Avatar Miner Paintball (XBLIG)

Over the past few years the xblig marketplace has been littered with avatar oriented indies, and Minecraft clones. As such honesty I find myself often times wondering where originality has gone. Even with this predetermined mindset I went ahead, and gave 2.0 Studios the benefit of the doubt. I thought surely they would add something interesting, or different to this washed out genre of gaming. As one might imagine though what I had hoped for, and what was realized were two very different things. Unfortunately for the most part those things were not good.

Avatar Miner Paintball is a game that basically borrows ideas from three different types of games. In one corner you have the COD (Call of Duty) influence, and in the opposite corner you have that Mincraft voxel based influence. Of course the use of XBL avatars is thrown in for good measure to give it a more personal appeal. As it stands the game has two different mode types, one of which makes absolutely no sense at all to me, and another that is fairly much self-explanatory. At the top of the game's main menu, when you first start up the game you'll find a map building mode in which you're supposed to be able to build your own Minecraft inspired maps for online play. Upon trying this mode out I found no sort of tutorial, or dialogue explaining how to create my own map. In fact I was immediately taken to a multiplayer lobby which made no logical sense. Sure it had the option to choose a custom map, but how the heck am I suppsoed to build a new map if I'm in a lobby???

The second mode of play you'll find listed on the main menu is "Multiplayer". It's a fairly straightforward mode that allows you to play locally with friends (LAN), or online with random strangers. If you choose to go with the online multiplayer you will immediately be placed in a lobby select screen where you can pick from an existing of player match. The individual player lobbies display the host's ping as well as the lobby type (Free-For-All, Team Deathmatch, etc, ...), the host's gamertag, and the number of players allowed in a match. During my multiplayer playthrough I took notice of the amount of players still playing this game, and I have to say the list was quite impressive. With the patch finally in place I was able to join matches easily, but not without problems.

As I mentioned earlier on this game plays heavily on the COD experience. Gameplay plays out as you'd expect it to. In short you'll find a bunch of run, and gun/camping arcade style FPS combat similar to that of the COD series. Fans of COD will also be glad to know that the controls are not that different from those found in COD. You can sprint with the 'Left Thumbstick', change/pick up weapons with 'Y' & 'X', throw grenades with 'RB', snipe with 'LT', and even crouch with 'B'. While this all may seem appealing to you you should know that the game is seriously flawed. There's lots of lag issues even with a good connection, and hackers are currently ruining the online experience. Yes, you heard me right. As sad as it is COD hackers have found ways to make their characters invisible, and even make them fly around. They can even dodge bullets like nobody's business as well as throw your aiming reticule off course. I liken the experience to COD 4, and it's hacked lobbies.

Aside from the custom, and standard multiplayer options there's also a teaser of a mode called "Zombie Survival". Once you enter "Zombie Survival" via the main menu you'll find your avatar in a room filled with creeper-like zombies, and future update panels depicting possible additions to the game. While this is visually cool it does little at all for the gamer. Not having the "Zombie Survival" mode in a playable state just limits the game even more. I understand that the developer is trying to peak players' interests with the possibilities, but that's pretty darn mean if you ask me.

Visually "Avatar Miner Paintball" isn't all that bad. The Minecraft oriented maps definitely look HD in quality. In fact I remember seeing some HDR setting in the options menu which can greatly increase the quality of the game's visuals. The avatars also look pretty sweet, and will appear as they do on your XBL dashboard. Being the indie game that it is "Avatar Miner Paintball" does not depict any violence past the gun toting gameplay. In fact as the title suggests you will be firing friendly paintball shots, and throwing paint filled grenades. Interesting enough is the fact that the paint from the weapons will paint your surroundings should you miss your intended target.

Now on to the verdict ...

As much potential as the idea of this game had it still fell short of being great due to flawed gameplay. The online suffers from serious lag issues, and consistent hacking via the players who play it. If it weren't for these two factors the game wouldn't be all that bad. Also if there was actually a way to build your own maps then that feature alone would be cool. Sadly I could not figure it out due to the lack of proper in-game instructions though. The only other issue I have with the game is the "Zombie Survival" which simply acts as an advertisement for features that could possibly be added later on. It's not a very smart way to go about trying to enticing gamers with possible new additions to a game. With everything considered I'm gonna have to say skip this indie. Even for 80 msp it's still not worth it. All you'll find is COD inspired aggravation.