Blockstorm is an on-line first person shooter. I guess with the rise and rise of Minecraft, that the blocky aesthetic would find itself spreading into other genres of games. The game is PvE (and partially PvP) with a server hosted in Germany and players from Europe and the US.

It’s a pretty easy game to set up even though it it’s highly configurable. On the first screen you get options for just leaping into a quick random match, the chance to choose your match. Next up is all the stuff you can fiddle with.

With the editors you have the freedom to edit a map for you and others to play in, as well as the opportunity to edit a character. Video settings allow you to turn off or on the antialiasing, dynamic shadows, bloom and lens flare, particles and V. synch, you can also window the game and change the screen resolution. Audio settings allow you to choose your own balance of music and effects. The music isn’t bad, but it is repetitive, so it’s good that this can be turned right down.

Now, I’m not a great one for playing games with a keyboard, although there are those who find this method preferable, so it’s nice to see that the game key settings are fully configurable, it even recognised my cheapo PC gamepad, and this can also be done with the editing keys.

So, you’re ready to play. The first thing is to choose your character, of which there are thirty six, a mixture of mostly military types as well as the odd female and creature mixed in. With your character in hand it’s time to tool up. You can carry up to a certain weight, made up of rifles, pistols, grenades, shovels, cubes and knifes, but the more you tool up the slower you will move, so it’s a good idea to balance firepower against agility.

You will spawn in a Minecraft map. The top shows a timer for this match, bottom left gives you a small map of your local area, the centre bar shows your health and your ammo is displayed on the lower right hand side.

The same rules apply as apply to Minecraft, you can destroy most of the blocks you can see, remember that in the editor you can create your own maps as well as edit existing ones. You start with a limited amount of ammo, although it is a fair amount and if you get killed you re-spawn with all your ammo reset.

There’s a lot of fun to be had running around and blowing away real people, mostly because the challenge is much better than that provided by most AI's. The game is able to maintain a high framerate, allowing for a smooth gaming experience.

If you’ve ever wanted to kick the porgies out of blocky people in a blocky landscape then your boat just came in.

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Charles Packer