REVIEW

Block N Load Review

by Kieran Clarke, May 20th, 2015

On the surface Block N Load seems like a fun, casual mash-up of Minecraft and Team Fortress 2 – but dig a little deeper and anyone that has played the game will tell you there’s much more than meets the eye.

Honestly you don’t have to look too far to see what makes Block N Load stand out from the games it took inspiration from. Launched into the “Practice Grounds” tutorial, you get your first taste of life in the attractive battlegrounds of the game. The concept is undeniably simple. Build, fight, and destroy. These are the three straightforward options in the arena. You could dedicate your entire round to shoring up your teams defences, focus solely on killing your opponents or play to the objective and target the opposing team’s bases. Spend your time doing any of these three and I promise you will be kept busy, frustrated and, most importantly, engaged. The real skill is balancing these three elements of the gameplay – knowing when to be defending can be as key to winning as destroying the opponent’s core.

Before entering battle for the first time, I noted how much the game setup reminded me of MOBAs. The matchmaking system seems like has been flat out copied from games such as DOTA and LoL – but that is no criticism, it works. Creating your build before “blocking in” your hero is also reminiscent of the aforementioned games. Heroes, abilities, skins and 5v5 combat – if I read this I’d assume MOBAs were the topic, but this is also the formula for Block N Load. The game has found inspiration from a number of notable mechanics in the MOBA genre and they are implemented seamlessly.

When creating the build for your hero you are tasked with selecting the blocks you will be using – this in itself can be a tactical challenge – pick the wrong blocks and you could hamper your team. Everything you can build costs a set amount of bricks, so an economical mindset comes in handy. With only six slots on your bar, it is worth spending some time to get the correct configuration of blocks. The blocks range from building blocks, boosts, supplies, offensive weapons and more. The simple building blocks very in strength (the stronger the block, the less of them you get). Depending on your hero of choice, other useful blocks include speed and jump boosts, health and ammo stations and a radar which shows nearby enemies. The blocks that do the damage range from bombs to turrets, mortars and many more. There are also defensive trap blocks to keep your enemies away.

One noteworthy feature relating to block selection is the option to pick a recommended block setup, handy for a first timer to get to grips with a character. It is very appealing to know you could play game after game without needing to get too deep into hero builds – you can launch the game, join a queue and play over and over again until you’re not having fun. Equally you can tailor a hero to your style of play, or vice versa. It is both casual and competitive and that combination merges to construct an enjoyable experience.

Combat within the game stands up as well as any other gameplay element. It is not the fine science of the FPS genre, but it definitely serves its purpose. You can’t get many kills with sheer luck, and that is a credit to the game. The range of weapons is exciting, with each character having at least two weapons. Every hero wields a melee weapon, with the highlight beingJuan Shinobi’s katana, and these weapons deal the most damage against blocks and power cubes. Ranged weapons vary from Sarge Stone’s machine gun to Doc Eliza’s gas clouds. I got killed a lot in one on one combat and not once did I think the mechanics, or gameplay as a whole, were to blame. In this the link to Team Fortress 2 is clear. If it were any more serious, the gameplay may not be as well balanced.

The balance of gameplay is matched by how well the heroes complement one another. No hero, albeit there are only a handful, stands out as over powered or better than the others in a game breaking fashion. New hero Astarella, who was released earlier this month, offers new gameplay but is well honed to equal, rather than better, the other heroes. Her new Orbital Strike Beacon and double jump ability are unique to her. This is a welcomed contrast to the MOBAs I discussed earlier.The battlefields themselves are also worth talking about. There are currently five arenas in the game, Olympia, The Causeway, Blockageddon, Block Keep and Mountain Express. Gameplay within these maps is not so different from one to the other, with the main differences being amount of power cubes and number of routes to and from the bases. Arena variation is one of the weaker points to Block N Load but, with more content on the way and other gameplay elements making up for it, there is no real cause for concern.

I find it easier to compare Block N Load to MOBAs than to either Minecraft or Team Fortress 2, despite my opening statement. Yet in one area the game resembles the latter games in a way that is pleasing – a lack of microtransactions or pay to win formula. Block N Load is a one-time fee kinda game. When posed thoughts similar to my own on the official Block N Load subreddit, Creative/Design Director Ben Smedstad reasoned that “to be a fair, and competitive game we can NEVER sell power”. His next point, “If anything is to be sold outside of pure cosmetics, it must be earnable by playing the game (think LoL)”, is also easy to agree with. Only time will tell if they can keep to their ideals but I hope they can.

As long as Block N Load can keep providing the players with new content, it will continue to be a fun game. If it stays still for too long, it may cease to entertain the masses. As it stands, however, it is well worth the one payment standing between you and the blocky battlegrounds. It has managed to draw from Minecraft, Team Fortress 2 and various MOBAs and end up unique, rather than oversaturated. Block N Load is well worth a play – give the free demo a try if you’re not sure you want to spend so much money on it. It doesn’t leave you disappointed.