About Block Defense Alpha:
I originally bought this game while it was still in Early Access, long before it went to the pay model it adopted on release. And to be honest, I’d already uninstalled it before release because it was already a fairly tedious game not improved by the odd loading limitations of the world chunks. I can’t say I was enthused when I heard about the new pay model, but as the devs claimed the game was fully playable without, I thought I’d give it a fair chance. One thing I will give them: the world looks much better now that it’s loading larger chunks, or else loading them faster. And the topography of the world section I’ve been playing in is much more realistic, whereas it used to just climb off into Escheresque directions at random. Water physics is still confusing, where you think you’re going to float, and sometimes you do, and sometimes you end up at the bottom of a ravine. As to whether the game is playable without pouring cash into it…well, that depends. Do you have a high threshold for tedium? Because this has not changed. To be fair, it hasn’t changed one single bit–as far as I can tell, they haven’t slowed down any of the processes from what I remember. It’s just that it’s exactly as bad as I remember. Your tools last practically no time at all, whether they’re constructed of stone or iron. The higher the tier, the faster it goes, but pretty soon you feel like you’re spending all your time mining just to replace your tools so you can mine some more to replace your tools. The dragon is cute and quite useful in the outset, but I already feel like I’m going to be spending all the time I’m not mining trying to keep it fed.
