Clones
Review
There's a new Lemming on the block
by William Thompson
reviewed on PC
Completed the level...What now? (cntd)
Competitive spirit goes a little further with the multiplayer options. At present, it is still quite tough to find an online opponent. But once you do find a suitable opponent, there is certainly a large amount of fun to be had against a human. Indeed, it is sometimes interesting to watch how others go about playing the game as you try and complete the multiplayer levels.
The gameplay works much the same as the single player game whereby you need the complete the mission goal, usually getting the clones from one point to their ‘home’. The difference with multiplayer is that you are competing against another player who is attempting to get more clones home than you do. And with multiplayer, opposition clones can be stolen, so that adds another aspect to the game.
Making your own Clones
Also included in the game is a Level Editor. Being able to create some devious levels of your own to play is a heap of fun. There are countless design options to choose from. Everything can be customised including the mission goal, the number of clones that are released into the level, the number required to complete the level, the number of each morph functions available. The level Editor is easy to use and creating basic levels can be completed in a matter of minutes. Of course, more complex levels will take more time to design, but can be really rewarding.
Navigating your clones is an important task, so having a decent control scheme is certainly a necessity. And Clones comes through with flying colours. Each of the clones’ morphing abilities has a keyboard letter assigned to them, but can also be selected from the morphing interface on the bottom right of the screen. The interface also clearly shows how many of each morph are still available. To morph a clone, it is simply a matter of clicking the clone and then selecting the required morph ability. It couldn’t be simpler. Other useful information is also clearly displayed on the screen, such as the number of Qdots collected, the number of clones killed and the number remaining.
Audio and Visual Experience
Being an indie title, you wouldn’t really expect the visuals or the audio to be as polished as the big-name, over-hyped titles on store shelves. And to some extent, this is true with Clones. Although the background visuals are blocky at times, the clones themselves are well animated and travel smoothly around the levels. The levels are bright and colourful and well varied so that you don’t feel that ‘you’ve done it all before’ on a previous level. The audio does a serviceable job too. Indeed, the sound effects can play an important part of the game and can give an indication of what is happening in the game. If you can hear squishy noises, then that gives an indication that clones are falling to their deaths somewhere. If you hear planks of wood being placed down, then that indicates a bridge is being completed. These sound effects certainly help on some of the larger levels.
Replica
Fans of Lemmings will no doubt enjoy Clones. The puzzles start simple while others can be quite devious. With 150-odd levels, you’d expect that there is plenty of repetition, but this is not the case with Clones. The levels are varied enough to keep the game interesting. The fact that there is an online scoreboard makes replaying some of the levels a must. The multiplayer game, whilst sparsely populated at present, is a heap of fun and will certainly give gamers something to do once they’ve completed all the missions. The audio and visuals mightn’t win any awards, but do an admirable job for an indie title. If you want to try the game out for yourself, there is a demo available from the official site or from Steam. If you do buy Clones, look out for me on the multiplayer servers. I’ll be waiting.
7.2
fun score
Pros
Heaps of levels with a range of goals
Cons
Multiplayer isn’t very populated at this stage
