With that being said, I doubt that future generations will look back fondly with a twinkle in their eye and ask, “Do you remember Block N Load?” Developed in the Unity engine, the most popular and apt description of Block N Load is that the game is effectively just a mix of Minecraft and Team Fortress 2. But that’s not quite right, Block N Load feels more like the leftover remains of a head on collision involving Minecraft and Team Fortress 2 assets on an autobahn. Messy and scattered.

The general idea of Block N Load is two teams of five players duke it out in arenas constructed out of blocks, fighting for dominance whilst trying to destroy the other teams’ Cube, which is literally just a big cube. There are other game modes, but they’re all very run of the mill.

"You’re encouraged to build defenses for your team, dig pit fall traps lined with turrets, trench lines (that only serve to leave you open to headshots or trap you with explosives) and help out by deploying teleporters, but as mentioned above, nobody seems to care about these options and most would rather run on ahead and go solo."

One of the main aspects of the game seems to be the one thing that nobody cares about, and I found myself ignoring it too, the building mechanics. Each player in the game has a set of block types that they can place in the world by building them, they allow the construction of staircases and bridges, walls and the like. They even include special blocks, like team assisting turrets, useful bounce pads for reaching hard to reach areas, bombs and teleportation devices etc.

You would think these would be put to good use, but when the other players are more interested in fragging your entire team, then the focus on building quickly fades away and is replaced with gunplay.

You’re encouraged to build defenses for your team, dig pit fall traps lined with turrets, trench lines (that only serve to leave you open to headshots or trap you with explosives) and help out by deploying teleporters, but as mentioned above, nobody seems to care about these options and most would rather run on ahead and go solo.

The above mentioned building mechanics are all functional and do exactly what it says on the tin, but it just feels like so much unneeded chaff. Had building been incorporated into the game at a more fundamentally core level, like actually needing to construct your base to protect your cube, then it may have worked better and forced players down a more cooperative path, but as it stands, it’s fairly uninspired.

"Visually, I quite like the game's overall aesthetic. Unlike so many other games on the market at the minute, it’s packed with the colour and charm that seems to remain exclusive to the independent developer scene."

Players are asked to choose between one of six pre built classes of Hero. This is where the Team Fortress 2 comparisons come into play. There’s Sarge Stone, Juan Shinobi, Nigel Purdy-Longshott, Antony Tony Turretto (my personal favourite name in the game), Cogwheel and Doc Eliza Doolally. Each character’s name reflects their in-game attributes, with Mr Longshoot unsurprisingly rocking a sniper rifle and Sarge Stone carrying the machine guns and rocket launcher. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just not very original.

Visually, I quite like the game’s overall aesthetic. Unlike so many other games on the market at the minute, it’s packed with the colour and charm that seems to remain exclusive to the independent developer scene. All the weapons have a certain bulk to them that makes it all feel somewhat cartoonish whilst retaining the feel of, “Yep, that’s definitely a gun.” The most visually striking members of the cast would definitely be Cogwheel and Doc Eliza Doolally, both of which are vibrant and enjoyable characters.

From a sound design point of view, there’s nothing particularly remarkable, nor is there anything particularly bad. Despite the odd stuttering of sound effects or overlaying of sounds that meld into a cacophony of indecipherable noise, everything sounds as you would expect it to. Nice and cartoony, but clearly distinguishable as what it’s supposed to be.

"With all things being considered, Block N Load isn't an overtly offensive game. It’s a mostly functional, colourful and somewhat enjoyable first person shooter mired by its flaws."

Control wise, things get a little bit messy. Like everything else mentioned above, it works, but it just doesn’t work too well. In general, the controls feel far too floaty and out of synch with the gameplay. For a first person shooter, the relationship between player input and character reaction is key, but Block N Load feels as though every movement is a DOOM-era rocket skip. Precision platforming goes out the window if you try to sprint and the strange, “hold shift and tap forward” to mantle mechanic, if you can call it that, results in more jumps into the void than it does successful climbs. Beyond that, the control scheme is fairly normal, which is a good thing.

With all things being considered, Block N Load isn’t an overtly offensive game. It’s a mostly functional, colourful and somewhat enjoyable first person shooter mired by its flaws. The fun comes in short waves amid staggeringly deep valleys of repetition and paint by numbers gameplay that has been done better elsewhere. Ironically, Block N Load feels like a underwhelming sequel to a previous Jagex game, Ace of Spades which was, you guessed it, a first person shooter with building mechanics and a PvP focus. Fancy that.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

Point is, it works. If you asked me to sum up Block N Load in one sentence, I’d probably say, “Imagine if Minecraft and Team Fortress 2 had a baby,” and leave it at that. Some people might say that that’s reductionist, but it’s really not. In fact, it’s probably the most accurate description I could give you of the game, as everything in it, from the art style, the humor, the game mechanics, the menus, the individual textured cubes that you can break and build, and even the game’s font borrows from either Team Fortress 2 or Minecraft in some way.

