Not for the first time in Minecraft, a player stands on the roof of a custom-built building and surveys his surroundings. But everything else has changed: his view is filled with double-jumping opponents, and his ears with a cacophony of cannon fire.
The player checks his UI. The time has come to call down a golem. As he gives the command, an iron man tumbles from the sky, smashing through a nearby skylight. It sits patiently in the ruined house, awaiting his command.
This in Ironfall: an ambitious, evidently Titanfall-inspired mod for Minecraft.
Wall running is out of the question for now – it’s “coming soon” – but plenty else has been ported into the game in convincing fashion. Teams of eight players can double jump, fire a variety of guns, and hop in and out of golems in an Attrition-like deathmatch mode. Ironfall’s single map, too, is based on Titanfall’s own Rise. Others are already in the works.
By restricting the number of golems per side to four, the mod’s dev team seem to have hit upon some semblance of balance. Points are gained for killing enemy ‘pilots’ and ‘titans’, up to a total of 100 – at which point the match ends.
“When we saw Titanfall, we knew right away that we would have to try and remake it, to the best of our abilities, in Minecraft,” wrote Ironfall’s makers. “If you call your Golem in while under a glass roof the Golem will smash through into the building below. Just a fun little effect that we wanted to include from the start.”
Golem types and more game modes are on their way – and the mod is already spectacularly popular. Seems like a great way to graduate from Hunger Games maps, no?
Ta, OXM.