Darwinia (Reviews)

David Kvasnicka, GamePro Australia

21/11/2005 11:56:47

Darwinia is undoubtedly the coolest PC game to come out this year. Flying in the face of every development house out there that's trying to create the next Half-Life 2 mega-huge-blockbuster equivalent, Darwinia doesn't hesitate to lift up its dress and show us its pixels.

The game's plot is based on a virtual world, Darwinia, created by one Dr. Sepulveda, which is capable of generating self-evolving AI, known as the Darwinians. Of course, there's no game if there's no problem, and the Red Virus has broken out, stealing the digital souls of the local Darwinians and turning them into some nasty-looking insect-like "virii".

You come in as a digital wanderer, floating through cyberspace and coming across the inverted spherical world. Sepulveda teaches you how to run programs in Darwinia, which you'll need to destroy the virus. Vaguely like The Matrix, these "programs" can range from kill squads that can fire lasers, grenades, and rockets, to utility units like engineers, which you'll need to re-collect consumed souls and recapture the virtual buildings of Darwinia.

Art of the Game
Populous, Cannon Fodder, and Lemmings (with a twist of Tron) are just a few of the many influences and allusions apparent in Darwinia's game design. As you can tell from the screenshots, it mixes the retro-stylings from the early days of gaming history with the 3D and graphical splendour effects of today. For instance, your airstrikes come in the form of pixellated 3D Space Invaders, and the sublime music and sound effects were produced by combining old arcade game sounds with current generation sound engineering. For the old-school nostalgia tragics among us, this is bliss. To purchase Darwinia online go to www.darwinia.co.uk font>

Seeing as it has so many varying game elements (see boxout), including straight-up arcadey shoot'em up action, strategy, puzzle-solving, and RPG aspects, it's safe to say that Darwinia is a fairly genre ambiguous title. Impressively enough, the game doesn't feel convoluted in even the slightest way despite this; a nice side effect of what appears to be exceptionally well-thought out and original game design. For example, there's no save-game option - the way the game has been structured is such that you can leave the game, and return later at the same point by simply re-starting the "programs" you need running to complete current game progress.

But Darwinia isn't perfect by any means. There are so far only 10 game areas, significant waypointing frustrations, numerous bugs, and some mission objectives can be downright annoying. You'll either enjoy the game or you won't - and depending on how many games you've played since the birth of video games, you'll either appreciate Darwinia's "gamer" inter-textuality or you won't.

Just like any art, some people will see crap and others will see candy. But what we're applauding here is Darwinia's originality and freshness in an industry that is increasingly choosing the "safe" options when deciding on what type of titles to support. For the gamer veterans out there, Darwinia is a frosty drink of water in the desert.

Verdict
A instant underground classic, old-school nostalgia tragics should immediately play this. Exceptional game design, addictive gameplay, and trippy retro concept - this is bliss.
Pros: Blissfully innovative game design.
Cons: Many bugs. Could be longer.

Score = 9.5/10



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Graphics: 3.5 Sound: 4.5 Control: 5.0 Fun Factor: Fun Factor
Scoring scale: 1-5
Publisher: Introversion / Developer: Introversion / Release date: 14/11/2005 / Genre: Action, Simulation/strategy / OFLC Rating: N/A