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Minimum, from Human Head studios, is an experimental third-person shooter which incorporates elements of MOBAs such as DotA 2 or League of Legends into its gameplay. The game boasts a minimal art style of simplistic, blocky environments and polygonal character models, implying a prioritisation of gameplay over superficial graphical splendour. While this emphasis on mechanics over visual extravagance is laudable, such a focus makes its inadequacies and flaws all the more noticeable.

 Titan mode, the game’s primary mode, is structured around the style of a MOBA, with a few important twists. In a MOBA one plays on a team of 5 powerful heroes who guide an army of weaker “minions” down a number of paths, overcoming obstacles and the opposing team with the goal of reaching the enemy base. In Minimum there is a single route, down which each team sends a lone Titan, a massive robot functioning similarly to the minions of typical MOBAs. The teams consist of 6 players a side, each playing similarly to a standard shooter. Matches are briefer than the standard MOBA, with the shooter mechanics offering a more intuitive and approachable gameplay experience. With ludicrous weapons and fast-paced combat, Minimum’s gameplay is a massive departure from the punishing difficulty and intense stakes of standard MOBA fare.

However, this blend comes with a set of issues, primarily in the levelling system. Typically, MOBAs are designed around killing lower-level monsters, and occasionally, other players over the course of the game in order to gain experience points for your hero. Because of this, by the end of the game each team should be far more powerful than they were at the start. Minimum borrows this mechanic in its weapon system, in which weapons start off weak but are upgraded by killing enemy players or structures. Death is relatively avoidable in MOBAs, and higher level players would grow accustomed to ritually avoiding dangerous situations. But the shooter-style which Minimum bases itself on, with low health bars and the potential for sudden, unexpected death, cheapens this fundamental gameplay aspect of MOBAs. As a result, weaker players can be preyed upon in order to gain imbalanced benefits. This can give a more manipulative team a significant advantage from early on, making the game less fair, less fun, and less inviting for less experienced players. Another negative result of this iffy combination of MOBA and shooter is the matchmaking system. Rather than waiting for a full team before beginning a match, Minimum allows the game to begin regardless of numbers, allowing players to drop in and out as they wish. Empty slots are filled by useless AI characters who, given the aforementioned benefits to be gained from hunting down weaker players, often simply serve as fodder for the enemy team.

Adding to these fundamental issues is the fact that Minimum, like many other games fresh off Early-Access release models, isn’t really finished yet. Bugs are common and many weapons and features are advertised as “coming soon”. Paired with the unresolved issues of merging MOBAs and shooters, the game overall feels incomplete and imperfect. While its ambition cannot be denied, Minimum’s execution fails to live up to the standards of either of the genres it attempts to fuse.