‘Clandestine’ Review (PC)
Some games, while they offer a single player experience thrive off being social. However Clandestine is well thought out enough to let one player succeed, but to truly find your groove you need another person to work with you.
In the game, the year is 1996, five years after the Soviet Union has fallen. With a string of accidents and murders going unnoticed by the public eye, the international world of spies is on high alert. The CIA and FSB secretly put together a joint task force to investigate assassinations and leaks going on around the world, deploying the team around the world to find the source of the new threat to world peace.
In Clandestine you play the parts of spy and hacker. One person is given a third person perspective of the spy, the other (Martin the Hacker) gets the hacker interface a blueprint style design, with which is used to infiltrate the system and help the spy (Katya) make her way through the level to reach their objective.
For people who prefer to play alone, there is a seamless switching between the two characters. This allows you to hack into the network, find passwords and deal with any cameras that have their sights on Katya. While this is fun, playing with a friend just adds to the experience. Adding a voice chat over the game and then working together to make it through the level really is where the strength of the game is.
While being the spy should lead to a stealthy approach to the game, so you have a choice of how to play. My way always tends to be to kill anybody I see, which deals with any problems. Fans of stealth though will of course prefer to sneak their way through. The only real dangers that Martin has is trying to stay ahead of the system administrator, who is always on the look-out for unauthorised access to the network. If discovered, you’ll be locked out of the system for five seconds which may not sound a lot but can be the difference between success and failure.
While Clandestine may not be the best looking game, it doesn’t really need to be. The focus here is more on the gameplay and interaction between the spy and the hacker. Katya and Martin have to work together to make progress, so while the game may look simplistic in graphics style, this becomes an afterthought.
Clandestine is a fun game in both solo-play or with two players taking part in the game. With a friend working with you, it really manages to come alive and you’ll find your own strengths. Where I enjoyed the hacking side of the game, no doubt others will enjoy the action side. That is where Clandestine shines though, the fact that it is versatile enough to give you that choice. Well worth a look, alone or with a friend Clandestine is a fine example of gameplay over flashy graphics.
**** 4/5
Clandestine is available on PC now.
