Not since the 80’s have cubes been so popular, Minecraft
appeared in 2009 and has since gone on to sell over 144 million copies across
all systems, the digital equivalent of Lego, appealing to all ages, but played
by a lot of children, as well as clocking up 47 billion views for
Minecraft-themed videos on Youtube, merchandise, spin-offs, and even novels,
never has it been a better time to be a three-dimensional solid object bounded
by six square sides, but then there’s also the inevitable clones hoping to make
money riding Minecraft’s coattails.
Many skirt close into lawsuit territory, with flat-out
blatent block-based sandbox survival titles, others simply cashing in by taking
the cube aesthetic and throwing it at basic genres, shooters, platformers,
anything simple that can be marketed at kids and designed to separate them from
their pocket money, this practise is rife in mobile games, and whilst we are
seeing IOS and Android titles drifting onto consoles, fortunately the flood of
shovelware is currently more of a trickle than a tsunami.
The latest in the line of boxel adventures comes in the form
of Survive! Mr. Cube, a rogue-lite action game from Korean indie developer,
Intragames, you control the titular Mr. Cube, who, after taking a pill giving to
him by a stranger in a pub (as you do), finds himself waking up in a strange
new world, his appearance has changed, he has a weapon at his side and is
forced to defend himself against everything around him, wandering the
unfamiliar landscape in a hope of finding a way out.
The form you take and item you’re armed with are randomly
generated as you start, as are your character’s initial stats, you step through
the portal and enter a wooded forest shrouded in fog, as you walk the fog
dissipates, revealing obstacles, pickups, and enemies, utilising the weapon you
have to hand to fend off any attackers, and any potions you come across to recharge
your health or give a temporary boost to your attack power, until you find and
destroy the sealed tower in each level to reveal the portal to the next stage,
and so on.
Each of the four worlds consist of 25 stages, each maze-like
in their layout, consulting the map will tell you how many portals are in the
stage you’re currently in, and also depending on whereabouts on the map your
particular stage is, will give you a vague idea which direction you need to
head in order to locate the next tower and portal, a swift foot and keen weapon
utilisation will ensure your forward progression, eventually revealing the
portal to the guardian of that dimension, who must be defeated to move onto the
next world.
Neither the guardian nor any of the other creatures you come
across pose that much of a threat, but with the randomly generated stats and
weapons you’re given, it boils down to the luck of the draw, finding yourself
armed with a level three spear and high stamina is all well and good, but if at
the same time your health bar is miniscule and your movement speed is akin to
that of an elderly snail with an arthritic knee, the easiest option is to just
die straight away and cross your fingers for a better balance in your next incarnation.
If you have settled for a fairly average Mr. Cube, all is
not necessarily lost however, if you’re observant on your journey you’ll come
across the occasional special treasure chest tucked away, which will dispense a
stat-increasing power-up upon opening, granting you higher health or stamina,
faster regeneration, or increased movement speed, you also stand a good chance
at gaining a better weapon should you meet another Cube character along the
way, be wary though, they don’t give them up very easily and will kill you as
soon as look at you if you’re not careful.
As with all rogue-type games, death means 99% of your
progression is lost and you’ll find yourself back at the starting portal with
nothing but your accumulated monies, after your first death there is a merchant
who will sell you a random item providing you have enough cash, and next to him
is a grave for your previous character, which can be dug up to retrieve an
additional weapon, giving you a possible boost before you start again, but
depending on how far you got previously, depends on whether or not you have the
inclination to start everything again, simply trying to reach and defeat the
world guardian is little incentive when you’ve explored twenty of the twenty
five maps to wind up dying to yet another swarm of electric spiders or
spear-wielding dudes riding boars.
When you die you’re given the same intro sequence again, you
wander around the same maps with the same scenery and objects, albeit in
different placements, meeting the same dozen or so enemies, and hearing the
same sounds and music ad nauseam, respawning after each death, your appearance
does change, but this is purely cosmetic and has no effect over your
character’s stats or abilities, sadly I feel that just a little bit more depth
overall could’ve made all the difference.
Not to knock the game completely, but for the very first
self-developed game from Intragames, and having been developed by a team of just
three people, it plays smoothly, I experienced no bugs or game-breaking
glitches, the character descriptions on the loading screens are often funny,
though occasionally badly translated, and the lighting effects as you clear the
fog, or various zaps of lasers and magic streak across the map were a couple of
small things that impressed me, it certainly shows a studio with future potential.
Working your way through Survive! Mr. Cube is a reasonably
painless experience, the hardest thing is surviving the repetition that sets in,
and playing enough to reach each final guardian is mostly a test of patience
rather than skill, whilst this isn’t a bad game by any stretch, it doesn’t
elevate itself above anything more than being adequate, and sadly the most
alluring feature is the fact that its platinum trophy can be achieved in less
than two hours, hard to recommend for anything else besides that.
Figment is out now on PC, Mac, Linux, PS4, Xbox One & Nintendo Switch