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

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Graphically Multiwinia is easily recongisable as an Introverversion title, sharing the same bright, highly stylised, Tron-ish graphics of the company's other games. As a result the graphics are both distinctive and not too demanding in terms of hardware. The environments are somewhat surreal and the Darwinians themselves are very minimalist in their design but they still manage to have some character - for instance they will scatter when grenades are thrown at them or run around screaming if they catch fire.

As you’d expect given the name there is a strong multiplayer element to Multiwinia and all the game types can be played by human players as well as in skirmishes with the AI. Co-operative play is also possible which provides yet another dimension.

The developers of Multiwinia and Darwinia are also the team behind the engaging yet thoroughly misanthropic Defcon and it's easy to recognise its modus operandi at work: simple gameplay backed up with a strong intellectual streak - these are games that demand thought to succeed and you need to be thinking two steps ahead in Multiwinia, not just be the guy with his fingers on the building shortcuts.

Multiwinia is due out later this year through Steam and will be well worth a look for those jaded with regular RTS games and looking for a break. Its low system demands also make it an ideal time killer on an office PC or laptop.

You can find out more about Multiwinia on Introversion's website, and there's also a demo to download.