Fans of the old Descent games will go mental, no doubt about it. Miner Wars 2081 will also be a blast for gamers that want a sci-fi space shooter with an interesting story, charming setting and solid gameplay. [March 2013]
This (currently) 52 metascore is one of the greatest injustices I've ever witnessed. After a quarter century of solid gaming I've more or less seen it all, and consider my opinion as qualified as anyone's. Miner Wars 2081 is an entertaining game with a solid presentation. It plays very well, and is a worthy homage to the Descent series.
I do have to apologize for my "10". The game admittedly has a few rough edges, and I probably would have only given it an 8 or 9 at most. However, when unprofessional clowns feel the need to bury an otherwise solid game with Zeroes based only on "third party DRM" (which they've long since disabled), I just want to do my part in trying to bring the average back up into reality.
Miner Wars is a game with great potential, perhaps wasted. Defects are many: poor IA, complex level design, technical sector not great increase the sense of frustration that might have been.
There is no way Miner Wars 2081 is a modern reincarnation of the Descent series. It is a flawed, incomplete product that somehow was approved in Steam Greenlight.
The systems that should have been its biggest draws are relegated to one-trick sideshows, while the majority of the game is just one dreary combat engagement after another.
I bough it few days ago, so I missed all negative content of previous versions. Now it's just awesome! Only part I'm missing is more intuitive controlls and better xbox controller support. Graphic, gameplay and story? Amazing? (graphic mostly). Really good job! Now I hope more people will join deathmatch games - it looks like most promissing part of content. Space battles in new NYC are just epic!
This is a first glance review, ok? Obviously it's indie, graphics aren't great and the story is a bit hard to follow. But good on them for coming up with a totally different story/setting, and completely free 3D environment. It feels like the old game, Descent, but more fun. There's not much of a tutorial explaining things (none, in fact) and during the first mission when you start looking at the key mapping, it doesn't pause and the baddies keep shooting you while you're trying to work it out. Loading times are also very long, but they provide an excuse. Sound is fairly tame, and there's no sense of real physics. When you stop your spaceship's throttle, your ship suddenly stops. Not at all realistic, but the alternative would make for trickier gameplay. Time will tell whether it's worth $20. I'm going to play it some more, for sure. It is different, at least.
Once you get things setup correctly you can almost play it. The Internet connection requirement when the game starts is the worst DRM one can have. There are lots of bugs (going from full armor to no armor in 1 hit for example). the game just isn't good.
I recently purchased this game on steam as I have gained a lot of interest in the space sim genre and didn't care about the multiplayer nor single player but only the interesting sandbox mode where i could mine asteroids. On the first day I couldn't even play the game as it has always on DRM and couldn't connect to the servers.
On the second day I was able to connect to the servers but only to be able to play single player if I wanted to play multiplayer I would have to contact the games customer support. First thing in game I was dropped into a lame mission with zero orientation as to the mechanics (though I was able to figure them out with a bit of effort on my part) other than this is the history. The mission glitchy forcing me to roam around before it recognized I was on the objective marker, mining is tedious and not made up for by the destruction physics which aren't even used but exist more as a novelty or for multiplayer. When I finally finished the mission the travel mechanic was entirely unituitive forcing you to have to zoom in on a tiny square of the world map to which I didn't care as I believe I had finally gotten to the open world part before the game crashed. I honestly suspect this game is still in beta as its mechanics don't seem to work very well.
In conclusion the game doesn't work correctly, has always on DRM that is not advertised, and is missing core mechanics from the steam store advertisement. Avoid this game there are way better space sims coming down the road.
Always online DRM for singleplayer. That is all what is there to say. I can't understand how an Indie Developer thinks he can win the piracy war with measurements like this. It is not like I am never online or have an unstable connection - it is a matter of principle. I enjoy singleplayer and play online only with friends avoiding the abusive masses. Why do I need to log into a server on the other end of the world for playing offline and have my gaming experience maybe tainted with lags and connection issues? I don't expect it, but I don't take chances either, because we deal with an Indie here. I doubt that this developer is capable of having a worldwide network to ensure the maximum gaming performance for everyone.
I give 3 points because the game itself seems to work, but any more would be praising the devil.
Ubisoft learned its lesson - hopefully Keen Software House will learn it before it is too late.
SummaryAs a player, you operate an advanced mining ship in an open world asteroid belt area. You dig kilometers of tunnels, harvest the ore, travel the solar system, fight your enemies and discover mysterious alien secrets. Game play is led by an epic story and is a combination of a single/multi-player game, cooperative, or you against everyone...