Murder Miners Review

[Pfhunkie 3,544]

Murder Miners is a game from independent developer "JForce" that essentially takes the gameplay of Halo and combines it with the creativity of Minecraft.

There have been many attempts at a FPS/Minecraft combination game so you might be asking "What's so special about this?" Well, as one player put it "It's as if they took the gameplay of Halo: Combat Evolved and added ninja like movement." While the gameplay isn't exactly like Halo: Combat Evolved, it's obvious that it has been heavily inspired by Bungie's classic 2001 shooter. Fans will immediately recognize the "3sk pistol" and similar sniper rifle.

At the very same time that it's similar to Halo, it has it's own merits in gameplay as well. The movement mechanics of the game involve sprinting and a "dodging" system much like the one found in the Unreal Tournament games. This changes up gameplay quite a bit and separates its self just enough from the classic FPS to give it it's own feel.



The other half of this game that I've failed to talk about until now is the building. As the description suggests, it's much like the insanely popular PC game Minecraft. You have the ability to bring any map you could dream of to life or create a replica of a map from another FPS you enjoy. Seeing as though it has been marketed heavily as Halo inspired, there are no shortage of Halo remakes created with the map tools. I personally have classics such as Guardian, Wizard, Sanctuary, Lockout and the Pit. Remakes aren't the only great maps. The community is thriving with map makers that have brought insanely fun original maps to the table as well.



The only complaints I have about this game so far are the spawns and the crashes. You'll often find the spawns hectic and very reminiscent of what many gamers call "revenge spawns". You'll also experience crashes every once in a while but all you have to do is go back to the dashboard, start up the game again and continue to kick some ass. This game is still in beta so these problems could easily change over time.

Currenty there are only 3 gametypes other than map creation. Murdermatch, Team Murdermatch and Zombie Survival. Murdermatch and Team Murdermatch are essentially Slayer/Team Slayer from Halo or Deathmatch/Team Deathmatch from most other FPS games. In Zombie Survival you can go in teams or free or all. It's essentially Murdermatch with hordes of zombies being thrown your way at the same time. Points are added from both player and zombie kills.

With a purchase price of 80 MS points (The equivalent of $1), this game is an easy buy in my book. I've been playing it two days straight and my love for it has only grown after every match. You can find it in the Indie Games section of the Xbox Live marketplace.
 

[Takka 13,376]

Very cool idea. Since the success of Minecraft, I've noticed a lot of indie devs have been borrowing from the idea. I actually thought this was a mod at first when I've seen/read about it elsewhere.