Every once in a while a game comes along that can best be described as: "weird." Darwinia is one such game, and bears many qualities not normally seen in your average game these days. Introversion Software have stepped back from the coding arms race to make the next must-have FPS, racer or MMORPG and instead taken a giant leap from the norm and brought us a truly unique, original, strange, entertaining and addictive title. Finally a game that is actually worth playing, instead of another graphically endowed cash-in sequel.
Dr. Sepulveda's Darwin Digital Life Project has been running for over a decade, spawning 10,000 generations of Darwinians, the culmination of his A.I. research. You arrive in the world somewhat suddenly, and to the surprise of the good Dr, however something is amis.
Like your grandmas computer the world of Darwinia has been infested by an uncontrollable horde of viruses. The responsibility to set the world straight, defeat the viral force, and generally have a good time in a world that must look like a Terminator's acid trip, rests on your shoulders.
You are not alone, in your mission, however. Darwinia supports gesture recognition which allows you to call up units to accomplish various tasks. These units are run as programs in the virtual world, and you can switch between them using... you'll never guess ... ALT+TAB.
CTRL+C, unsurprisingly enough, closes a task and the programs, which start in early beta testing when you start the game, are constantly upgraded by Dr. Sepulveda ensuring that your virus-blasting arsenal is always up to scratch.
Despite being technologically behind in the graphics department, Dawinia looks absolutely beautiful. With strange, semi transparent glowing tree-like structures, rolling red oceans and vast, sweeping angular terrain and an ominous clouded sky stretching off into the blackness, the game truly is a visual feast that will inspire pangs of nostalgia for the simpler times past without actually being all that simple itself.
You play Darwinia across a range of linked environments, in each of these you are set specific tasks to perform alongside your anti-virus role. From the hub world, for example, you must secure portals to other areas so you can proceed with your mission. To achieve this you must use the gesture technology to spawn squad tasks which you then direct with the mouse, aiming for them and clicking where you want them to fire. Weapon upgrades allow your squads to dish out more punishment to the viruses, the grenade for example is a highly effective weapon for clearing out large pockets of infection and can be spammed repeatedly with no regard to ammunition levels- of course, like me, you will end up blowing your own squads to oblivion if you're not careful.
The gesture recognition technology means that the interface is minimalist in the main game view, in fact you will see absolutely no status bars, buttons, mini-maps or other clutter aside from the messages from Dr. S. which guide you through the game and set your goals. Unfortunately, though, bringing up the interface that allows you to use gestures, check the statuses of upgrade research and switch your squads dominates the entire screen and distracts highly from the flow of the gameplay. I find the gesture recognition approach in Black and White to be much more effective and far more lenient in the way it lets you use gestures. Darwinia not only restricts them to a particular screen, but only a small portion of screen real-estate therein is used to draw the symbols that run your programs.
Aside from this tiny flaw, that I personally think contradicts Darwinia's goal to be simple, clean and easy, Darwinia is a fantastic little game packing more than enough of its strangely addictive gameplay to keep you entertained for hours. It is, however, a little off the wall in its efforts to appear unique and original, something I would not expect to appeal to the PC gamer who loves his bread and butter FPS titles. Anyone who longs for simpler times will enjoy the clear goals, unhindered gameplay and near non-stop blasting action Darwinia has to offer though.
Darwinia will remind you why you were so addicted to Space Invaders and the other arcade greats.
