Multiwinia and the state of RTS games (July 19th, 2007 at 10:11 pm)
Introversion have posted their first in-game video of Multiwinia, the multiplayer-focused sequel to the rather excellent Darwinia. My verdict? I’m well impressed.
This is the RTS I’ve been dying to play for years. Hell, this is the RTS I’ve been dying to make for years. Judging by the five minute video, I’d describe Multiwinia as “the love-child of Command & Conquer and Quake III Arena.” Similar to it’s predecessor, Multiwinia seem more like a fast-paced action game with strategy elements bolted on as opposed to the other way around. This, I wholeheartedly approve of.
Apart from Darwinia, I haven’t enjoyed an RTS in a long time. Shogun: Total War was the last one that managed to be tactically complex without being overwhelming. After that the genre spiralled into an overcomplicated mess, where you were either a hardcore fan who relished the ever-increasing complexities of the genre, or you weren’t and just stopped enjoying RTS games. I, like a lot of people, fell into the latter group.
Introversion are picking up from where “real” developers lost the plot. They are creating a game which will (hopefully) be complex enough to allow for a wealth of different tactics, but without throwing a ridiculous amount of information at the player. I can’t wait to get my hands on it!
I just watched that vid and it does look pretty good. It looks like it plays like an arcade RTS (if such a thing exists).
A lot of other RTS may claim to encourage complex strategies but in reality they often just degenerate into frustrating bouts of resource hoarding and one massive assault. Multiwinia looks like it’s acknowledged that and made a fun game out of it.
Comment by fog — July 30, 2007 @ 8:56 am
“Arcade RTS” is a great way of describing it, actually.
The thing I really loved about Shogun is that it did encourage (at the time) rather complex strategies, and you were actually rewarded for pulling them off. I feel that modern RTSs have so many variables in their logic, that even when you pull of a seemingly decent strategy it isn’t very evident from the games feedback. Shogun definitely told you when you did something right (what was the line … “the enemy general is fleeing like a whipped dog!”
)
Comment by Mobeen — July 30, 2007 @ 11:54 am