In its current state, TUG offers three different game types; Creative, Survival and the arena-based Proving Grounds mode. In addition to this trio of modes, there are a number of thematically different biomes for players to ply their creative craft in as well, ranging from desert and dense forest environments through to haunted woods and frigid, snow-capped expanses.
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| As well as other features, a third-person view is in the works for the game |
Of the three modes, Creative is the one that will speak the loudest to the Minecraft faithful as it permits the player to roam the world with their seedling, moulding the environment to their choosing and constructing buildings out of an infinite quantity of many different materials.
Like Minecraft before it, every area which is generated within TUG is procedural, meaning that each time the player creates a new world, that world is as unique from the last as it will be from the one which follows it. Though the worlds themselves currently lack the awe-inspiring dimensions of Minecraft, TUG's realms nevertheless abound with a sort of twee beauty and charm; employing smooth and vibrantly colourful voxels in lieu of the rough and now iconic low-res textures seen in Mojang's money printing machine.
Elsewhere Proving Grounds, as you may well have gathered from the earlier description, is arguably the most 'no-frills' mode of the lot. Simply, players wonder TUG's procedurally generated worlds and attempt to stave each other's faces in with whatever fashioned weapons come to hand. It is isn't especially compelling, nor particularly satisfying at this stage truth be told, but the likely future inclusion of additional weapons, environment types and other features could be the key to making this mode feel a little less like the afterthought that it currently does.
Clearly though, the bulk of TUG's ambition that will distinguish it in all those pesky Minecraft comparisons to come, lies in the game's Survival mode. Or, at least it will, anyway. You see, in the current alpha build, Survival mode is mostly a lonely experience as there are no NPC's or CPU controlled foes and populated multiplayer servers can prove difficult to come across.
Instead, Survival mode is more about plodding about the place, exploring and scavenging the landscape rather than building defences to fend off unwelcome folk. Sure enough, there is joy to be had in combining materials to make your first tool but clearly Survival mode, like the rest of the game, is an extremely early work in progress.
Looking to the future however, it's not difficult to be excited by the potential of some brilliantly emergent moments in TUG's survival mode. Indeed, visions abound of players using the terrain to their advantage, hiding in the bushes, building fortresses and outlasting their foes with starvation tactics.
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| TUG's vivid environments flourish with colour and charm even at this early stage |
In regards to the alpha client however, such potential is yet to be properly realised owing to the early nature of the code. Specifically, while multiplayer is present, it appears to be unreliable with server disconnects and TUG itself frequently throwing up non-responsive errors which cause the game to close.
When multiplayer games did finally get under way however, TUG had a thing for disconnecting me from a number of different servers quite often. A shame really, as clearly the game was doing it to preserve the lives of the other players within the world.
There are some other niggles that currently exist which need to be ironed out as the game matures through its development. One that stands out especially, is that not all keys and functions are able to be redefined. For example, the shift key allows players to force their seedling to sprint but there is no way to reassign this to a different key (or mouse button) to avoid all that wrist-cramping RSI business.
Another problem with this early build is that the control layout fails to explain the key inputs required to craft and combine items; something which I later discovered through extra-curricular research and not from the game itself.
As well as the aforementioned issues, TUG is subject to the usual raft of unoptimised frame-rates and instant crashes that one might expect from such an early alpha build. Yet despite such technical blemishes, TUG remains aesthetically attractive for one so early on in its development.
Ultimately, while TUG's development clearly has a way to go, it's difficult to deny the gleeful ambition that simmers just beneath those rough edges and the currently bare bones feature set.
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| TUG offers a selection of markedly different biomes for players to inhabit |
Perhaps more notably, instead of being the next Minecraft, NerdKingdom's game is simply seeking to be the first TUG. Ostensibly, based on the evidence of its plucky ambitions, that looks like it'll be a good thing if the game can deliver on its substantial and lofty ambitions.
Currently on Alpha version 0.6.2, TUG has quite a way to go yet until it's ready for release. At the moment, TUG is slated for release in January 2015. Right now though, players can get stuck into the early access Alpha on Steam for the current price of £6.99 ($9.99).
Most Anticipated Feature: Should the survival mode live up to its considerable potential, then TUG could be that brutally entertaining, multiplayer Hunger Games style affair that we've all been dreaming of.
