Multiwinia

Verdict:

[+] Win

Original concept; intuitive controls; epic battles; dark humour

[-] Fail

Too many random factors; no campaign or plot

If you’ve played the pseudo-strategy game Darwinia, the oddities of its sequel, Multiwinia, might not seem too bizarre. If you haven’t, be prepared for a game that’s slightly strange, in terms of its plot, setting and gameplay.

Multiwinia is an RTS game set inside a computer. You control tiny people called Multiwinians, who are constantly fighting one another, although the reason for this was never explained in the original game. If this is your first exposure to the series, you’ll find out even less, as it’s never mentioned that you’re inside a computer, or even what a Multiwinian is. Then again, despite there being no explanation for why the White and Black armies in a game of chess are at each others’ throats, it never detracts from your enjoyment of that game, and the same is true for Multiwinia.

HOMUNCULI

That’s the majority of the game’s background summed up - thousands of little people battling it out in a broad range of different scenarios in both multiplayer and skirmish modes.
Aside from the unique visual style, Multiwinia is cast from the same mould as other RTS games, although it has more than a few tricks up its sleeve to make it stand out.

The goals of the different game modes vary from ‘beat the enemy and capture their spawn point’, to capturing objectives or objects, or simple attacker versus defender scenarios. Although the maps offer a variety of different terrain and support up to four players, they soon begin to feel samey, due to the limited features and ways for the Multiwinians to interact with the world.

Multiwinia has been stripped of the fluff and complexity of mainstream strategy titles. Your units aren’t produced in a traditional way - the soldiers simply pour out of spawn points. You control them either by direct movement, positioning other soldiers to direct the mob, or organising formations of troops that would’ve made Napoleon proud.

The basic army grunt is a tiny man represented by a flat texture, armed with a laser and grenades. Whether he throws these at enemy units or not is a decision that rests with the unit AI rather than the player. There’s no possibility of micromanagement or ordering an individual unit to use their special ability, but this isn’t a bad thing.

Although it remove some control away from the player, it proves refreshing in a genre where so many other games have chosen to focus on endowing units with abilities that need to be manually triggered by the player.

RANDOM SURPRISES

Aside from the constant flow of troops, you can choose to have crates containing additional special abilities fall from the sky – a mechanic similar to Team17’s Worms. As with most of the game’s settings, this option can be adjusted, either by limiting its scope or turning it off altogether. You wouldn’t want to remove these though – as the effect of opening the crates is one of the most interesting aspects of the game. Their effects aren’t necessarily positive. For example, accidentally breaking open a plague crate can lead to disaster, but crates also provide a range of unique (and bizarre) special attacks.  Some of these involve unleashing monsters from the original Darwinia upon the enemy, such as giant ants and centipedes, while others can call in a nuclear strike, chillingly familiar to anyone who’s played Defcon, Introversion’s earlier nuclear war simulator.

Unfortunately, these random crates are also Multiwinia’s biggest problem. If you open a plague crate that suddenly transforms all the nearby Multiwinians into Evilwinians, your game might come to an abrupt end, as they go on to capture your spawn point. Likewise, the use of grenades by the basic troops feels very random. If you assemble a formation, they won’t use grenades but will instead concentrate on laying down serious laser fire. This is ideal for cutting down hordes of individual Multiwinians in open country, but if those enemies randomly decide to lob grenades at your troops, you’ll have to sit back and watch while your formation of troops is destroyed.

More often than not, the outcome of battles is determined by luck, which can be very frustrating, especially when you have to watch your units roasted en masse, with little chance of countering the attack. Similar issues continue to plague enjoyment of the game. For example, many of the weapon turrets that come from crates are immensely powerful and if properly deployed, will happily munch through hundreds of troops. There’s no counter to these overpowered weapons, unless you’re lucky enough to receive one in a crate.

The graphics and sound in Multiwinia are smart and innovative, although the simple visual appearance doesn’t mean the game’s system requirements are particularly low. What the game lacks in graphical detail, it more than makes up for in scale. When a few thousand troops occupy the map and some of the flashier special effects are turned on, even fairly high-end machines may struggle. The giant scale of battles is one of the greatest aspects of Multiwinia though. Watching the digital forests burning and the bodycount surpassing four figures, you’re really given the sense that every pixel of the digital landscape has to be fought over.

CONCLUSION

Multiwinia is genuinely original and innovative, with fantastic little touches and a great visual style, but the over-reliance on random elements ruins the overall enjoyment. Comparing Multiwinia to Introversion’s earlier classic Defcon highlights the differences. Defcon may be simple but, as with chess, it allows you to use simple pieces to achieve complex goals. Introversion has tried to retain those same simple ideas with Multiwinia, although your well thought-out plans can be ruined at any time by some random event. A tactical masterstroke can be wholly negated by how grenade-happy the enemy troops decide to be.

With such a low price, some of these shortcomings can be overlooked. Multiwinia’s originality makes it stand out from the herd of traditional strategy and FPS games that currently dominates the charts. If you’re looking for a game that’s refreshingly different, Multiwinia’s a worthy purchase.

• AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition - Processors
• Shuttle XPC SX48P2 Deluxe - Desktop PCs
• SilverStone Raven - Peripherals
• Raptor Gaming M3 Platinum - Peripherals
• Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 - Processors
• ATI Radeon HD 4670 - Graphics cards
• DFI Lanparty JR P45-T2RS - Motherboards