YouGamers.com

Reviews

Multiwinia

Your Troops

At first, the controls seem odd. You can't "paint a box" to select troops like in every other PC RTS. Instead you click and hold at the middle of the pile you wish to select, and a circle will expand for selection. Strange at first, but works very well in practice once you get the hang of it. There is also little need to micromanage due to the officers - you can select a single Multiwinian and make him an officer that either directs all troops in his vicinity to a specified location, or collects nearby troops into a cohesive formation that acts as a single unit with bonuses when fighting an enemy in front.

Select troops with one click.

Form up, you weenies.

In addition to troops and officers, you get transport vehicles that allow you to carry a limited amount of troops rapidly across the map and over water. The rest of the set pieces include fixed defense turrets, walls, spawn points and transport devices that allows near-instant travel between islands. Very minimalistic and easy to understand, yet plenty for some interesting gameplay. Specific game modes also add some extra features to this mix.

Game Modes

Multiwinia contains six different game modes that slowly introduce additional elements to the basic gameplay.

• Domination

The basic style of Multiwinia - fight over spawn points that constantly provide additional troops to whoever controls them. In addition to troops, each spawn point awards points to the side that controls it.

• King of the Hill

King of the Hill adds scoring zones to the mix - whoever controls the designated areas with his troops accumulates score. If multiple sides has troops in a scoring zone, whoever has most troops in the zone gets the points.

• Capture the Statue

Instead of scoring zones, score is awarded for capturing large statues that can be carried by suitably large number of Multiwinians. Requires you to defend the slowly moving statue while running interference against the statues transported by your enemies.

• Rocket Riot

Each side has a rocket prepping for launch. Winner is whoever first fuels up his rocket, fills it with Multiwinians and succesfully completes a launch. Fuel is gathered by fuel pumps that are powered by capturing solar panels across the map. You have to simultaneously hold solar panels (each requires a number of Multiwinians to control), defend them, defend your rocket and interfere with the plans of your enemy. You also need to defend the rocket during the final countdown - if the rocket is destroyed by the enemy, you are back to square one. Each side gets additional Multiwinians through a portal at regular intervals (no normal spawn points).

• Blitzkrieg

Capture-the-linked-nodes mode where you start with a node (flag), and you have to capture flags linked to already captured flags. A side that loses the base flag is eliminated, and last man standing wins. Each side gets identical resupply of fresh Multiwinians at regular intervals, and there are no normal spawn points.

• Assault

One side is defending a weapon of mass destruction while the other side must assault and destroy it before it goes off. Defenders have pre-built defensive turrets and other structures but very limited troop supply while attackers get constant massive supply of fresh Multiwinians for the grinder. Initially it's completely impossible to reach the bomb due to the massive firepower advantage of the defense, but with skill you can eventually wear down the defenses and break through. For the defense, the goal is to last as long as possible against overwhelming numbers.

Crates

In all game modes, a random element is introduced via crates dropping from the sky. Send in some Multiwinians, and they'll retrieve it and you gain a random bonus or penalty. Bonuses include things like napalm strikes, nuclear missiles (from DEFCON-style submarines!), additional troop carriers, turrets and other goodies. On the flipside, a crate might also spawn hostiles like ants that attack whoever happens to be in their way - good when placed in the middle of enemy forces, but can end up harming you as well.

Crates are somewhat mixed blessing. I can fully understand why they are included - without them, in most game modes once you are ahead, you are almost sure to win the game. Crates introduce decisively "unfair" elements that allow big swings on the board. In theory, whoever is ahead and controls the largest area on the map can easily grab more crates and potentially solidify his lead, but crates ensure that no matter how bleak the situation is, a lucky crate or two can put you back in the game. Some people decisively hate them due to the "unfair" losses they can cause, but in my opinion they are the spice of the game that makes it great fun. It decisively does matter what you do with your troops, but no matter the situation, it's worth to play the game to the end because you just might pull off a miracle recovery due to a crate - and a miracle victory always feels good.

Page 1: IntroductionPage 2: GameplayPage 3: Summary and Scores

Related Stuff

Tags