Darwinia Reviews

In the genre of real-time strategy, every game touts complete 3D units, maps, effects, etc. and it seems hard to really distinguish between them and see any innovating features. But along comes Darwinia that decided to simplify both the graphics and gameplay and created a wonderful game.

Darwinia stars the player as a internet wanderer that stumbles upon a network filled with little A.I. creatures that Dr. Sepulveda created in order to research how they grow and evolve. But at the time the player enters, the network has been almost completely overrun by a virus and nearly destroyed the entire environment. And through the rest of the game the player must help the Dr. eradicate the virus and find the cause in order to bring back the world of Darwinia to its former glory.

Anyone that has played a real time strategy game will notice that Darwinia is a really simplified RTS were instead of managing resources, dozens of unit types to choose from, and hundreds of units to organize the player only has to manage a couple of "programs"; soldiers, gatherers, airstrikes, transport/machine gun nest and the Darwinians themselves through a task manager so that the player can take control over.

Graphically the game is a interesting one as it's the not the graphical power house that every game out today is but is very simple and is a bit of a throwback to old school pixelated games, there is even a setting in the games options that read "I need a upgrade." Really it is very possible to run the game on high settings while on a netbook or 5-6 year old computer.

The sound is a soothing electronica, which I'm not a fan for but fits the game exceptionally and the effects of the surroundings and weapons are loud and powerful and isn't bad for digitally created.

For all RTS fans, Darwinia is a no brainer. But for players that have never played any or very many RTS's, Darwinia is simple enough to pick up and play and are sure to have fun.