Those red arrows are the initial form of the virus. Kill it.
Darwinia has a relatively straight forward story. It takes place inside a computer program of sorts – called Darwinia, obviously – created by Dr. Sepulveda, who created the world after failing break into the early computer game industry. In this world of Darwinia live the little green creatures known as Darwinians, each with their own virtual soul. Or so Sepulveda claims, at least. For generations they have thrived inside the program, under the watchful eye of the good doctor. That is, until a nefarious virus broke loose and started taking over the souls of innocent Darwinians. Of course, it’s your job to fight against the virus and take back Darwinia. The game dumps you right in the thick of it – there isn’t even a conventional menu system, and your only option when you first start the game is to jump right into the first level. From there, Sepulveda will be your guide through the game, providing you with instructions and hints on how to stop the menacing virus. This is your only source of storyline information and, while it sounds basic, it works quite well.
To fight against the virus you have several unit types – or programs – at your disposal. Infantry are of course the staple, and can be armed with grenades and lasers as well as the standard blasters. There are also engineers to help you in your quest, who do handy things like collect dead virus souls and open up new areas in a map. You are limited to the amount of programs you can run at once. Initially it’s three, but as the game progresses, more can be created. However, you can run programs and infinite number of times. While this stops the ‘tank-rush’ approach, it instead creates gameplay which will see you chipping away at the enemy until they die. Hmm. Programs are created by holding the ALT key, and drawing a gesture with a mouse. For example, a triangle creates a three man infantry squad, and then drawing a semi-circle will enable them to use grenades. It’s a quirky way to do things, but it’s refreshing and, most importantly, works well.
Controlling your soldiers can be tough. They aren’t massively intelligent – for example, if you instruct them to go from one point to another, and there is a lethal barrier in the way, they will die. Similarly, if an ocean is in the way, they will simply get stuck. They also aren’t especially quick on the trigger, so it’s often left to you to manually engage the enemy – a bit difficult when you are under siege. The fact you can’t drag a box around multiple units is bizarre, and hinders progress when you have to manually point several groups of units at one target. The final real hindrance to gameplay is the lack of a fast forward button. Your units tend to move oh-so-slowly, and sending new programs to the front seems to take an eternity. Aside from these small hassles, the game is pretty damn good to play, if not somewhat primitive.
Your programs love running straight into those yellow barriers of death.
It’s hard to tell from screenshots, but Darwinia is a visual treat. It doesn’t have billions of or polygons, instead creating a wonderfully unique visual style. In fact, it’s tough to mistake Darwinia for any other game. You have complete control of the camera over the action with the arrow keys and a mouse, zooming as far in or out as possible, which is nice. The Darwinians themselves are faceless toilet-sign men that wonder around aimlessly with no animation. The various kinds of viruses buzz around frantically, leaving blurred trails behind them. The environments are entirely black, with basic blocks signaling terrain. Words do not do it justice though, as the game simply has to be seen in motion in order to be fully understood.
The sound on the other hand is entirely easy to imagine – think the blips and bleeps of early video games, and that’s basically it for Darwinia. There’s the odd explosion – the grenades sound exceptionally good, for instance – but aside from that, nothing here will push your sound card to the limit. But, that’s no bad thing, as it suits the game perfectly.
There isn’t a whole lot to the world of Darwinia. There’s only the story campaign of sorts, which offers little reason for replay value. It can be knocked over in less than ten hours, which is a bit disappointing. Surely, some other modes could have been included with minimum fuss for some replay value. The game is lengthened though by the fact that there are no mid-level save points – they have to be completed in one sitting. This can be downright irritating, as missions have a tendency to creep over the hour mark without hassle. Oh well.
One of the engineer units wandering around aimlessly. Just for something different.
Darwinia is a game that is tough to describe. In order to understand Darwinia, you simply have to play it. It has a completely unique style, both in the audio, sound and gameplay departments that cannot be easily compared to anything else. It’s a real-time strategy game – but complete unlike the Starcraft’s of the world. If you’re after something just a bit different, and don’t mind the odd RTS game, then you should check out Darwinia. Despite its inherent flaws, it’s a breath of fresh air.
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