Miner's Mettle

Today I am finally talking about Miner's Mettle. This is a real time strategy game that has a fantastic premise and setting. The game was released in early access a little while ago, but I held of jumping in as I heard really mixed things about the amount of content and how the game actually runs. Well, fast forward many, many months and my curiosity got the better of me when it popped up on Steam again so I thought I would finally take the plunge and see what it was all about for myself.

Rich With Resources And Death!

I have to say that I get some Dune vibes from the setting and plot of Miner's Mettle, well a little bit of Dune vibes! The story of the game takes place on a planet that is not hospitable, but there are an abundance of valuable resources on here.

Four factions are fighting it out to take control and get all of the resources for themselves. The main thing they all want is Pentum which is this material that is so valuable, they are willing to kill in order to make sure they get the most of it!

Finding What You Need

The first part of the gameplay I want to talk about is where the strategy really comes into play in Miner's Mettle. You will have to try and find these mineral deposits that are all over the planet. With these, you can greatly expand your operation and give yourself a leg up over the other factions. The thing is, finding these valuable resources and then getting them back so you can develop them into new technologies and make the most of what you have found are two very different parts of the game!

Keep The Train About 50MPH!

A Speed reference for you, man that was an awesome 90s action flick! Anyway, the part of Miner's Mettle that I enjoyed the most was the more action-oriented aspect of it. You move around the planet on these artillery loaded trains. These are what allow you to get around to new resource heavy areas, but they are also how you fight other factions. You can try and just keep to yourself and use them as a manner of defense. Or, you can just go for it and try and crush the other factions! Controlling these trains and improving them was something I found to be a great deal of fun.

The Red Planet

I love the visual style of Miner's Mettle and think that from a presentational point of view the game is very well done. Like the story, I do get some Dune vibes with the way the game looks, well apart from the lack of sandworms of course. This red planet is very well detailed and the trains look cool and the fire and explosion effects help keep things interesting and raise the stakes when you are trying to transport your valuable resources!

I have to say that I think there are some excellent ideas with Miner's Mettle. I really got invested in the idea of the story here and think that the visuals are great. I also liked how you have two very different styles of gameplay.

The more tactics-based part of finding and mining resources and then the action, artillery sections where you fight with your train. While the game has progressed fairly far since the less than great early access launch there are still some issues that prevent this from being a must play. Most notably is the barrier to entry.

Pros:

• I liked the idea of the story
• There is a lot of strategy at play here in regards to finding and mining resources
• I liked fighting with trains
• While I only played the single-player, multiplayer is also on offer

Cons:

• The game does not explain how to play it very well at all
• It did crash on me quite a few times and it was rather buggy