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Angeldust Beta Impressions

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Sometimes you just want to play a game where there is no set goal, one where you can freely do your thing and just be you. In Angeldust you can go on an exploring adventure, battle monsters all over the world, and set your own path. Or you can start crafting your own building, be it either in the village where you spawn, or somewhere in the world if you have the gold to spend. Angeldust allows you to set your imagination free, and do whatever you please to do, and sometimes, simple is fun.

But beware, Angeldust is simple, incredibly simple even. There is no set goal that you do, and right now there are only two actual things where you can spend your time on. The first one is very simple. From the moment you spawn into the world, you are spawned into the starting zone, or rather the village. Every player gets his own plot here, a plot that basically can be used for everything. Here you can build a house, statue, whatever you please and this is one of the set goals I had when I first started playing. But first, I decided to explore!

By exploring you will find new blocks, new animals and slowly unlock more of the game. Once you find these new blocks they will be in your inventory, a log with a hefty pile of gold that can be used to unlock weapons and more blocks. The game is all about blocks: you go out into nature, the further you run the more blocks you will find, and the shovel is your best friend in playing this game. Angeldust is simple, there isn’t really much else to it but running, then running some more, and then afterwards… you can keep running. While running you will find monsters all over the world ranging from easy to pretty tough. The further you get, the more biomes you’ll visit. These monsters do not change in appearance, except occasionally a different color or unique monster you haven’t seen yet. But killing these also grant you rewards, so you have to keep hunting them.

Around my plot, most players were also working on their homes. Since it rains quite a lot, having a roof over your head is always nice and a huge motivation to get at least a basic house set-up. Now the first plot you get isn’t as big as you can get later on, but it is a nice starting place to figure out how the crafting works. In this regard it is very similar to Minecraft in terms of placing and removing voxel blocks. Since there are a bunch of different styles of blocks, you can make your house with whatever pattern, or texture you want it to be. And by walking through the village I saw really good looking houses in all sorts of different styles. And I also saw the notorious block shaped Minecraft houses, and this game does definitely remind me a lot of it.

Except it has less; a lot less. Besides the hunting of monsters, walking endlessly into any direction without finding an actual thing, and the crafting of buildings, the game doesn’t really have anything else to keep you busy. After several hours of playing I had seen it all. I had used a bow to kill a chicken, I have used a sword to kill the same chicken except in a different color, and a staff to shoot a third colored chicken. All while walking in one direction, coming across different biomes that do not really add anything new to the game except give you different blocks to build with. The game tries to bring the community together by placing everyone next to each other in the starting zone. Sure you can group up to have an adventure together, but unfortunately this is where it basically stops, since there isn’t anything you can do besides running, endless running.

State of the Beta: Poor

The game right now is very empty. There isn’t a lot to it, but it does have an interesting concept and I can see why it appeals to people. To me, not so much. Angeldust is a great game for the younglings to find out what games are all about, what you can do with your imagination alone, and that there is danger behind the walls of the ‘village.’ In this game they will be able to find other players to talk and play with, and I think it’s a nice introduction to gaming in general. But if you are looking for a solid experience like Minecraft, where there’s more to it than just running and building silly things, then Angeldust in its current state isn’t the game for you.

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