Thank you Jagex for sending us a beta access key!

Jagex has a checkered past with Ace of Spades frustrating their customers with bugs, unbalanced gameplay and Runescape's pay to win offerings.   Block N Load has promise, but it also has some flaws that hopefully get fixed as the fate of this game depends on it.  

Block N Load is a massive multiplayer game where you have to defend your base and destroy your opponent's.  Minecraft users will feel at home  with Block N Load's destructible terrain that lets you build, dig or catapult yourself to the enemy's base.  It's also like Team Fortress 2 with the character classes that have unique abilities, weapons, and stats.  

There are six character classes and here's a breakdown of each of their abilities:

• "Sarge" Stone - Machine gun and Rocket Launcher weapons, has access to frag grenades, charge blocks, and can regenerate health when standing still
• O.P. Juan Shinobi - Katana and Ninja Star weapons, has access to bombs and teleporting shrines, and can run on walls while sprinting
• Nigel Purdey - Longshot - Rifle and Revolver weapons, has access to Tiki Heads that shoot dizzy darts, and can reload twice as fast after a successful kill
• "Tony" Turretto - Rivet to attack and caulk gun to repair, has access to turrets and can buff them and nearby allies
• Cogwheel - Rotary Canon and can deploy sprocket canons that can detonate remotely
• "Doc" Eliza Doolally - Uses a Globe gun that fires corrosive acid, has access to chem grenades, miasma mines, and leaves behind a poisonous gas cloud when killed

Each character has different stats when it comes to toughness, mobility, and complexity.  I liked Cogwheel's strength and firepower, but he was slow moving.  Holding down the shift key solved that little downfall.    Nigel's reloading speed is slow, but he can use his revolver in a pinch.  The characters are pretty well balanced and improve as they level up.  

 I recommend checking out all of the players in the Friendly mode to see which one suits you the best.  The Ranked mode requires your character to be level 20 and you cannot switch them out so choose carefully.  Before you join a Ranked server, you have to have twenty Friendly matches under your belt.  

Joining the Friendly games has an average waiting queue time of a minute and a half.  Ten players have to join in (five on each side) before a match can start.  Once a match is started you get to pick your character, skin, and equipment.  After you confirm your settings or "Block in", you cannot undo them until the next match.  

When everybody is blocked in, the match will begin in a timed building mode where you can build up your defenses.  Depending on the map there are between one and three cubes to defend so make sure they are all defended.  Once the building phase is over, the barrier is lifted and you can attack the enemy's base by digging, tunneling, swimming or catapulting to it.  The enemies will be able to see your shadow when you get close so it's hard to truly hide your intentions. 

If you have a good team, this game can be a blast.  If you don't there's not much you can do about it.  There's no way to kick players and there are trolls that exploit this loophole.  Trolls will join a game and do absolutely nothing, thus weakening your team.  While there are penalties for leaving a game, there are no repercussions for not participating whatsoever.  Until this gets addressed you may want to stick to playing this game with people you trust.

As with many online games with the ability to text, you may run across some salty language in your online adventure.      There is some language in the game itself include the word *ss and derogatory terms like pecker head.  While there is violence, I don't recall seeing much gore.

While Block N Load is not rated by the ESRB, I would estimate it would receive a Teen rating.  The pre-order price is $19.99 and comes with Ace of Spades, while that's not a bad deal, I would wait for troll measures to be implemented before parting with my money.    The retail price is set at $29.99, let's hope that Jagex makes it worth it.