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Castleminer Z Review

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Game Information
Release Date: November 9, 2011
Developer: Digital DNA
Publisher: Digital DNA
Platform(s): Xbox 360 & PC
Players: up to 8 players
Genre: Survival/Horror

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Synopsis
Castleminer Z is one of the best selling Indie
games out there and it was/is also available on PC soon after its release on Xbox 360! CastleMiner Z is an online coop survival horror game in a block based environment which is very similar to Minecraft but there is more action in the game. Travel with your friends in a huge, ever-changing world and craft modern weapons to defend yourself from dragons and the zombie horde! With also many different biomes with a different dragon in each.

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Gameplay
Castleminer Z is all about survival against the zombie hordes. This game is somewhat like Minecraft except it has guns and zombies. I personally think that this game is better than Minecraft since it does not get as boring as Minecraft does. This game has different materials very much like Minecraft, the materials range in strength, rarity and toughness when you mine them from the ground. Here is the levels of rarity in the material, going from least rare to most rare: Stone, Copper, Iron, Gold, Diamond, and Bloodstone. Again just like Minecraft the higher the rarity the stronger that material is going to be. Like if your looking for stone, the least rare material, you will find it everywhere and if your looking for bloodstone, the most rare material, you will find it in the final biome or really far in the ground. Castleminer Z also offers a arsenal of weapons that you can choose from: The Knife that you start with, Pistol, Sub Machine Gun, Rifle, Assault Rifle, Light Machine Gun. Just like the materials you use for the pickaxes, you will use those materials for the weapons. The materials range from Iron to Bloostone and the higher you go the stronger your weapon will be. These weapons that you create will need bullets of course, however bullets work weird for this game.
Here is the weapon grade and bullets that you need to use them:

Click to View Content

Iron grade gun -> Stone bullets
Gold grade gun -> Iron bullets
Diamond grade gun -> Gold bullets
Bloodstone grade gun -> Diamond bullets
Space grade gun -> Space goo bullets

To use these guns you pretty much have to have the lower rarity material of the gun you are using. As for the space weapons, different material is needed for those guns in order to use them as shown above. Now biomes have their dragon for each biome, for example: The ice biome has the ice dragon and it shoots ice balls at you and tries to kill you. There is also coordinates at the top of your screen to show your location and you can save this location, this is a really helpful feature. When you reach three thousand blocks out into the world you reach the "hell" biome and once you reach there it goes on forever and all there is are zombies and Bloostone so I suggest turning back. If you are not aware, once a dragon is killed it drops a few items such as: explosive powder, gold, diamond, etc... You can make TNT/C4s out of what it drops most of the time. This game is quite fun to play with friends rather than by yourself. There is also 4 different modes that you can play: Endurance, Survival, Dragon Endurance, Creative. You have to defeat the undead dragon in Endurance to unlock Dragon Endurance and you have to purchase Castleminer to unlock creative.
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Graphics
The graphics for this game are amazing however not really as good as Minecraft since this game is not made by a billionaire company like Minecraft is. Personally I think this game's graphics are better than you would think they would be. And this game does not get as boring as fast as Minecraft does. All there is to do in that game is build however this game has guns, zombies, and dragons which makes it more exotic. This game can have a little lag at some points hence the company that made it but they did do a great job on this game I think. This game seems to be also more realistic than Minecraft to be since the way the block textures look, but at some points the block textures do not look fully filled out. Though some people may think differently.

The audio in this game is 10x better than Minecraft's audio, so Digital DNA definitely did a great job on this part of the game. At the main menu it plays a exotic like theme survival song/ beat. When you go through each biome there will be different music, sound effects and whatnot. When you start out in the first biome it sounds somewhat peaceful but when your in the last biome it sounds kind of scary like something is going to jump out and kill you any minute. The reason the creators decided to play different music throughout the biomes is so it will not be so dull and you will not have to listen to the same music throughout the whole time you play. Great job for a 4-5 year old game so you cannot expect a whole lot from the creators.
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Controls
The controls are quite similar to Minecraft's controls however they still feel kind of different. The controls will most likely feel strange if your going from Minecraft to Castleminer Z. Like Minecraft, you use the left and right analog sticks to move and look around your surroundings. The main thing that is different is that no crafting table is needed, you can just use the crafting menu in your inventory. If you can get used to the controls, it is just like any other game and it's really simple. You should also know that Castleminer Z was the 2011 game of the year and it won many other rewards that year. I think the creators did a amazing job on the controls for sure.

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Overall Ratings
Gameplay - 8/10
Graphics - 9/10
Controls - 9/10
Overall - 9/10