Full Circle Magazine FR

Clone Wolf: Protector is part 2D platformer and part tower defense. Originally created in less than 48 hours as a Ludum Dare submission in 2011, Jaroslav Meloun (aka Jarnik) has since expanded it into a full game with eleven levels and ten bosses spanning five environments. Story You play as Wolf, a (bearded) carpenter who lost his family and entire village, inspiring him to begin his journey to protect others. Throughout his travels, Wolf meets plenty of helpful citizens who aid him during his quest to defeat the monsters that plague their villages. It is a straightforward story of a hero on a quest with plenty of comical bits and classic references thrown in. The jokes are well timed and well placed, alluding to the classics without overt mockery or trite, which is refreshing to see.

Gameplay For those familiar with the concept and gameplay of Braid, getting used to the mechanics of cloning Wolf will be a breeze. Other players may feel a little clumsy trying to maneuver numerous clones around for the first time, but the controls are simple enough to get used to quickly. You can use the cloning powers of the magical medallion to help Wolf to reach higher places, simultaneously fight incoming hordes from both sides of the screen, and target the weak points of the bosses that you encounter. Wolf’s wood-crafting skill is a nice touch that allows you to rebuild damaged houses and construct palisades to keep your foes at bay. This works pretty well most of the time, but there are moments when you’re better off hacking at the enemy rather than trying to build or rebuild.

Graphics The game was built on the Flixel engine and runs via Flash which provides a (mostly) smooth, glitch-free experience on Ubuntu 12.04. During the first playthrough there was an instance of unresponsive keys in full-screen mode, but it seems to have been an isolated incident. The pixel style graphics are appropriately complemented by a nice chiptune soundtrack by Fuxoft. There isn’t a lot of variation to the environments other than a few changes in color scheme and minor details. But this isn’t a huge deal as the pacing of the game requires you to focus on controlling your clones rather than the scenery. Overall, Clone Wolf: Protector is a clever hybrid of side-scrolling platformer and tower defense goodness - with a story that is as fun as the gameplay. Clone Wolf is part of the Indie Underdog Pack Bundle, along with four other DRM-free games for just $3.99. You can also purchase it on Desura or direct from Jarnik’s site: http://www.jarnik.com/1062-clone-wolf-protector.

Pros: • fun, addictive gameplay • good graphics and soundtrack • humorous twist on a classic plot Cons: • fairly short, can be completed quickly • environments lack some variety

Urban Terror is a multi-platform first person shooter for your home computer. It runs natively in Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. This is how a game should be designed. Open to game players of any operating system, not just Windows. And, like many games available on Linux, Urban Terror is freely available to all users. The website itself (http://www.urbanterror.info) is ad-supported with banner ads and they request that you do not block them. A minor request to be sure and one easily accepted by disabling any ad-blocker for their site. This is a multi-player game based on the Quake game engine. It is produced by FrozenSand, which does a good job living up to its motto of “fun over realism”. Their website describes the game as an unique combination of realism and fun, a Hollywood tactical shooter. I would have to agree that it is indeed both an enjoyable and addictive game.

After the game is first installed and run, a short tutorial demo is played. It really doesn't require any interaction from the player. It just runs through the basic default keyboard and mouse commands. There are other commands that are not mentioned in the tutorial - but are found throughout the website, including tweaks and tips that can be found in the forums. Once the tutorial is finished, you set your username, which can be changed, as well as other information about your in-game character: weapons, armor and extra equipment, plus whatever color you want added to your default uniform to set you apart from others. Then it is on to a server. There are thousands of them - each running different types of games, some are password protected. You have to be a member of a specific game group (called clans) to join and play on their servers. You also have the option of starting a local game that can be played over a LAN, or even running a full server that would be added to the list.

Gameplay itself is set in one of several maps which have their own challenges, including weather conditions. There are several modes of play. The modes do not change from round to round, but the maps will. The various game modes provide several team-based modes: Bomb & Defuse, Capture & Hold, Capture the Flag, Follow the Leader, Team Deathmatch & Team Survivor, and the non-team mode of Free-for-all. With each round, respawning after death may occur within the round or at the end of the round depending on the game mode. The map will change at the end of the round as well. Depending on the play mode, the rounds can be timed or until a specific event occurs. Then, of course, a winner or winning team is declared. Personally, I'm not much of a computer gamer. I am an old-school paper and pencil gamer. So, when I find a computer game that I like, I tend to stay with it for some time. I currently play on the pm (Pizza Militia) servers. Why? Well, because I connected to it once and someone was helpful to me as a n00b playing the game. I do intend on setting up my own server in the near future and hope to get a following going. If that happens I may register an official clan with Urban Terror as well.