VideogameUK

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.

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