Darwinia+ is bizarre yet brilliant. I mean just look at the plot synopsis. Darwinia was a digital theme world for artificially intelligent polygons as created by Dr Sepulveda. Things all go a bit wrong however when Darwinia is infected by a virus and it’s down to you to clear the virus through the use of combat programs selectable via a task manager-esque function. It sounds a little ridiculous doesn’t it? This is coming from Introversion though, a brilliant British company who made the sublime Uplink, a hacking simulator. Throw in the wonderfully retro style of Darwinia+ and the full package is a delightful throwback to the 8-bit era while retaining great relevance to modern gaming.
At its most basic level, Darwinia+ is a Real Time Strategy game but that’s selling it short. It’s unlike other RTS games thanks to its PC-esque descriptions. There’s no creation menu, instead there’s the task manager in which you can choose to create a squad or an engineer. Squads can be directed to shoot the various virii in your path. This is done via a two stick arcade shooter method adding an extra, albeit simple, dimension to proceedings. Engineers are floating units that can be directed to fix control towers or collect research cores amongst other useful tasks. Your main role throughout the numerous areas is to clear the ever growing virus while protecting the Darwinians. The virus, unless tamed by your squads, will continue to grow until unquenchable so it makes sense to get on with clearing a safe path quickly. The virus initially starts out as red wavy, snake like lines but as time goes on, it morphs into more nasty varieties making it all the more imperative to move swiftly.
It’s not possible to control the vulnerable Darwinians directly, although an individual Darwinian can be assigned officer status so that it can herd the group towards your chosen location. Darwinians aren’t the brightest of things though and sometimes it gets rather frustrating trying to direct them to safety thanks to iffy path finding AI. Darwinians like to wander off a little too much for my liking but it’s made bearable by the rest of the game being so quirkily enjoyable.
Darwinia+ is hard to define really as it is so very quirky. While the RTS elements are strong, they’re also extremely simplified. There’s no need to worry about harvesting resources for example but RTS is still probably the closest genre it could be described as. The two stick arcade shooter aspect wasn’t to be seen in the original PC version but it fits into the Xbox 360 nature perfectly. Controls on the whole work well considering this game was originally designed with a mouse and keyboard in mind and it doesn’t take long to adapt.
Annoyingly the tutorials offered are a little too simple. They focus more on teaching players how to use the camera fully and to navigate the screen, then explain the game fully. It doesn’t take long to adapt fortunately but it is something to consider as it does initially make Darwinia+ a little intimidating to those who aren’t sure what to expect.
Besides the single player component of Darwinia+, Multiwinia has been included as part of the 1200 point package, providing the multiplayer element. This works extremely well on the Xbox, if only people actually played it. Sure you can play against the AI but it’s not quite the same. Multiwinia is a little different in attitude to Darwinia+. It’s surprisingly fast paced in fact. You control groups of Darwinians who can automatically attack with lasers or grenades with the majority of modes focusing on destruction as the path to victory. Each map only takes between 5 and 10 minutes to complete so action is fast and furious. Various weapon drops land throughout the level continuing the paced theme. There’s a lot to like in Multiwinia but there never seemed to be anyone to play against which was irritating and a real missed opportunity by 360 owners.
Darwinia+ on the whole is wonderfully quirky. It’s like no other game on the Xbox LIVE Arcade marketplace. The style of the game may well put off less experienced gamers who don’t remember the 8-bit days of the Spectrum and Commodore 64, but it really shouldn’t. Sure you might get a little more out of it in terms of nostalgic memories but even without that, Darwinia+ is something rather special. It might take a little while to adjust to but it’s worth that without a doubt. The single player mode will last the average gamer around 10 hours, and the multiplayer? Well, make sure you get a few friends to buy it too! They’ll thank you for it.
VideogameUK verdict: 8/10
