner Warfare

How do you quantify fun? Is there an exact unit of measurement for it? No. Fun is just a simple state of being or emotion. I am having fun. They're having fun. So with that in mind, doing a review on party games is rather a challenging aspect. The main draw of party games is playing them with your friends and usually blowing up your friends and soda coming out your nose. I don't feel necessarily that the game is the most important aspect in that situation, The game is just the canvas for you in that case.

Miner Warfare is just that, a canvas for fun. You are the one who has to fill it out. Well, you, and up to 7 other friends to be exact. Miner Warfare is a local multiplayer action game. The brainchild of the awesome developers who made Doom & Destiny. Combining elements of Minecraft/Terraria's digging for gold, with the carnage and insane gunplay of Contra. You are going to die, probably by your own hand even. This is the beauty, and charm of Miner Warfare.

The basic gameplay is a mixture of platforming and shooting as you try to nab as many gold coins as possible and killing your friends for their gold. It's really that simple of an idea and it works rather well. There is an insane amount of weapons that range from the Eye of Cthulu to some thing called the Mazinga, that just sprays explosions in a straight line. The chaos is amplified a hundred times per player added to the game. Yes, you can enjoy the game with just 2 people but its called a PARTY game for a reason. You want to play this game with as many people as possible.


The game has beautiful simple ideas and uses them effectively. There are other areas that Miner Warfare is simple in, but that doesn't equate to a good thing. The game doesn't feature any kind of options menu, no resolution control, sound sliders etc. You can get full resolution going by hitting alt-enter, but that isn't really made clear to you. Sadly there is no online multiplayer, making Miner Warfare exclusively a party game. There is no single player experience. What the game does have is costumes!


Name one game where Mickey Mouse can shoot Batman in the head with a chain gun? You can do that in this game! (Yes I know of modding/skins, please don't troll me.) Miner Warfare has several costumes to choose and many different levels for you to enjoy as well. This gives the game even more replay as you dig & destroy your way to victory.  

Visually, everything works nicely here. The explosions, the adorable characters, the utter browness of most of the levels. The guns are cool and its easy to keep track of where the action is happening. What I really like about Miner Warfare is the UI. By that I mean the complete utter lack of UI. There is no gold counter, death counter, nothing to keep track of who is winning or who is losing. Which just lets the player completely focus on the chaos, and fun. This is a subtle but ingenious move on developers part. The winner is only determined after the match ends, but really who cares? That isn't really the point.


Now if you break down the game, is it the prettiest? No, but it's fun. Is it the most innovative? No, but it's fun. Does the game have an awesome soundtrack? No, but it's fun. Does the game have deep mechanics and is story rich? No, but it's fun!!! That is all that really matters here. This game is a great canvas for fun. The controls work well and there is plenty of chaos to go around. 

You are going to get as much replay out of this depending on how much you are enjoying it. You could play for this a hundred matches or a few and move on. It really completely depends on the player. Just about anyone can figure out how to play this game in about two seconds and start enjoying themselves. There isn't some grand learning curve here. There are only about 4 buttons for petes sake. 

So to wrap up, Miner Warfare is a fine addition to the party game genre. The price is overwhelmingly worth it at $3 dollars, if you have friends who will play it with you. While I would've loved and adored for there to be a online multiplayer, I don't know how difficult such a thing is to program or how much it costs. That doesn't take away from the fact that Miner Warfare is going to make you laugh, smile, and punch your friends in the shoulders, after they kill you and take all your gold.

Pros
  • Easy to Play
  • Great Price
  • Chaos Factor
  • Great UI
Cons
  • No Online Multiplayer
  • No Options Menu
  • No Singleplayer 
  • Requires friends? (Not a real con)

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