"The premise of Block N Load is pretty simple. Like Team Fortress, the game is a class-based shooter with an emphasis on objectives scattered around the map. Teams consist of five players, who are tasked with destroying the Generator Cube that powers the other team’s base."

The premise of Block N Load is pretty simple. Like Team Fortress, the game is a class-based shooter with an emphasis on objectives scattered around the map. Teams consist of five players, who are tasked with destroying the Generator Cube that powers the other team’s base. The wrinkle, however, is that, like Minecraft, the game world is made up of many interconnected blocks that you can create and destroy. Each team is given five minutes at the beginning of each match to build defenses and modify the game world around and under their base. You can select five different blocks at the beginning of each match, each of which has a different effect,  before the game starts, in addition to a sixth block that’s assigned to you based on your character class.

How you build is up to you. You wanna start digging a tunnel straight to the enemy base? Go for it. Maybe you’d rather make a pit to trap your enemies using blocks that break when stepped on. Or perhaps you’d rather spend your block spots on special items, like defensive turrets, radar dishes, or respawn points. The choice is yours, and they’re among the most important you’ll make in the game. Of course, you could choose not to do this, but the game puts an impenetrable curtain between the two bases while the teams make their respective preparations, so you really don’t have much choice. Indeed, half the fun comes from constructing your diabolical defenses and then sauntering over to the other team’s base to see what they’ve been up to once the curtain falls.

Once that happens, it’s chaos, as everyone splits off to attack the problem of the enemy Generator Cube alone or in small groups. Just like how you build your base, how you attack the objectives are up to you. Some players will inevitably stay back and play defense. Other people like to build a series of speed block followed by a jump block in an attempt to vault over the enemy’s walls, while folks like me like to try our luck digging, hoping to tunnel to the promised land. Pretty soon, the map is a ruined landscape of tragic experiments and grand plans gone wrong.

"There are six classes in all, and each fills the typical assault/defense/support roles that these kind of games thrive on, and while none of them do anything new, they are fairly fun to play, and Block N Load does has a good, if pretty crude, sense of humor."

Of course, the class you play as will have a pretty large impact on how you approach any situation. They’re all pretty standard fare, based on pretty standard archetypes. There’s Nigel Purdy-Longshott, a gentlemanly big game hunter who wields a long range, high powered rifle, Juan Shinobi, a Mexican ninja who eschews guns in order to excel at close range combat, and Cogwheel, a large, evil robot who acts as your tank. And is a large, evil robot. I don’t know if I mentioned that.

There are six classes in all, and each fills the typical assault/defense/support roles that these kind of games thrive on, and while none of them do anything new, they are fairly fun to play, and Block N Load does has a good, if pretty crude, sense of humor. Tony Turretto, the Italian foreman who is Block N Load’s equivalent of the Engineer, can place turrets, and repairs them by shooting sticky, white sploodge from his glue gun (yes, it’s entirely intentional, and yes, it’s referencing exactly what you think it is), and the game’s announcer often (loudly) asks, “What the Block are you gonna do?”

Yes, Block N Load is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, but the game is fun, derivative nature aside. That said, it does an incredibly poor job of teaching players how to play, and your first few matches will probably consist of little more than you trying to figure out how the heck everything works. This is exacerbated by the fact that you can’t currently change classes in-game (allegedly disabled because of a bug), which means you’re stuck with who you pick at the beginning of the game, even if you realize that you don’t like them about halfway through.

"Still, Block N Load is a lot of fun for those looking for a little more LEGO in their Team Fortress, or wish that Minecraft had more guns and quirky characters."

In addition, respawning takes far too long (up to 20 seconds), and the game’s matches aren’t timed, meaning you’re stuck in one until one team manages to pull off a win, which can take a long time, believe me. The game’s weapons also lack any sense of impact, and everything feels a little too much like the games Block N Load was “inspired by,” so the game never manages to shake that uncomfortable feeling of “been here, played that, and this is kind of stealing from it.”

Still, Block N Load is a lot of fun for those looking for a little more LEGO in their Team Fortress, or wish that Minecraft had more guns and quirky characters. It may not be original, and it definitely need s a few tweaks before it hits the big time, but if you’re looking to build and blast simultaneously, this is a shooter you’ll probably want to keep an eye on.