Miner Warfare Review! [XBLA - 80 MSP]

Recently I have been playing a LOT of Xbox indie games [probably because I'm poor and they're cheap and demos are a thing] specifically a lot of XBLA indie CO-OP titles, one game has me hooked in and keeps me and whoever I’m playing it with screaming at eachother for hours on end, a game that I’ll likely forcibly make you my player 2/3/4 for if you ever come around to my house. This game ladies and gents is “Miner Warfare” by Heartbit interactive.

Awesome box art!

At the cheap and cheerful price of 80 Microsoft points don’t expect any fancy graphics or any storyline from the title, its cartoon violence all the way here, but I have to say that it is some of the most fun I’ve had at my xbox in a long time, altogether I’ve clocked around 7 hours playtime, which is pretty impressive considering I’ve just been playing for a few weeks and only when I have friends over.

The game is a pretty simple concept, a 2d all out shoot ‘em between up to 8 squishy looking colourful miner blobs, who lock n load with some pretty intense artillery!

“Wait 8 people? There’s only 4 controllers to a console!” I hear you cry! [Well, not cry, but I hear you wonder absently] Miner Warfare has prepared for the lack of controllers and knows that you need more people to break friendships with by shooting in the cyber squidgey face so they have developed a controller sharing system, they flip the controls on the 360 pad so it can be shared between two people, of course the first thing I did was take it as a challenge and try to control two miners at once… As it turns out… That’s very disorientating. Regardless however, it just means more friends can join the fun!

The slightly odd controller screen.

The battlefield is a choice of 10 mineshaft maps. All the players spawn in different separated areas and mine their way through dirt to either pickaxe eachother in the face or find a box and blast said face off with a total of 28 possible weapons. Throughout playing this game you will lose every friend you’re playing with for the time you’re playing this game, but you will have an immense amount of fun in doing so!

Gameplay!

The scoring system in the game is one of the weirdest things I’ve seen in my time gaming, throughout the level you collect coins from killing friends, mining blocks and collecting coin chests, this is fairly standard gaming, however after that you get bonus “last minute” points, this is where it gets kinda weird! You get points for stuff like longest shot and most damage caused by explosives but then you get “most suicides” you’d think “oh most suicides, that must mean whoever killed themselves the least gets points!” right? RIGHT?!

Nope. The guy who attempted to end it all the most times by blowing themselves to smithereens and throwing their gloopy bodies out of the bottom of the world get more points! I have been beaten on numerous occasions by most suicides… Suffice to say, I wasn’t impressed. [I screamed a lot of very bad words that I sharnt write] that aside however, the last minute scores make a tense last few seconds of the game where you can go from hero to zero in so many different ways.

Now, onto the real downfalls of the game, before I come onto this though, I must remind you that it is a game that will cost you $1 or 63p AND these flaws are more than made up for in positives!

Theres problems?

The foremost problem with Miner Warfare is the lack of online multiplayer. The game is brilliant, if HeartBit can just extend it that tiny bit more, and make it so we can blast our friends cyber brains out from different houses, I think they would really have a successful game on their hands, mostly because us gamers are antisocial creatures and leaving the house and the warmth of our technology is a real chore, its like you want us to exercise! D:

The other problem glaring you in the face as an antisocial gamer is the lack of single player, obviously this is a game you should really play with other people, I imagine by yourself it would be a little boring, however, some people do enjoy sitting by themselves on single player, so the lack of that option is an issue here, with the addition of an AI option the game could be much improved [this could also improve the Co Op, taking the places of any characters that aren't taken if enabled]

Overall though I would say that this game is ridiculously entertaining and well worth a buy, even if you only whip it out when you have friends over and you’re drunk, or you need a game to play with your siblings [to increase the rivalry further!] hell even play it with your parents, my mum [who never plays games] loved [s]getting shot[/s] playing! Don’t take my word for it though, get on XBLA, download the game and wipe out all your friends and you’ll see exactly what I mean.

4/5* I wish I could give it 5, just give me my online co-op HeartBit, please!

‘Till next time internet!

- Ben

[re-post from my old blog http://myfavouritegamingblogonthecitadel.wordpress.com/]