Darwinia screams uniqueness from every corner.
It seems that the guys at Introversion Software just love to feel retro. The game they made after this one, DEFCON, recreated the 1980’s WarGames feel of tactical real-time strategy games. Darwinia however, manages to take you back to the good old days of the first ray tracing software, British ZX Spectrum’s and Acorn Computers, in a totally elegant and accessible way. The game itself transcends categorisation into one specific genre, being part RTS, part God game, and part adventure all in one. With Darwinia, you are invited to dive into a veritable digital dreamscape, with the ultimate task of attempting to defeat an evil Ghost in the Machine in the form of a viral computer infection, whilst saving the harmoniously peace-loving 2D digital Darwinians. What makes Darwinia so good is this excellent blend of different gameplay elements, a fantastically beautiful retro visual and sound design and several other quirky aspects. Even in the five years since release, it doesn’t feel dated at all. Although the campaign is relatively short, and offers only moderate replay value, the journey and experience are more than worth the price of admission.
Darwinia is purposefully rather light on backstory. The beginning cutscene shows you in the process of booting into the Darwin Research Associates Project Server, the Internet’s first digital theme park, home to a race of digital artificial intelligence, the Darwinians. These are a race of single polygon creatures, who have lived for many virtual generations and can adapt and evolve to there environment; living, working and eventually dying before their digital soul is reincarnated at the Central Repository. Normally a highly peaceful and tranquil world where the Darwinians frolic through the 2-dimensional grass, Darwinia has been attacked by a virulent computer virus, which has killed many Darwinians and destroyed much of the infrastructure which governs the world. Dr. Sepulveda, who created and manages the project, asks for your help in destroying the virus and reclaiming the Darwinians’ homeland. From here, the gameplay follows a relatively linear fashion. You must enter an area of Darwinia, cleanse it of all virus infection, and then complete any other tasks Sepulveda has asked of you, before linking that area to the rest of the network and moving onward. The story itself is reasonably light, but endearing enough to carry you forward with ease. The various elements of the game include some limited real-time strategy aspects, as well some parts of puzzle and God games. You use the Task Manager to create units and slowly research upgrades that will assist in defeating the virus, whilst attempting to bolster the local Darwinian population by converting slain virus souls into new Darwinians.
Whilst the Darwinians themselves cannot be directly controlled, there are some units which will assist in leading them to victory against the viral menace destroying their homeland. The Squad is a number of soldiers who do most of the heavy work of killing the virus, by firing their lasers, throwing grenades or calling in airstrikes. When killed, the virus leaves behind red souls, which will eventually float back upward to the Central Repository if they are not collected. The Engineer is responsible for collecting these souls and returning them to a hatchery, where they are converted back into Darwinians. The Engineer can also reprogram buildings to be able to use, such as teleporters and trunk port junction gates. Finally, you gain the ability to designate certain Darwinians as Officers, who are able to issue instructions to ordinary Darwinians on where to go and what to do. These can be to move to a specific area, or to follow the Officer to a destination. Pathfinding with the Darwinians can occasionally be slightly tricky since they don’t like going round corners, but they will usually be able to reach a destination via a process of elimination, i.e. going to all the places they shouldn’t before arriving where they should. Usually, effective management of these three unit types will bring triumph to most scenarios you might encounter. The variety of gameplay styles works in the games favour, for although many missions are similar, you will never particularly feel like you have having to repeat yourself.
The artistically retro graphics of Darwinia are just a joy to behold. The landscape itself is comprised of various block fractal polygon hills and islands between a purposefully pixelated sea and sky, and whilst this may sound uninspiring, in actual fact it makes the entire game feel crispy simple. The variety of enemy virus types all look appropriately menacing, even as the game pretends it cannot render them in higher resolutions; a simply magnificent touch. From the gentle way the diamond souls of deceased Darwinians float upwards into the sky, or how the red swarms of viral monsters swarm across the scenery, this is certainly a beautifully designed game. It is really the indie niche aspects of Darwinia’s design which stand at the absolute forefront. The little touches have really helped to bring out the love and care that went into creating the game. For example, the Darwinians’ speech is entirely made up of noises made by a cat belonging to one of the production staff, so they purr when happy and mew when frightened. The game also features some of the best game introductions ever, showcasing a variety of ‘boot loaders’ as the game calls them, such as a faux "cracktro" which makes it look like Darwinia was pirated some time in 1985, or a loading screen from the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, complete with authentic start-up noises. With things like this included, you can’t stop yourself from adoring its indie nature.
In terms of sound, there are is a great variety and good use of old-fashioned computer noises and bleeps which provide most of the sound effects and ambient environmental noises. This is coupled with a nicely authentic sounding musical score, incorporating various electronic tracks which set the right tone between a reverential digital infancy, and foreboding or mournful given the current state of Darwinia. The opening theme of “Visitors from Dreams” for example is extremely memorable. Despite all of the greatness that is packed into Darwinia, the campaign itself is relatively short, lasting for only half a dozen or so hours at most, and once you have finished, there is rather little actively tempting you to return. The game certainly remains quite enthralling even on multiple playthroughs, but what would have been ever better would have been to include some kind of map editor, where people could design their own levels to clear of virus infection.
