Clandestine is an asymmetrical cooperative spy thriller, a video game that aims to offer a unique experience, part third-person shooter, part top-down micromanagement game.

The game comes from Logic Artists, an indie video game maker from Denmark, known for its previous Kickstarter-fueled hit strategy role-playing game, Expeditions: Conquistador.

Clandestine is best played with a friend, but can also be undertaken as a solo experience. One player is a spy, sneaking around, trying to slip by unnoticed, and occasionally putting some lead into enemy guards.

Spies are easier to kill than you would imagine

From the spy's perspective, the game is played like a somewhat traditional stealth-based third-person shooter, with the only difference being that the entire experience is geared a lot more toward stealth, and a lot less toward gun-toting action.

Your aim isn't very good, which is a bit off-putting, since spies should also be top-notch marksmen, but it's all so that you don't simply kill everyone like in every other shooter out there. Your enemies, on the other hand, can usually take you out in two or three shots, when discovered, and they seldom miss their mark.

The other player is a hacker, playing from a completely different perspective, with the screen divided between the layout of the network you're hacking, camera feeds and an overhead map of the entire area.

You can play it by yourself and switch from perspective to perspective, but where the experience really comes alive is when you have a friend playing the hacker, telling you where to go next, disabling security cameras so that you won't trigger an alarm, hacking doors to get access codes for you, and so on.

The cooperative aspect of Clandestine is by far its greatest asset. As the game is currently on Steam Early Access, it's still pretty rough around the edges, but the base experience is solid.

Not one player can fulfill the mission without the other, and timely communication and synchronization are the key to success. As the hacker, you can tap the feed of security cameras in advance, and any enemy you see will be visible on the overhead map.

You can mark up to three enemies on the map, and they will become visible for the spy, through walls, so he can bet a better idea of where to shoot or when to open a door and sneak past a guard facing the other way.

Everything has to be done in chunks, room by room, it's all very intense and very moment-to-moment. Sure, the hacker can scan ahead and see the location of enemies, but they rarely maintain rigid patrol patterns, so finding the right moment to make your way through a courtyard is more a matter of attentive timing than simply learning patrol routes.

As a spy, your only weapon is a silenced pistol, which can take out any enemy with a direct headshot, so careful deliberation is crucial to not getting some unwanted attention coming your way. In addition to this, there are several other gadgets that you can make use of, such as pagers that make noises that distract guards, a device that temporarily stuns them by sending a lot of noise through their headsets, or some flashbang and fragmentation grenades.

You can't play as The Terminator though

However, using noisy devices and grenades can trigger alarms and can send the entire compound running your way, which is not exactly a situation you are likely to escape alive from.

Sure, you can take some guards out one by one from the safety of a bush, if you can draw them out, while they inspect the body of a fallen comrade, but if everyone comes gunning for you, you're better off restarting the mission.

Playing the game from the perspective of the hacker is also very immersive and challenging, as you have to constantly pay attention to the network and to what the spy is telling you, as well as to his needs.

You have to move fast and hack security cameras to scout ahead, and inform him of the level layout and where he needs to go in order to complete the various mission objectives, and the gameplay is very involved and fast-paced, even though you're staring at maps and schematics, most of the time.

There are several game modes available right now, with objectives ranging from recovering a few crucial pieces of intel to infiltrating a building and clearing out all the guards, and there are four different maps to play on for the time being, each one with its own specific challenges.

As a game currently in development, Clandestine is still missing a bunch of features, and the experience is far from a polished, ready-to-launch one. The animations and movements are either a bit rigid or jumpy, there are a few issues regarding aiming and enemy AI, and some enemies will see you when you think that you're in cover, while others will fail to notice you even when in open areas.

But for the most part, Clandestine looks really promising, and it's already fun to play with a friend, and even alone, although it's in coop where it truly shines, with its unique asymmetrical gameplay hook.