Gamebar

Multiwinia

Vitals

Developer: Introversion Software Publisher: Introversion Software Genre: Strategy > Real-Time Strategy Released: Sep 18, 2008 Players: 4 Website

Related Articles

- 2008 Top 10 Games of the Year - October 2008 Indie game Round-Up - Multiwinia Review

Michael Scarpelli: 10

Multiwinia for the winia! Who's with me on that awesome pun, huh? Huh? Yeah! Hive fives for everybody!

Seriously. Multiwinia is pretty just totally frikkin' awesome. It's got a stripped down, hyper-cool aesthetic; stripped down, versatile control system; and I wish I could think of a third thing that I could say was stripped down in a good way.

The game is essentially an real-time strategy game. You capture spawn points and create more of your citizen soldiers. You then select them and move them around the board to capture more structures, attack enemy units or capture power-ups. You can also create command units which create functional waypoints or organized battle forces. Toss in special units, battle effects, powerful special attacks and you have a game that is just a raucous good time.

I don't like multiplayer gaming, usually. It makes me too twitchy because I get too nervous about how I'll do when it comes time to get down to business. But one level of the single player of Multiwinia had me thirsting for on-line combat, which I was promptly able to find… and I promptly handed out two sets of third-degree whuppings.

Pany Haritatos: 9

Multiwinia is simply great. With its wide array of single-player and multiplayer experiences, there's enough goodness here to keep you entertained for a very long time. The gameplay is excellent, the UI is intuitive, the graphics are amazing, and the audio keeps pace. Multiwinia delivers on every front and is proof that indie developers can make games that not only meet but exceed the quality of traditional non-indie developers. Bravo to Introversion for a solid, well executed, challenging and fun experience!

Coby Utter: 8

As its name implies, Multiwinia has taken the popular Darwinia RTS game and moved it into the multiplayer space, opening up an entirely new spectrum of gameplay. In the original, the player controlled Darwinians fighting off a virus in a virtual theme park world, but Multiwinia pits player against player, as you command your Darwinians to vie for zone control, allowing you access to more resources on your way to ultimately defeating your opponent's Darwinian army.

Like Darwinia, Multiwinia's greatest strength is its accessibility. The real time strategy genre is often the antithesis of casual gaming, but Multiwinia's streamlined and intuitive controls coupled with the omission of tedious micro-managing have lowered the barrier to entry level players without relinquishing too much depth. The abstract art style from the first game is still present and is as beautiful as ever. The multiplayer component has added replayability and refreshing gameplay variety to the strong core concept of Darwinia and despite a few technical issues and limited maps, Multiwinia is simply addicting.

Russ Carroll: 8

I never really 'got' Darwinia. I think it is cool, but the game play never really hooked me. Unfortunately, I have to say the same thing about Multiwinia.

It's brimming with cool. It's amazingly stylish. I just struggle to really get into it. Perhaps I need to play it more, but I think it is just one of those cases where no game is for everyone, even the great ones.

That said, I did really enjoy Multiwinia. Much more so than with Darwinia and the game is so well-made it'd be a crime not to give it a go. It's easy to pick up and play with lots of intricacies to master.

I struggled with the controls at times, but they didn't fail me nearly as often as my own strategies did ;). There is always someone online and the variety of game play options lends itself to keeping the gameplay fresh. I appreciated the shorter map times, which lead to lots of fun short games with the chance to quickly dust yourself off and try again. I did really like it, but for whatever reason, it's not getting that hook into me that takes me over the hump from being very impressed to drooling like a fanboy, though I know it does that for many.