Clandestine (PC) Review

Taking place in the distant past of 1996; Clandestine follows the story of agent Katya and the voice in her head, 'Martin', as they work together as a team to handle the various bad goings-on around the world. The game revolves around an interesting mechanic in which two players work together in order to resolve the missions. The idea is quite simple; one player serves as an agent while the other as their overwatch. Katya is an agile woman who has the amazing property of being out on the field, while Martin has the ability to hack computers, doors, and control cameras. It all works together beautifully; when it does work, that is.

When the mechanics work together, it becomes a tense co-op situation. Since Martin is unable to physically knock out guards or rescue people, he is dependent on Katya to actually get things done. Katya, meanwhile, is agile and can easily navigate the rooms and guard. Since she lacks the ability to read minds, however, she gets stuck at locked doors and when trying to guess passwords to computers. The result is the overwatch working hard to keep the route clear for Katya, and to keep her supplied with info, while she completes the various objectives and fights.

Katya's sections are pretty obvious in and of themselves. Sneak along, don't get spotted, and knock out or kill any guards in her path while obtaining documents and the like. Martin, however, is responsible for evading cyber-security programs in a game of pseudo-cyber-Frogger, and figuring out the various codes. It can get quite tense when a nearby security program is closing in; especially while waiting on hacking tech trying to find the passcode to the trailer that Katya's trying to hide from a rapidly approaching guard in.

When the game works, it works wonderfully and is a great experience between friends. 'When it works' ends up being the problem. The flaw comes about when either Katya or Martin has already done all they can, and they're waiting on the other player to help them out. Katya is hiding behind a box, basically twiddling her thumbs while Martin is dodging security bots, or Martin is getting quite familiar with the texture of the various walls as he keeps the cameras turned away while Katya sneaks through a maze. Not to mention that simply having a notepad on Martin's end easily ruins the games balance; as he can quickly run through his bits of the game, jot down all the notes and pass-codes, then wait for Katya and hand them out like candy.

The controls are another issue, as they can be slow and clunky. Martin's sections are, well, little more than directional movements and bypassing firewalls; while Katya is stuck with some sticky and often clunky controls as she tries to evade the guards. It's not impossible to work with, but when things go south, having Katya decide to remain close to a wall instead of moving to a new hiding spot can be a real issue.

The game also suffers from plenty of visual issues. While not the worst by a long shot character animations can be nice, but a bit… wonky. While some can be patched out, others will make the characters seem more like robots than anything else.