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- Digital DNA Games
- Digital DNA Games
- Digital DNA Games
- Digital DNA Games
CastleMiner Z
Released On: Feb 3, 2014
Metascore
Available after 4 critic reviews
4.1
Where to Buy
Where to Buy
All Platforms
Minecraft is beloved because it’s a celebration of creativity. CastleMiner Z is the antithesis of Minecraft: it’s a depressing, cynical cash-grab almost wholly designed to hijack gamers’ excitement for Mojang. For 69p, its survival horror elements are a nonsense novelty. But at the price demanded on PC, we should be throwing it out to the creepers.
User Score
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 35 User Ratings
4.1
31% Positive
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
9% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
60% Negative
21 Ratings
21 Ratings
User Score
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 35 User Ratings
4.1
31% Positive
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
9% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
60% Negative
21 Ratings
21 Ratings
Completely amazing and great fun with friends. Sure doing it solo may be a bit boring, but hop on with a couple of the boys and you'll have the time of your life. What the game does poorly is easy and fun to laugh at and what it does great is unforgettable. It's easy to launch and play, and save and close. The enemies, while lacking in variety a bit, are still exciting and can still be scary at times. You get quite a few gamemodes that put their own twist on the way the game works, giving it great replayability. The tool progression system is quick and the game mechanics are easy to grasp. If you want a fun and
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PC
Castleminer Z is, without a doubt, mankind's magnum opus. This game redefined how I see the world. Your character's quest, traveling through the somewhat safe forest to the open desert, then onto the towering mountains and the frozen tundra, all the way to the resource-rich Orelands and the zombie-choked hell, all the defeat the Undead Dragon, is a literary achievement up there with Shakespeare's works. The beautiful quest's gameplay is also glorious, with intense fights with hordes of the undead being a very common occurrence. Endurance mode tasks the player with defeating the Undead Dragon, and is a fun adventure to go on, especially since you can easily finish it in one go (which you kind of have to do, since this mode doesn't save your world). Survival mode pits you and your friends against zombies in a mode that lets you save your creations and build an empire over the world (10/10 political movie, I love imperial stuff like this). Creative mode allows players to build whatever they want (gee whiz, really?). Exploration is great for new players to learn what everything does, and Scavenger... who plays that? A lot of this review is a joke (don't get me wrong, though, you should still play this), but unironically, what's the point of survival mode with more loot blocks? Eh. Anyway, the combat is fun. CS:GO should stop being played; Castleminer Z PVP tournaments are the future. The zombies are actually somewhat of a threat, too, they're fast and hit hard. Multiplayer is basically the experience I always wanted with Minecraft multiplayer. The world itself looks pretty nice (maybe not the desert as much, but MAN, the forest and mountains look great), so exploration should be fine. And last (wow, I'm all over the place with this, what a crappy review), Bloodstone walked so Netherite could run. Anyway, 11/10, would play again.
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PC
This is possibly one of the hardest reviews I've done. There's a part of me that likes this game and there's a part of me that doesn't like this game. It is a rip off yes, but it has enough new ideas to redeem itself of being a rip off. I'm probably confusing quite a few of you with this opening so I'll just get into the review.
Gameplay/playability
For those of you that haven't figure out the clown standing in front of you honking his nose in front of you, this game is a minecraft rip off and it doesn't exactly seem too afraid to show that. Now you might be thinking that if it's a rip off, why not get minecraft. Well, there are a few things this game has over the original game it's ripping off. The most distinctive difference that everyone notices is that this game has guns that actually function well, unlike the guns that modders have been trying to put into Minecraft for years. CastleMiner Z also has challenge, like MineCraft did, but the thing is about this is that it sort of adds into the challeneg but it also takes some of the challenge out. The basic objective of Minecraft was to survive, gathering food, cook it in a stove while stocking up on coal, keeping your health high. Your main objective in MineCraft was to reach The End, defeat the Ender Dragon. In CastleMiner Z, hunger no longer applies, which already takes away half of the challenge MineCraft had and you might be saying "They did this so it wasn't a complete rip off" I say "They use the same block style of MineCraft, that's probably as obvious as an elephant trying to fit in at a mice gathering" CastleMiner Z takes that Ender Dragon boss battle at the end of MineCraft and places different dragons throughout the world you inhabit. You might be thinking that it's great to fight tons of dragons like the ender dragon tons fo times but I beg to differ. The thing that made the Ender Dragon boss battle good in MineCraft was because you could only do that once in your play through and you felt really accomplished and triumphant when you defeated this dragon and destroyed all of it's crystals. With CastleMiner Z, it takes the lazy route to combat where there's no challenge and just blaze bullets out on the dragons and even though I felt triumphant after beating my 1st dragon, it quickly wore off as I progressed. Another thing that makes me dislike CastleMiner Z over MineCraft is its objective. MineCraft had you go all over the place surviving, going to the nether and fighting the Ender Dragon. Now, with the basic premise of survival gone in CastleMiner Z (due to the lack of a hunger bar and regenerating health) what does it do instead to keep the player entertained? Nothing. Without this premise, CastleMiner Z sort of feels pointless. It gives you the objective of moving North as far as you can but, it again doesn't show much challenge while throwing this weird objective at you. There are other game modes yes, but there are games that have pulled these game modes off better than CastleMiner Z did. I can easily understand why people might find these game modes fun but MineCraft was unique and CastleMiner Z tries to wrap up this weird deformed child of MineCraft and COD which isn't exactly a great combination, at least in my eyes. For people that enjoy this sort of concept, you will spend tons of time on this guaranteed, however if you're like me, you will get bored of this game quite quickly.
Graphics/Sound
The graphics is one of my main praises towards the game. I actually found CastleMiner Z really appealing to look at. It has this great tint to the blocky...blocks to make them have this blend of realism and make them look like they belong there. If you don't believe me, take a look at the screenshots. The sounds to this game is a mixed bag. While the sounds to everything is good, they're inconsistent. The sounds that have been used for everything, doesn't sound like they belong in one place, it's sort of like if you get unity assets and then top them off with RPG maker assets and a blend of Unreal engine assets. While the sounds are fitting to what they have been designated to, none of these sound like they should fit together.
There are some really good ideas used in CastleMiner Z and underneath all of these issues I have talked about, there is definitely a good game under here somewhere but I'm just not seeing it unearth yet.
Pros
+ Adds in new ideas to redeem it being a rip off
+ Cheap
+ Good graphics
+ Some will enjoy the gameplay
Cons
- Boring gameplay
- Useless objectives
- Little to no challenge
- Inconsistent sounds
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PC
I originally bought this game on XBL, and for a dollar, it was worth it. But ten dollars... That's stretching it. The game is always laggy and lacks basic options in the settings. It even expects you to have a controller to play. Multiplayer is impossible to play without a server, (not a terrible thing) which isn't as easy to set up as a game on XBL. Don't buy this game on PC unless there is a big sale.
Summary: This Minecraft clone may look good at first, but has terrible settings options and lag. It's just better to buy Minecraft and add texture packs and mod it. You can only have around two hours of fun until you get bored. I don't recommend it on PC.
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PC
Summary CastleMiner Z is an online coop survival horror game in a block based environment. Travel with your Avatar with your friends in a huge spanning and ever-changing world while defending yourself from the zombie horde. Mine the world for resources, to craft the weapons that you will need to survive.
Platforms:
- Xbox 360
- PC
Initial Release Date: Feb 3, 2014
Developer:
- DigitalDNA3
Publisher: Digital DNA Games
Genres:
