The world is a soulless place, lacking in any interesting geography or life beyond the scuttling undead. Player characters and equipment have similarly smooth models, creating an inconsistent aesthetic that makes it look every bit the cheap knocked-together project it is. Far from chilling, but there’s some very limited fun to be had with them.Įnemies are made up from relatively detailed polygonal models which sit in stark contrast to the voxel-built, blocky world. They can break down defences, and hiding in a hut as ten of them wail and scrape at the walls evokes horror comedies. In its brightest moments, CastleMiner Z can use its zombies to amusing effect. Difficulty is purely based on increasing hitpoints and increasing gang sizes, their AI being just a few IQ points behind those headless bombers from Serious Sam. In the starting zone they can be dispatched pretty easily, but the further you travel from spawn the beefier they get, as designated by different coloured character models.
Zombies sprint and relentlessly dive at you, their shrieks signalling that the long, arduous night has begun.
Weapons make up the vast bulk of your crafting options, and are vital in enduring the game’s Survival mode. Perhaps this wouldn’t be a deal breaker if the core of the game worked solidly, but the mining and building elements are a shallow shadow of Mojang’s beast, with just a handful of different materials to excavate and a basic crafting menu that makes heavy use of identical items built from higher tier materials. It’s all back-of-the-box bullet points though CastleMiner Z’s shooting is flat and lacking impact, even when you’ve managed to craft its laser guns and sniper rifles. “Minecraft with guns” is probably what the original design brief said, and that would be pretty accurate of the end product. At night, zombies prowl the mountains and dragons haunt the skies.įrom the outset you’re armed to take on these threats. To its credit CastleMiner Z tries to innovate and expand on its muse, taking a block building world and peppering it with a flimsy attempt at horror.
It would be incorrect to say that CastleMiner Z is entirely just plagiarism, but ‘strongly inspired’ by Minecraft would be an overly fair description. A cheap, barely-inspired Minecraft-a-like, it’s a deep insult to the creativity so ingrained in the sandbox genre. It’s that exact kind of spirit we find in CastleMiner Z, a block building survival horror. If you’re a smart phone user you’re likely used to the relentless lists of copycat games listed on app stores that come hot on the heels of an Angry Birds-like phenomena, seeking to replicate such success.
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