Moon Miner

Xbox Live Indie Trial Game – Moon Miner

Moon Miner is a mining strategy game that takes place on a moon where mining and survival are paramount. Developed by SOG Software as a XBLIG (Xbox Live Indie Game). If your wondering yes i have played quite of few of these types of mining games before. The last one being Terraria. 2D mining games in my opinion have to be deeply layered with gameplay. From what i played of Moon Miner, it lacks that and its own unique identity.

Moon Miner did give me, albeit a very rough sci-fi atmosphere. Afterall, you are on a moon mining in a little futuristic dig capsule thingy. The gameplay in Moon Miner is like most mining games, you dig and buy/sell materials. The difference between Moon Miner and some of the other mining games is the fact that you have to keep your vehicle dig machine fueled up or you get stuck. Thrusters and drilling uses up fuel. If you get stuck deep with no fuel you can use your back up oxygen unit as fuel to try and get to the surface.

The Base Station is Moon Miner’s hub if you will. It rests at the top of the map and you spawn near it. You can sell materials, buy supplies such as  Drill Bits, Air Tank, Fuel Tank and Cargo Bins. Most importantly though is that you can refuel your drill and thrusters fuel gauges for free. One thing that really set me off about Moon Miner was the fact that not every material have names. When i was digging i saw materials that looked like gold coins, gold crystals, blue crystals. However, you do know what the black circular materials are, they are called Bins.

Materials give you money in which case you can can go back to the Base Station and buy upgrades for your vehicle. Upgrades do play a part in Moon Miner. For instance, as yoiu dig deeper your default drill doesn’t dig as good which burns up more fuel. In other words your losing money and time by not upgrading your drill. As far as the visuals go, Moon Miner is really ugly to look at. Now i understand 2D mining games aren’t suppose to be graphical marvels featuring super high def textures and the latest PC graphics tech. But the game in my opinion is ugly for a 2D mining game. The sound design and music were alittle better than the visuals.

My closing thoughts regarding the XBLIG trial version of Moon Miner isn’t that good. I have the whole “been there done that” feeling. The game didn’t give me the feeling of wanting to explore and mine the moon. The atmosphere was practically non-existent. Moon Miner has no identity other than its a sci-fi setting. Its too bad a “setting” in a videogame can never make gameplay fun and addicting. Moon Miner isn’t for me but might be for you if your heavily interested in 2D mining games. Thanks for reading.