Developer: Volatile Dove
Publisher: Black Shell Media, Volatile Dove
Platform: PC, Windows tablets
Tested on: PC
Asteroids Minesweeper – Review
One of the oldest digital games in history is probably minesweeper. Thousands of mines have been found or detonated in this virtual battlefield. Over the years, the graphics have been improving and the core thought of the game has been set in other perspectives as well. Asteroids Minesweeper takes you to a totally different situation where your insight will be tested to the fullest.
Story
You’ve started working with a new company where you need to dismantle several asteroids. This might seem quite boring but less is true as there are mines hidden in the several blocks. It is your task to gather as much of these explosive presents as you can by gently dismantling the threat and extracting them. If you can clear your tasks without too much mistakes, you get bigger and more complicated stones to take care off.
Before each new job, you get some extra intel about your tasks and the influence of them on the company. This is a fun addition to the minesweeper aspect as you have something to work to rather than finding mines with no particular goal.
Graphics
Don’t expect a traditional minesweeper field but 3D cubes or clusters which you need to rotate to find the targets. Overall, the graphics aren’t splendid but are enough for this type of game. What is a surplus is that you can change the style of the environment and/or the blocks as there are multiple skins you can apply. This is a fun addition and gives it more of a personal touch.
One of the remarks is that the camera view can be changed to other blocks , depending on where you need to zoom in for instance. When you turn around and zoom a lot, the blocks start to blur or distort, which means you need to refresh or change the camera again to reset the visuals.
Sound
Dismantling asteroids isn’t a jolly job and you will be greeted by some tranquil and relaxing tunes. You’ll torture your brain for a while so it is good that there isn’t an overflow of beats. What can be said is that the songs loop a lot which might bother you after a while.
Next to the soft tunes, you’ll also have some sound effects that will guide your moves. When you dismantle bombs or find empty spots, you’ll get a fitting jingle. On the other hand, accidentally clicking on a bomb while thinking it is a safe spot will trigger an explosion that might literally blow you from your seat if your sound is quite loud. Keep this in mind when you start this adventure.
Gameplay
Asteroids Minesweeper is an action game where you need to work for your company and find bombs in several asteroids. They come in several sizes and difficulties, but the more you obtain money for your company, the more gadgets you get. This helps you to tackle new problems.
The basics are rather simple. Each asteroid has a certain amount of mines hidden inside their blocks. Some of them are empty but will give you clues about their adjacent neighbours. As these planetoids are in 3D, there are 8 different positions to keep an eye on which makes it a lot more complicated. If you don’t watch out, you can easily make wrong assumptions and pursue a wrong path, you’ll end up with a nice boom and a mistake less to make. This might not be such a big deal in the beginning but at the more difficult levels, you’ll be screaming when this happens.
In the old versions of minesweeper, you could mark unexplored spots as a bomb or a question mark. The latter isn’t possible in Asteroids Minesweeper. Or you click on it to dismantle the bomb or you know that that specific spot is empty. No room for question marks or second guesses. This makes it a tad more difficult but you will get used to it soon enough. Since there are also blocks that don’t have any adjacent bombs, these are marked as 0-blocks. This is a great way to get a new perspective on the surrounding blocks without fear for an unwanted explosion. If you have multiple useless blocks, you can delete them all at once by using the ‘C’ button rather than removing them separately.
There are new elements to reconsider now and then when advancing the story which makes it quite diverse. You can also make your own custom levels by choosing the difficulty level and adding extra possibilities. This makes it possible to replay several settings multiple times. Also, the story levels are randomly chosen as well, so you will never really get the same lay-out more than once.
A fun addition is that you can play this game on computers but also on Windows mobile devices. The different moves change depending on the device but you can enjoy disassembling asteroids while you’re on the go.
Conclusion
Asteroids Minesweeper will take you back to the old-school minesweeper fun with a twist. Instead of finding mines in a field, you get challenged to solve and pull 3D planetoids apart. Don’t expect the most sophisticated graphical quality, but nicely brushed up blocks with their own touch. If you got the experience and ready for this job, you’ll definitely get some happy bosses.
Asteroids Minesweeper - Review,
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