[Editor's Note: One of the great things that sets PC gaming apart from consoles - wonderful as console gaming is - is modding. With the introduction of Steam Workshop and more and more developers happily providing the same tools to players that were used to craft the original game, hundreds of games have enjoyed a lifespan far beyond what could originally be expected from the main game. Whether it's Skyrim, Portal or Minecraft, many players embrace the opportunity to bend their favorite games to their will in order to create something truly unique which stands out from the game which spawned it.
As such, from time to time we'll be highlighting some of the best in a new semi-regular feature we're calling, simply, Mod Spotlight. For the first article in the series, our resident Minecraft addict Oliver McQuitty chooses Dwarves vs Zombies, an imaginative mod that completely transforms Minecraft into a competitive battle for survival against the ravenous undead.]
If you’ve ever had the joy of watching one of the ‘Mindcrack‘ YouTuber’s videos, then by now you’ll probably have heard of the PlayMindcrack server. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Mindcrack group, they’re simply an ever-growing collection of well-known YouTubers who play together on a Minecraft server in a variety of ways.
After several years of the group being together, their founder, GuudeBoulderfist, decided to create a community server filled with minigames and fun things to do with other fans, becoming the PlayMindcrack server. As part of this new server, PlayMindcrack merged with Robert Moran a.k.a Bruce Willakers’ server to bring the already hugely popular Dwarves vs Zombies game onto the new server.
So what is Dwarves vs Zombies actually about?
It’s a similar concept to Plants vs Zombies, in that you have an attacking team going against a defending team. The dwarves’ duty is to build up their defenses to protect three shrines before the monsters are released. The shrines can be found at intervals throughout each map with the first of them being in the courtyard, the second inside the castle, and the third usually deep underground or further back in the castle. The goal of the attacking monsters (zombies, skeletons and creepers) is to kill as many of the defending dwarves as possible, to convert them into monsters and destroy the shrines.
Now, it may seem like a fairly simple concept at this point, but the game goes far deeper than this initial premise. Each monster is equipped with a skill tree that can be unlocked with mana (disguised as the XP bar) which you accumulate by simply being in-game, but also for killing other players and destroying shrines.
These skills take almost the entirety of the game to unlock to their maximum level, including some end-game skills specific to different monsters. Not only this, but occasionally the opportunity to select a special monster will arise. These special monsters can be anything from super creepers, iron golems, or worthless squid; and yes the squid are completely useless. This essentially means that you’re encouraged to keep playing, and the skill tree becomes more addictive the more powerful you get. The skills themselves include the ability to leap across several blocks, respawn where you died, to shooting poisonous arrows, or gaining a massive speed boost before blowing yourself up, along with anything nearby
On the defensive side, you aren’t immediately blessed with every piece of equipment you’ll need - this is Minecraft after all, so you actually have to craft it. You can chop down trees for wood which you can then be turned into sticks for torches, or bowls for mortar. Torches are essential - when nightfall comes and you aren’t in an area that is lit up, visibility is reduced to just a few blocks around you. Mortar, meanwhile, allows you to reinforce blocks around you, making them more difficult to be broken by the monsters. You can also go down into the quarry and mine to collect cobblestone for wall construction, or precious gold to take back to the blacksmiths room to turn it into armor. The same applies for the bow which requires you to wait while arrows are slowly crafted into your inventory.
When it comes to the fighting, the dwarves are far from being under-powered. Not only do they have a Healing Ale which regenerates their health based on the mana they have (which yes, can run out and leave you in an awkward predicament) but they also have various heroes fighting alongside them, who have to be selected before the game starts. These heroes each have special abilities that in all honesty, kick ass. These can be anything from the Horn - which gives a speed and health boost to every dwarf - to an ability which pulls any monster nearby into a single point in the air from which they can’t escape. Heroes will most likely last the longer as they have more health and better weaponry than regular dwarves, but they also tend to be better players on the whole too.
If you thought this is all the game has to offer, you’d be wrong. Outside of the game there are four merchants in the lobby which will sell goods to you as well as even more upgrades for the dwarves. They can also upgrade armor and weapons to give them powerful new abilities, like health regeneration and higher chances of loot drops.
Okay, you’re asking, now are you finished?
Actually, no. There’s one more thing. If you have the gracious opportunity to play along side the real Bruce Willakers, he’ll be able to trigger special events which are exhilarating to experience, such as a dragon that can completely ruin your day if you get hit.
What is absolutely incredible about Dwarves vs Zombies is that no matter how many times you play it, you’ll always be striving towards a goal; whether it be buying a new upgrade or getting a new personal record, there’s always something to aim for. The mod even provides you with a custom resource pack which installs itself immediately to change the way the objects look, to make the game even more immersive. It’s actually refreshing to play a game mode mod in Minecraft which isn’t an exact copy of another game mode found in Garry’s Mod or another game.
Kudos to the PlayMindcrack team and Bruce Willakers for having developed this mod, and for continuing to add to it with more and more features and maps to make sure that users are constantly hooked to it. And be sure to keep an eye out for a guy with the username OliverFrenchie if you do happen to go on the Dwarves vs Zombies servers, because I’m utterly hooked.
If you want to know more about Dwarves vs Zombies or the PlayMindcrack server, click here.
Oliver McQuitty
@oliverfrenchie
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