Are you contemplating whether to plunge into the realm of the Coal Mining Simulator? To help you determine whether this gaming adventure is worth your time, we’ve dived into the coal dust and extracted a thorough analysis of this gaming title.
The Game’s Premise
Coal Mining Simulator beckons you into a world where you commence with practically nothing and rise to the pinnacle. Develop your mine, sell coal, invest in new machinery, and dodge calamities like your rogue excavator suddenly going haywire and trying to take you down.
Taking charge of an array of mining machines, your mission involves decimating mines, drilling, transporting, and causing spectacular explosions. Now, wouldn’t we all love to detonate this game and watch it shatter into pieces? Unfortunately, reality tends to fall short of expectations, as we soon discovered.
Gameplay Loop and Experience
As a seasoned gamer, I’ve sampled an array of titles throughout the week, typically only reviewing those that pique my interest. However, for Coal Mining Simulator, I chose a different approach. The rationale behind dedicating three hours of my time to this game was simple – to push past the initial stage. This turned out to be one of the most monotonous experiences I’ve ever encountered in a game.
The game loop was quite straightforward – board a drilling machine, drive to a wall, turn it on, hop off, load coal into your truck, reverse it, switch off the engine, connect the truck, sprint back to the drilling machine, press a sequence of keys and waggle the drilling machine until the truck is full to the brim with coal. Once accomplished, switch off the machine, return to the truck, drive it to a conveyor belt, line it up, press the connect button, unload the coal on the conveyor belt, and repeat this process until, presumably, you’ve accumulated a wealth of coal.
A key component of the game is managing the ‘excavator from hell.’ This seemingly possessed machine presents a thrilling, if not frustrating, challenge. It’s superbly animated and operates smoothly with your keyboard commands. However, it’s over-simplified to the point where the coal loading process defies the laws of physics.
Unexplained Disappearances
One of the intriguing, and somewhat frustrating, aspects of the game is the unexplained disappearance of your coal heaps. You could have a considerable pile of coal one moment, and the next, it’s gone, as though thieved by invisible miscreants.
A Journey to Nowhere
Before you can progress to planting explosives in the walls with your newly purchased drill machine, you must first embark on a journey in a car that’s almost impossible to control. The car tends to go into a spin at the slightest turn of the wheel, making a seemingly straightforward journey a taxing endeavor.
Your destination is a shop situated across desolate landscapes and empty roads, where no signs of life exist – a post-apocalyptic scene. The shop is a grimy warehouse where you can purchase equipment, an element of the game that provides a touch of realism.
Progressing Through the Game
Upon acquiring your dynamite, you’re granted the privilege to blow up the walls in your mine. This is followed by scooping up the resulting coal (which still defies gravity) and dumping it onto a conveyor belt.
This process continues until you’ve amassed enough money to buy a machine worth 150,000 in the game’s currency, which signifies a shift in the gameplay. However, the grind required to reach this stage is enough to deter even the most patient players.
Final Thoughts
To conclude, Coal Mining Simulator seems to offer an intriguing premise at first glance but falls short in terms of gameplay.
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