Blockstorm – Preview
Blockstorm is an early access first-person shooter with a graphic design that will remind everyone of the pixelated Minecraft. Developed by GhostShark and published by IndieGala, the voxel game Blockstorm resembles Guncraft and Ace of Spades but while it sits in the same category, should it be considered a rip-off?
The maps are nicely varied. Some are smaller in size, others are quite large but none of the maps feel too small in size or too large and that is a big plus. The map designs differ so much from each other that it is always a pleasure to play in. From a desert to snowy mountains to a city scene that reminds me of a map design in Call of Duty. It is a perfect mixture of scenery and use of materials, something you will rarely get bored with. Each map also has their own mysteries to discover such as secret passage ways you can dig up. I guess everything becomes slightly more fun if you can also destroy the map you play in. Your loadout, or equipment as they call it, is split in six parts: main weapon, secondary weapon and explosives with a shovel, cube and knife that is part of fixed equipment. Luckily there is enough variation in the weapons, for each type of playstyle, so you cannot be bothered by having equipment you can’t change. There are certain weapons that do have an overpowered feel to them but generally they’re all quite balanced. However, the sniper rifle feels way too slow than it should be, especially considering that it is supposed to be a rifle with a scope.
As for the modes, team deathmatch is your traditional game where teamplay is somewhat necessary. The deathmatch is your traditional free-for-all game mode. I was not able to test Assault as there were never any players that were actually playing that mode. Which brings me to the amount of players in the game. You will often find yourself feeling extremely lonely while other times, a few servers are packed. The problem with this is that those who want to play the game, need to wait for other players to join. Especially when the player base isn’t that large yet. I was hoping they would have added in a bot-system much like Counter-Strike to prevent players from not being able to play but sadly enough, it’s not embedded in the game. What is embedded in the game are the character and map editors. There are already thirty-six built-in characters in the game that you can choose from with even more downloadable characters, including droids and spetsnaz. If you don’t like any of your choices, you can always create your own character, built from scratch or use one of the pre-made characters as a template. The map editor has plenty of options and materials to work with but the editing of the map feels a little rough around the edges still. The controls for moving around the map you are creating feel clunky and this will take some time to get used to. You can change the editing controls so it completely fits with your workstyle.
Let’s talk about the visuals and sound now. The visuals are, as you would have seen by now, very Minecrafty. It’s safe to say that the graphics are not exactly new but it is always fun to play with voxel graphics. The sound is as you would expect from a shooter. However, the sound of the footsteps depend on what material you are walking on. While this is a nice feature, it is also a confusing one. Walking around will make you wonder if the sound you here is from your own footsteps or those of your enemy since they sort of sound the same.
The devs are constantly adding in new content. Heck, you shouldn’t even be surprised to find a match where a dev is testing out different aspects of a newly designed map with the help of the randomly joining players. This is a feature I love as it means that the devs are interested in what their players think. It also means that the visibility in each map is getting tested thoroughly, especially when it comes down to avoiding spawn kills. You are not only testing the game but you are also creating the game, together with the devs.
Conclusion
Should you compare Blockstorm to Ace of Spaces and Guncraft? No, not at all. While Blockstorm might fall in the same category, the visuals in Blockstorm are superior to those in Ace of Spaces and Guncraft. You could say that the level editor in Ace of Spaces is more straightforward but the map editor in Blockstorm has more freedom of creativity. Blockstorm excels these two games by far and is on a good track to become even greater.
Blockstorm - Preview,
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