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Miner Wars 2081

Bugs and dodgy design decisions dont quite negate the novelty of spaceshipping in confined spaces.
Miner Wars 2081 Game Cover
35%Game Brain Score
story, gameplay
graphics, stability
31% User Score Based on 305 reviews
Critic Score 45%Based on 2 reviews

Platforms

PCWindows
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Miner Wars 2081 Game Cover

About

Miner Wars 2081 is a single player and multiplayer open world role playing shooter game with a science fiction theme. It was developed by Keen Software House and was released on November 28, 2012. It received neutral reviews from critics and negative reviews from players.

Miner Wars is a first-person action-survival space simulation game set in the year 2081.

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Miner Wars 2081 screenshot
Miner Wars 2081 screenshot
Miner Wars 2081 screenshot
Miner Wars 2081 screenshot
Miner Wars 2081 screenshot
Miner Wars 2081 screenshot
Miner Wars 2081 screenshot
Miner Wars 2081 screenshot
Miner Wars 2081 screenshot
Miner Wars 2081 screenshot
Miner Wars 2081 screenshot
+4
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31%
Audience ScoreBased on 305 reviews
story18 positive mentions
stability11 negative mentions
  • Gameplay offers nostalgic 6DOF space combat reminiscent of Descent with smooth and responsive controls.
  • Fully destructible environments and ability to dig through asteroids add a unique element to exploration and combat.
  • Varied upgrade system for ships and weapons, with an engaging if somewhat campy storyline and decent voice acting.
  • Game is unfinished, buggy, with many features incomplete or broken; level design is repetitious and missions can feel tedious.
  • Resource management (oxygen, fuel, ammo) is frustratingly strict, often interrupting gameplay flow and causing difficulty spikes.
  • Multiplayer and level editor functionalities are broken or non-functional due to server shutdowns; game lacks modern compatibility and optimization.
  • story
    99 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story in this game receives mixed reviews, with some praising its scale, interesting premise, and engaging elements reminiscent of classic space adventures, while others criticize it as bland, confusing, poorly paced, and incomplete. Many players find the narrative cliché, underdeveloped, and hindered by weak voice acting and uninspired mission design, ultimately failing to captivate or provide meaningful progression. Overall, the story is seen as a weak point that detracts from the otherwise fun gameplay experience, often feeling unfinished or like filler for the core mechanics.

    • “Great story, great dialogue!”
    • “You can go pretty much anywhere out of order from the campaign; the campaign is good, the story is good, the voice acting is good.”
    • “All the characters in your crew get quite well established and the whole thing has a Firefly-like vibe to it; it's essentially a really good space adventure story.”
    • “I was only playing because I wanted to know why there was a space Fourth Reich, but I got tired of fighting the same enemies over and over and following a bland plot with bland at best, annoying at worst characters with not great voice acting for the majority of them.”
    • “Bad game, unfinished, completely broken mechanics and unfinished story to boot, that's the kicker. They could have at least had the honor to give us that, but we don't even get that. All we get is 'oh big bad empire builds the next public TM-Death Star and it's up to a single miner to go full Star Wars on them,' which is zero context.”
    • “Miner Wars is a shoddy, half-done mess whose developer realized at some point in development that they couldn't deliver on any of their promises, and rather than doing right by their community, decided to cut and run by shoehorning in a half-baked story campaign and calling it a finished product.”
  • gameplay
    44 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay has a mixed reception, with some appreciating its decent 6DOF shooter mechanics and action elements once mastered, while others criticize its punishing difficulty, clunky controls, unremarkable combat, and frustrating user interface. Many note issues such as lag, broken multiplayer, and a steep learning curve that detracts from enjoyment. Overall, it may appeal to hardcore fans of the genre but is hindered by technical problems, incomplete features, and an underdeveloped story.

    • “The controls are functional, the gameplay is fluid.... it's a 6DOF shooter... that's all that should matter.”
    • “Really fun and fast action gameplay: realistic without being too hard to learn and easy to learn controls.”
    • “While the detailed damage model is not of much consequence to the gameplay itself, it still does a great job enhancing immersion, as having your systems fail and blacking out from lack of oxygen is just a more interesting way to go than simply exploding.”
    • “Bad game, unfinished, completely broken mechanics and unfinished story to boot. They could have at least had the honor to give us that, but all we get is "oh big bad empire builds the next public TM-Death Star and it's up to a single miner to go full Star Wars on them" with zero context.”
    • “Terrible/non-existent optimization, terrible multiplayer, terrible campaign, annoying ship voice, and gameplay is over-complicated with too many different stats that you need to keep track of while being expected to perform combat effectively.”
    • “Everything about the game screams alpha; the looks were outdated even for 2012, the gameplay was virtually nonexistent outside the very linear and very short story, and the UI was so utterly counterintuitive that for a long time my coop buddy and I could not even figure out how to use the nav map.”
  • graphics
    17 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The graphics receive mixed reviews, ranging from outdated, dull, and uninspired visuals to shiny, modern designs reminiscent of classic games. While some players appreciate smooth performance after adjusting settings, others criticize poor lighting, complex and confusing environments, and lack of immersion. Overall, the graphical quality is seen as mediocre and sometimes unoptimized for smooth gameplay.

