PC (Steam)
Released 25/4/2014
7/10
‘Block Story’ is in an early stage of development at the time of writing this review, so hopefully some of the issues brought up will have been ironed out.
The game is sometimes described as ‘Minecraft crossed with Skyrim’, which is pretty apt. It also clues you in on the fact that this is going to be a serious time drain just as both of those games are.
Like Minecraft your adventure involves finding and gathering resources in order to build structures. The best thing about this is that there are no set boundaries that you have to follow. As long as you can find the materials, the only limits are your own imagination. Running alongside the open world Lego box are RPG quests. As you explore, you will meet various characters who offer rewards for completing tasks that might involve gathering a certain amount of resources or killing a number of monsters. Fetch and carry quests and things that require specific locations don’t really come up as the nature of the game is to be able to take apart and rebuild the landscape as you see fit.
The game controls are fairly simple, but take a little getting used to, mainly when it comes to crafting. You can mine any block by holding the button down until it breaks apart for collection. You can then use the resources to make other items you might want by following your recipe book and using a crafting table (made by putting together four planks).
Crafting involves organising your collected items on the table in a layout that usually resembles what it will end up being. Rather than having a list of things that can be built from your current resources, you have to drag and drop to arrange them in the right order.
You have limited room in your inventory for types of items. There are 29 slots, which seems like a lot, but they can fill up quickly while you explore. Fortunately, those 29 slots allow you to have an unlimited number of each resource. You will want to craft yourself some storage boxes at a home fairly early to stash things away for later.
At first the game may make you feel as though you are wandering aimlessly helping strangers out for no good reason. Once you figure out something you want to build, the game suddenly gets more interesting. It’s more about your imagination than following guidelines. Create your own projects rather than wait to be given one. Then you know that you need to hunt for certain materials and roughly how much of it. Having this self-given purpose to explore makes the game much more immersive than the NPCs could ever make it.
Currently there is no mini-map in game, so finding your way is hard. (This feature will hopefully added in a future update.) This is particularly frustrating if you are trying to build a house (or castle/fort/boat/town/whatever), go exploring for resources, then can’t find your way back. You can again use your imagination to make exploration somewhat easier and more fun by being digging up blocks to build bridges or sign posts, where in most games you would have to follow a predesigned route. There is an inclusion of teleport devices that revolve around beds, but making beds and teleporters also requires resources which may not be that easy to gather. You will need them as the world is huge, stretching from heaven to hell and everything in between.
To make life a bit easier, all NPCs and animals spawn from ‘Animal Summon Blocks’. So whenever you find a quest giver you can grab their box and take them with you so you can be ready to talk to them again when you have done what they ask. Remember to put away your sword when you talk to friends, as the commands for ‘speak’ and ‘attack’ are the same. If you find some sheep summoning blocks, you’ll have a source of wool for your beds.
Among the enemy monsters are snakes, tigers and various kinds of dragons. Some boss enemies can also be found, marked by dramatic music playing in their vicinity. Though the world is made up entirely of blocks, the creatures within it look a lot more realistic, which definitely sets it apart from Minecraft stylistically.
The game does involve a lot of grinding. Mining for resources can be time consuming. Pick-axes make the job faster but have limited uses before they disappear/break. It can be difficult to accomplish simple goals (like making a bed, when you have to chase down sheep across unknown territory using your bare hands to do minimal damage) with the limited tools available at the beginning.
If the normal mode does get too much for a casual player however, there is a separate ‘creative’ mode where you can build what you want with infinite resources. On the other hand, for someone who finds the main game too easy, there is a ‘hardcore’ mode which gives the player limited lives and more dangerous enemies.
The game has a few problems that can be frustrating. Earthquakes happen from time to time that cause damage to the player and make mining/building a bit tricker for a short while. They rarely do much harm, but they happen a bit too frequently and become extremely irritating. There are also weather changes from sun to rain and day to night. The dark of night obviously makes seeing clearly more difficult. This would be less of a problem if the world streaming was better. You can’t see much landscape ahead of you, and often you might think you are about to run off a cliff edge when actually the ground simply hasn’t loaded yet.
Hopefully, these gripes will be ironed out in the future and are relatively minor when it comes to enjoying the game as a whole.
