With the ability to be creative while bringing your friends along for the ride, Minecraft has been nothing short of a sensation. However, being a 'make your own fun' kind of title, I personally never got too deep into the mix. So what if you can build a cavern in the side of a volcano with a cart-rail to take you in an out whenever you please? Cool as it may seem, there isn't a point to the creativity and that's why Infernum's Brick-Force interests me more than Minecraft ever could.

Brick-Force interview

           

Obviously inspired by Minecraft, Brick-Force hopes to take creativity and user generated content to the next level. Instead of throwing people into a virtual sandbox and letting them run wild doing whatever, Brick-Force contains goals and objectives in an open-world environment with first-person shooter mechanics. Sound confusing? Let me share the addictive grasp Infernum's title has hold of me.

Don't you build that block. I'm warning you.

Brick-Force is everything Minecraft is and more. The sandbox mode where you run around and build whatever, wherever still exists but the main point is to build something you and others can play/fight on. For instance, there are modes like Defense which require you to defend against waves of monsters. The game makes you create the level, the monster spawns, the points where they need to get to, everything; it's all under your control. You can also obtain different weapons, upgrades and your character can be fully customised. Pretty awesome sounding right? Did I mention I was crowned the E3 champion of Defense mode? Yeah, that totally happened.

My favourite mode I played was something called Build & Destroy, which pits two teams of eight on a completely blank plane divided by an impenetrable barrier. Once the match begins, both teams have two minutes and forty seconds to build whatever they can before the barrier is lifted and the fighting breaks out. We were building traps, sniper towers and labyrinths to try confuse the opposition. Matthew Rider of Infernum was actually taking blocks out of the foundation so people who weren't watching closely would fall to their death. It was a ton of fun and is something you definitely won't ever see in Minecraft.

Damn, I gave them too much cover.

By creating content, the active community of Brick-Force is able to rate the content and you can reap the rewards. While I didn't have a firm grasp on how exactly everything is earned, you can grab new items to decorate your characters, weapons, etc. With these kinds of options, it's what I always wanted Minecraft to be.

Currently in beta, Brick-Force is slated to go into open beta in the coming weeks and, perhaps, fully release within months. It's a charming game that anybody can get into and I highly recommend giving it a shot before you automatically assume Minecraft's superiority.