Preview: Multiwinia

Posted at: Thursday 24th July 2008 by Phil Hartup

The Darwinians are back and this time it’s war. We go hands on with Introversion's latest stylish strategy game

Darwinia was a single player puzzle/strategy game released by independent UK-based Introversion, the 'last of the bedroom programmers'. It originally came out in early 2005, and its appearance on Steam at the end of the year brought it a mainstream audience. Though Darwinia was less of a 'love it or hate it' game and more of a 'love it or feel completely baffled by it' affair the developers have decided with the sequel Multwinia to abandon much of the original gameplay in order to create something new and markedly different. Multiwinia features the same little flat people as Darwinia, the same sort of Tron-like computerised landscapes and some of the same special units, but beyond that the gameplay has been completely overhauled and what we have is a stripped down real time strategy game.

M-M-M-M-MULTI MODE

The first thing that a player of Multiwinia will become aware of is the sheer number of game modes that are available. Multiwinia features everything from attacking a fort to capturing giant (surreal) statues and hauling them home across, to king of the hill area domination maps and straight up kill frenzies. In addition to there being plenty of game types, there are also plenty of ways to customise those games and many maps to play them across.

Actually playing Multiwinia is extremely simple although it’s clear that the designers have tried to get at a more purely tactical game, rather than relying on RTS staples such as scissors/paper/stone battles between units or letting battles devolve into a the all-too-common mobs of units rushing at each other. In Multiwinia there's no construction, just spawn points, and these only spawn one type of unit: the Darwinian. You can find crates that will allow you access to other units, and how often these appear can be selected in the options, but these units are seldom the mainstay of your army.

MEET THE DARWINIANS

The Darwinian is a flat infantry trooper armed with a laser beam and hand grenades. You can promote Darwinians to be officers and these either direct other Darwinians towards points on the map (allowing you to have newly spawned units flow towards a target), or these officers can order large groups of Darwinians into a phalanx. When in formation, Darwinians only shoot their lasers and don't throw grenades, but they fire with much greater effect. They are however more vulnerable to grenades in this state.

You can use any number of Darwinians to capture a spawn point although the more soldiers you have the faster the point falls to you. It’s all very simple and intuitive, giving the game an almost chess-like feeling. Due to the fact that units stream in quickly via spawn points instead of being constructed, battles for objectives are seldom small and generally you’ll see even battles decided by dozens, even hundreds, of Darwinians. This gives Multiwinia's combat almost epic proportions.