Mines and Magic
- March 25, 2024
- Zolden Games
- 10h median play time
Get on Steam"Mines and Magic" is a nostalgic, turn-based dungeon crawler game with puzzle elements. Explore randomized dungeons, battle monsters, and collect resources to craft powerful items and upgrade your character. The game features permadeath and procedural generation, ensuring a fresh challenge in every playthrough.
Mac OS
PC
Windows
Linux
Reviews
- The game offers a unique blend of tower defense and resource management, providing a challenging and engaging experience.
- Players appreciate the variety of units and strategies available, making each playthrough feel fresh and rewarding.
- The developer is active and responsive, showing promise for future updates and improvements to the game.
- The game suffers from balancing issues, particularly in the early levels, making it frustratingly difficult for many players.
- There is a steep learning curve, and the lack of a comprehensive tutorial can leave new players confused about game mechanics.
- The game is still in Early Access, with many players reporting bugs and a lack of content, leading to concerns about its long-term viability.
- gameplay26 mentions
- 15 % positive mentions
- 69 % neutral mentions
- 15 % negative mentions
The gameplay is generally well-received, offering a challenging experience with a unique blend of strategic building and tower defense mechanics. However, players note some balance issues and a lack of clarity in game mechanics, particularly as they progress. While the core gameplay is enjoyable and addictive once mastered, the user experience suffers from bugs and a disorganized interface.
“Despite being over 5 years old, the gameplay is still decent, providing a high level of challenge, although it still has a few limitations.”
“While it's clear it's early access, I absolutely adore the core gameplay.”
“Unique gameplay with a balance between strategic building and tower defense.”
“The gameplay is fairly balanced, but the enemies are getting harder and harder.”
“The 5-10 hour gameplay he talked about is probably to find the right map for getting a decent amount of resources; if I want to upgrade to get resources, I'm stuck.”
“Past that, balance issues and lack of clarity in the game mechanics become more and more apparent.”
- graphics12 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 42 % neutral mentions
- 33 % negative mentions
The graphics are described as retro and nostalgic, reminiscent of Warcraft 3, but are considered fairly ordinary and somewhat clunky. Many users note that the game is still in early development, leading to limitations in graphical quality and user interface design, which can be confusing. Despite these issues, there is potential for improvement as the game evolves.
“The graphics feel very retro and nostalgic.”
“The graphics are so cool and the economy system is great.”
“A strategy tower defense game with resource management, featuring graphics reminiscent of Warcraft 3.”
“A strategy tower defense game with resource management, featuring graphics reminiscent of Warcraft 3, which are fairly ordinary.”
“- Clunky UI/graphics - my eyes were flying all over the place, couldn't make heads or tails of much to begin with based upon the UI itself.”
“So far the game is in the earlier stages of development, so graphics and some other aspects are lacking, but I think this game could fill a very cool and underexplored niche and therefore has potential.”
- story10 mentions
- 20 % positive mentions
- 60 % neutral mentions
- 20 % negative mentions
The game's story aspect is criticized for its lack of depth, as it primarily focuses on tower defense mechanics with minimal lore or quests. Players find the randomness of level design frustrating, requiring frequent restarts to experience a coherent plot. However, the inclusion of map exploration and economic elements reminiscent of the Civilization series adds some strategic depth to the single-player campaign.
“+ there is map exploration within missions and even another global map to the single player campaign, both with economic aspects reminiscent of the Civilization series.”
“Since this is essentially a tower defense map, there isn't really any lore or quests that go with it, which is fine since these types of maps don't really tend to be that sort of thing.”
“The game desperately needs comprehensive tutorial missions and/or an easy difficulty setting.”
- replayability4 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Mines and Magic is praised for its excellent replayability, making it a family-friendly option that encourages multiple playthroughs. Players appreciate how this aspect enhances their overall gaming experience.
“Mines and Magic has great replay value and is truly family friendly.”
“I do like how this impacts the replayability very much.”
- stability2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant stability issues, with users reporting a chaotic user experience and numerous bugs, particularly affecting menus and cutscenes rather than gameplay itself.
“The user experience is all over the place, and the game is quite buggy, mostly in terms of non-gameplay elements like menus and cutscenes.”
“The user experience is all over the place, and the game is quite buggy, mostly in terms of non-gameplay elements like menus and cutscenes.”
- character development2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 100 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
Character development is enhanced by distinctive character design, which helps make characters, particularly enemies, more identifiable and memorable. However, there are concerns that this aspect may be influenced by external factors, such as EA's involvement.
- monetization2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Reviews indicate a strong sentiment that the game's monetization strategy appears to prioritize profit over player experience, with some users labeling it as a cash grab or potential scam.
“He asked me why, and I answered honestly that it looked like a cash grab or potential scam.”
