PN Review: Stone Shire

Explore a world from top to bottom with your pickaxe in hand – or even two, thanks to a nice dual wielding option.  Stone Shire gets the exploration down, but I would hardly call this ‘setting out on an adventure’.  This Minecraft clone from Finger Gun Games is an unfinished product.

There’s really only so much you can do in Stone Shire.  The world – choose between grass, snow, and desert settings – is of a modest size.  It is also pretty lifeless, with no creatures to interact with or even just wandering about.  Part of that may stem from the fact that the game has no out-and-out survival mode at present – it feels like experiencing just half the game!  Is the ‘creative’ mode strong enough to stand on its own?

In a word, no.  For one, the controls need more attention.  You’ll be jumping steadily, as you can’t walk over any blocks.  But the jumping is stiff, allowing for no directional influence when in mid air.  Clunky and imprecise, its implementation annoys more than not.  Flying is unfortunately missing, and its absence annoys as well – how did such a control staple get neglected?  I’ve also been spoiled since playing Cube Creator 3D, which has a flat level for complete creative authority.  Given the control struggles here a comparable mode would’ve gone a long way, even more so since creation is the singular focus.  The fantasy twist receives no development either.  It’s not a complete surprise given the absence of a proper survival mode, but its omission might disappoint some.

When it comes to graphics, this is certainly no emulation of Minecraft.  Stone Shire has more of a cartoony look, with fewer details.  Several expected visual touches also fail to appear.  The sky is completely empty, which just adds to the unfinished vibe.  Day and night cycles are non-existent and greatly missed.  Water is nowhere to be found, even though several water physics vids were shared by the developers – the original trailer even showed off water!  And the material you mine does not automatically go in your inventory, but instead pops up as icons to be collected.  This can seriously clutter the screen once you are a few hours in, especially as your lone craftable item (pickaxes) never need replacing.  It’s an ugly result of a curious decision.

Really the worst thing about Stone Shire’s visuals though is the draw distance.  Scenery fades in pretty bad, and it’s even worse considering how slow your movement is.  When standing high in the treetops or hills to survey your world, the grandeur takes a big hit when all you see through the fog are half drawn images and empty space!

I was looking forward to a nice atmospheric soundtrack, but Stone Shire disappoints there as well.  The title screen plays a tune, and there are tiny compositions that chime in once in a blue moon, but very little else.  The approach is so minimalistic it barely registers!  The launch trailer plays mysterious music through its duration, so its disingenuous when the game is this quiet the vast majority of the time.

I’ve been mostly negative on Stone Shire up to this point and deservedly so,  but it does do certain things effectively.  It’s fairly intuitive for one, as your rate of progress ( for the most part) depends on your own ingenuity.  It has five save slots too, which means you can have a world for every terrain going simultaneously, or a slot for each member of the family.  Speaking of families, Stone Shire is a very family friendly game, with no violence of any kind – the ESRB 10+ rating reflects content which simply does not exist at present.  And, in spite of all the ways the game comes up well short, I admit to sinking quite a bit of time into it.  How long that will continue after this review posts remains to be seen, but I’ve certainly been kept occupied.

It’s worth noting that Finger Gun Games is promising a sizable update to the game.  The bulk of my criticisms will allegedly be addressed, including but not limited to the enabling of flying, day and night transitions, creatures to run into, increased draw distance, larger map sizes,  and more music to listen to.  Presuming it comes out in a timely fashion (many don’t) I’ll gladly revisit the game, but updates really only work for me if the present game is fun from the outset.  With so many incomplete or missing features, fun is in limited supply right now.  These are the sorts of elements that should’ve been put in effect before the game was released, as most will understandably expect them right away.  Who knows what a few more months of development would’ve done.

Stone Shire has a captive audience on Wii U at the moment, but that window is closing fast.  Cube Life and U Craft are both nipping at its heels.  It’ll find some limited success I’m sure, but broad appeal will be hard if not impossible to pull off due to all the areas it’s lacking.  The sizable weaknesses and especially the unfinished feel are hard for me to get past.  At $7.99 (and set to go even higher!) do the content and quality of Stone Shire justify a purchase?  Probably only for very eager fans, ones that don’t have a 3DS to play Battleminer or Cube Creator.  Most would do better to wait for a sale, or ideally the update.  I hope it arrives sooner rather than later.