    • “It's another Descent-like game that feels much more like the classic Descent gameplay, with shiny modern graphics, and none of the creepy Nazi stuff.”
    • “But once I matched the graphics to what my computer can handle, it was smooth gameplay and really fun.”
    • “Graphics are pretty tight, sound is good, levels are big.”
    • “The architecture/maps are overly complex, confusingly laid out, poorly lit, and graphically dingy looking.”
    • “A stepping stone to space engineers, more like a tech demo with ok-ish storyline, meh voice acting and dated gameplay/graphics.”
    • “Total crap: 1) ugly old school graphics.”
  • stability
    11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game is widely criticized for its poor stability, plagued by numerous bugs, glitches, and frequent crashes. It suffers from clunky performance, lack of optimization, and inadequate support, making it an unreliable and frustrating experience. Overall, the stability issues severely undermine the game's playability and appeal.

    • “It’s an incomplete game pretending to be complete, full of bugs and glitches with no support; their homepage forum is a ghost town.”
    • “Poorly optimized, buggy, and not very well designed at all.”
    • “Buggy, poorly executed, missing features, and many game features seem to have little or no purpose.”
  • humor
    7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Users find the game's humor quirky and enjoyable, highlighting amusing details like quirky text scripts and entertaining audio moments. The playful contrast between strict objectives and player freedom also adds to its comedic appeal, making for a fun and lighthearted experience.

    • “Funny bit about the game is that it's so strict about what it wants from you, but you can do whatever you want to complete it.”
    • “I played with a friend and found one of the audio parts hilarious.”
    • “There is also an MMO release planned for next year which, having played this, sounds like it would be hilariously fun.”
  • optimization
    6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game suffers from poor optimization, with outdated support for modern PCs leading to performance issues and frequent bugs. Despite acceptable graphics, it runs uncomfortably even on contemporary machines, resulting in clunky controls and an overall frustrating experience.

    • “The game lacks support for the typical features of modern gaming PCs and hasn't been modernized or updated to run smoothly on contemporary machines.”
    • “It's not very performance friendly.”
    • “This game is so unoptimized that despite relatively okay graphics, computers struggle with it.”
    • “Back then it had abysmal performance, terrible, clunky controls, boring environments, an annoying DRM, and it was a buggy mess.”
    • “Terrible/non-existent optimization, terrible multiplayer, terrible campaign, annoying ship voice, and gameplay is over-complicated with too many different stats that you need to keep track of while being expected to perform combat effectively.”
    • “But this game is so unoptimized that despite relatively okay graphics, computers struggle with it.”
  • grinding
    5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Grinding in this game is a tedious and repetitive process, exacerbated by the lack of quicksave/quickload options and reliance on slow, risky resource gathering. Players must mine minerals repeatedly to afford ship upgrades, but frequent losses due to combat setbacks make progress frustratingly slow and punishing. Overall, the grind feels overly time-consuming and can hinder enjoyment, especially in multiplayer.

    • “Even then, you need minerals or other materials to get the money to buy these things, which requires you to do tedious mining for minerals, which will almost always lead to you getting shot and looted, wasting your time and putting you at a huge disadvantage (you lose everything, making all that resource gathering and upgrading your ship useless).”
    • “Buying ships is pretty much impossible, as the campaign itself will give you almost no money, while the only other way of profit is selling ores, which is an extremely slow and tedious progress, and you will spend most of the gain on scavenging fuel and oxygen.”
    • “If players were honorable and played everything as intended (mining, selling minerals, buying weapons, repeating the process until strength is built up, then fighting after all is said and done), multiplayer would still be a tedious slog-fest.”
  • music
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Users briefly mention the "music" aspect, referring to it together with sound but without detailed comments, indicating a neutral or unremarkable impression.

  • atmosphere
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The atmosphere draws positive comparison to the well-loved Red Faction series, evoking a familiar and engaging vibe. However, an overload of information can make the overall atmosphere feel cluttered and unclear.

    • “It reminds me of Red Faction as far as the atmosphere, and Red Faction is one of my favorite games.”
    • “There's so much information that nothing stands out, so it isn't clear what the atmosphere is.”
  • emotional
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The emotional experience started with initial investment in the story but quickly turned negative, causing discomfort that led the player to stop playing.

  • replayability
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's replayability is limited, offering fun initially but lacking long-term engagement or incentives to replay.

  • monetization
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The monetization is heavily criticized as a blatant cash grab, negatively impacting the overall perception of the game.

    • “Horrible cash grab of a game.”
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45%Critics’ scoreBased on 2 critic reviews
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7h Median play time
7h Average play time
7-7h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 1 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

Miner Wars 2081 is a open world role playing shooter game with science fiction theme.

Miner Wars 2081 is available on PC and Windows.

On average players spend around 7 hours playing Miner Wars 2081.

Miner Wars 2081 was released on November 28, 2012.

Miner Wars 2081 was developed by Keen Software House.

Miner Wars 2081 has received neutral reviews from players and neutral reviews from critics. Most players liked this game for its story but disliked it for its graphics.

Miner Wars 2081 is a single player game with multiplayer and local co-op support.

Similar games include Kinetic Void, Carrier Command: Gaea Mission, Edge of Space, Planet Explorers, Osiris: New Dawn and others.