Genre : Video Game
Publisher: Introversion
Players: 1-4
Retail Price: $25
Availability: PC (Introversion, Steam)
Multiwinia has been one of the most extensively covered games on this site, and with good reason: Introversion has been sending regular, juicy updates to the gaming community. The long awaited multiplayer sequel to Darwinia has finally arrived, and I was anxious to see how the final product turned out.
Explaining exactly what kind of game Multiwinia is can be a challenge. You have a bunch of troops that you order around the map, like an RTS. But then you’re also playing games like King of the Hill and Capture the Statue, like a FPS. The best description I’ve been able to come up with is ‘Action RTS,’ as the game strips out some of the more complicated conventions, like resource mining and unit upgrading, and replaces it with another set of tools. Diehard Starcraft fans will likely say it’s been dumbed down, but if you’re willing to give the game a chance you’ll likely find that it’s fun in entirely different ways.
Your troops — Multiwinians, obviously — come out of spawn points at set intervals (which, in objective games like Assault, are counted down in the top left corner). They key to more troops is capturing more spawn points, which a group of Multiwinians must gather around to control. Selecting troops is done by holding the left mouse button, which creates a circle around a group. Right clicking on the map moves them there, and they’ll automatically fight any enemies they come across or capture any objectives like spawn points or turrets along the way.
You can also right click on an individual Multiwinian to promote them to officer, which lets you either set a waypoint for troops (incredibly useful near a spawn point) or gather them into a formation, which is slower and weak from the sides/back but incredibly strong from the front. Often it’s useful to combine the two: have a formation inside a hill or other strategic area with an officer at a nearby spawn point sending new troops as reinforcements. They aren’t invincible by any means — if you can’t block off your rear it’s much more useful to let your Multiwinians roam freely — but if your opponents aren’t organized, a decent formation can easily wipe them out.
The strategy and diversity in Multiwinia comes from the crates that drop out of the sky. A group of Multiwinians standing around a crate will unlock it, more troops doing so much quicker. Crates contain powerups that can be used by tabbing to them, and come in four general varieties: equipment, like turrets and armour (a quick transport vehicle); powerups, like Rage, which makes your troops in a selected circle much stronger; attacks to launch against your enemies, like an airstrike or nuclear attack; and creatures, my favorite of which being the anthill, which spews ants that attack anything nearby. Creatures especially need to be placed with care, as they’ll attack you as well. A well placed anthill can harass a team for the entire game, though: I once lost a spawn point with an anthill on top, and despite sending all of my troops at it for the rest of the game I was never able to take it back (or do anything else, for that matter). There’s a risk involved with sending too many troops to a crate, however: sometimes they contain a fifth option, something bad for you like a giant spider or an infection that will destroy the Multiwinians you sent. One particularly nasty incident caused a plague outbreak in my base which infected all my new troops.
There are six gametypes in Multiwinia, each with a generous number of two to four player maps. Domination has teams fighting for control of spawn points: control them all, win the game. King of the Hill is, well, king of the hill, though with concentric hills it’s a distinct take on the genre. Likewise, Capture the Statue is like most games’ capture the flag, but your Multiwinians have to carry a statue that’s significantly bigger than they are, so they’re both defenseless and slow moving.
Assault is the only asymmetrical game, with a large number of attacking troops descending on a well-fortified defender’s base, trying to destroy the Weapon of Mass Destruction before the timer runs out. Assault is also the only game in which by default you can play with teams (Domination and King can have this option turned on in the pre-game menu). At first it was hard to tell which green Multiwinians I could control, but once I realized mine were slightly darker it was much easier.
Blitzkrieg is sort of like King of the Hill with objectives: you have to capture your opponent’s flag by staying in a circle long enough to lower it and raise your own, but first you have to control all the flags in between your bases. You have to balance using the troops that took one flag to take the next while still leaving some back to defend it should it be attacked. Three and four player games are particularly fun, as eliminating a player doesn’t end the game.
Rocket Riot is probably the most original gametype in Multiwinia. It comes in two distinct stages: first, you have to capture solar panels to refuel your rocket. Once the rocket is fueled you need to load it with 100 Multiwinians and wait for the 10 second countdown. After you reach 70% fuel, though, your rocket is vulnerable and can be destroyed, forcing you to start over. Capturing the solar panels can be especially tricky, as Multiwinians have to surround the bases to gather the power for your side, meaning that after a fight for the panels you’ll be much shorter on troops than your opponent, leading to back-and-forth throughout much of the game. Here’s a tip: don’t immediately place the turret you’re given at the start of the game by your base. Once your troops reach a contested area, deploy it in a central location for extra backup. It makes your base weaker come blastoff, but is a huge help for collecting fuel.
Players can be eliminated from any game if they lose all their spawn points, but it obviously happens more often in Domination and Blitzkrieg games. By default, these players are periodically given a powerup to use as they see fit. While they won’t be able to win the game, they sure as hell will be able to take petty revenge on whoever eliminated them. What’s this, napalm was just launched into the base of the current leader? Yeah, that’s courtesy of the red team.
The control scheme might take some getting used to, particularly if you’re trying to play Multiwinia like an RTS. Stop that: play Multiwinia like Multiwinia. Once I got a handle on the controls, my only complaint is that a formation — weak except from the front — can only move in a line from its current position. I would have liked a way to rotate it as I walked rather than doing a tack and jibe maneuver. In a nice addition, the 360 controller is fully supported: I have no doubt that it’s not quite as responsive as the WASD method, but coming from a console background it quickly became my preferred control system. The semi-autonomous nature of the Multiwinians means you don’t need to be quite as precise, but then again I’m not planning on entering any tournaments.
Not content to rest on their laurels, Introversion has already planner their first patch, due out in 4-6 weeks. In case the 49 maps included at launch aren’t enough, you’ll soon have access to a map editor. I’m dubious that the fan community will be able to top their crazy map designs, like placing statue capture points next to each other (fugging yellow team, I did the work for that!), but the internet never ceases to amaze me.
I can understand that some people just won’t be into Multiwinia. The game won’t be their cup of tea, and that’s fine (though unfortunate). There’s a demo available, and I’d imagine that it will be clear by the end if you don’t like sending two dimensional creatures to slaughter. If you react to the demo with anything but vehement aversion, though, you owe it to yourself to play the full game. The six gametypes have a similar framework, but are unique enough to provide entirely different experiences. The strategy employed in a game of Rocket Riot, as well as the experience of playing it, will be entirely different from that of Blitzkrieg. Deceptively complex, it takes slightly longer than ‘a minute to learn’ but will definitely take a long time to master. We’ve talked about Multiwinia quite a bit, and there’s a reason for that: it’s a damn good game. Strategic, frenetic and fun, Multiwinia offers an experience that you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere else.
