Guest reviewer Julius reviews this clever puzzle title
Have you ever wanted to install a virus on your computer? It has a very common name – Tom. Usually computer viruses have very exciting names: 4k, AntiCMOS, Ice 9, Flame, Stuxnet. Hopefully we will answer this question at the end of the article.
Misfits Attic has released its first game: A Virus Named Tom. I’m always eager to see what the first game of a new game developer is like. Does it come with great new idea(s), outstanding design or some original new concepts? In this case, the virus in the title was definitely capturing my attention – but what is it all about?
Installing virus on computer
Tom is a cyclops with three legs and a nanovirus, made by the brilliant mind of Dr. X who lives in the future and of course becomes an evil genius led by corporate interests. Dr. X wants to destroy the city of the future, which he claims to have built. Tom is his assistant, and its his job to infect the circuitry of different essential gadgets of the future like teleporters, electronic pets and transporting belts.
Infected hydrator at work
Tom is a nanovirus, but very intelligent, because he is you! You have to rearrange the complex circuitry so you can sabotage Globotron. Globotron will try to stop you infecting the electronic circuits using encryption, drones and anti-infection circuits. To make thing even harder, Misfits Attic give you a certain amount of time to complete every task. The challenge is to infect or light everything on the circuit in green, rotating the circuit “parts”. After you have successfully infected the circuit your score grows in Olympic style (after all, the game was released during the Olympics!). Depending on the energy left you receive gold, silver or bronze medals for each level as well as points to put on the scoreboard.
Tom is infecting circuits and running away from drones
To control Tom’s actions you will be using a keyboard. Yes, no cheese eating pets are usable here, so don’t even bother trying like I did. You can “rotate” parts of the circuits to spread the infection. Some levels have drones for protection. Don’t let them catch you or you will loose energy (time). Once you have infected the whole gadget’s parts, a short clip will let you know what you have done. The creators of the game tried to make them funny and I enjoyed them.
If you want to try your skills playing with other people there are options. You can play in cooperative story mode and play battles between yourself and your friends. The cooperative mode is fun playing because two players are using one keyboard. The last games I played that way on PC were Mortal Kombat 4 and Golden Axe so this feature brought to me a nice feeling of reliving those old PC games.
The game has a nice soundtrack to keep you company while trying to solve some of the really hard levels. During gameplay you receive skip levels tokens, but skipping levels…where is the fun in that?
Misfits Attic made interesting levels requiring a combination of brain power, speed and good reactions. Escaping drones faster than you is very challenging. There are levels which appear impossible to solve, but you are Tom and he has a lot tricks up his sleeve! Tom can place traps and make the drones collide to get past them. You then steal their energy, adding it to its own.
A virus named Tom is not an elaborate game. It is fun for anyone who loves solving puzzles. Misfits Attic are ambitious planning to release the game on Linux, Xbox, PlayStation and Onlive, but right now the Microsoft Windows version is currently the only one available. The lack of online co-op play mode could also be developed in the future if there is sufficient interest. Until then, this is an enjoyable game and from start to finish it is fun to solve encrypted puzzles and try to get golden medals.
6 vengeful viruses out of 10