Preview: Darwin Project (Steam)

Darwin Project takes the battle royale genre up north, where an impending ice age has given rise to a twisted new reality show in which ten participants must fight to the death under the Show Director’s gaze.

Pros:

• Nice cartoon style graphics.
• 5123MB Download size.
• TV game show presentation.
• Set in the snowy Canadian mountains.
• Two modes- Solo and Director.
• Battle Royale, Survival gameplay. 10 players get dropped in an area, Scavenge parts from trees, Furniture etc and craft fires, arrows, and weapons. Last player standing wins.
• Full crafting suite presented as a crafting wheel which can be customized to taste.
• The map is made up of hexagons, Each hexagon Is an area.
• Craft on the go.
• Follow leave footprints in the snow.
• Warmth meter, Craft a fire to warm up otherwise you start to freeze, Screen fills with ice and you start taking damage until death.
• Minimap- Only able to view it in houses.
• Two weapon types- Melee and ranged.
• Warm up area as you wait for players.
• 10 player count.
• Get noise markers for general enemy positions.
• Can craft and lay traps.
• Clue system to help track enemies.
• Tense fun paced gameplay.
• Decent loading times.
• Earn fans (EXP) to level up.
• Basic wardrobe/character creation section.
• Graphics- Resolution, Fullscreen, Graphics quality very low to epic and V-Sync.
• Rebindable keys and invert axis option.
• Private match option.
• Full Twitch and Mixer integration. Cast votes to your viewers.
• Stats/Awards section.
• Leaderboard with filters.
• Director- You are in charge of the game and can use special abilities like shut down areas, Drop nukes, Give health or invincibility to a player and many more.
• Director camera- You can jump to characters or have a free cam.
• Action Points- Used by the director, These slowly charge up and each action you want to do have a charge amount.
• Upon death, you can spectate.
• Kill feed that also displays damage dealt to people.
• So much fun to play.

Cons:

• No achievements.
• Huge knockback on arrows, Like ridiculous knockback.
• No tutorial.
• Doesn’t support a controller.
• Only Male characters atm.
• Director needs more camera options and have it feel more streamlined.
• No fans gain as a director.
• AP is slow to build.
• No real feedback on director performance outside of a star rating.

In Summary:

Darwin project sounds such a good take on Battle royals. It does deliver in a lot of ways, It’s just a shame you have to play so much and watch many videos just to know what is on offer in the game craft and attack wise. I still feel uneducated on what you can and cannot do. I liked the Director idea but it atm feels like an unrewarding experience with little feedback and integration. I remain hopeful as this could be a fantastic game with some great tournaments, I just hope it doesn’t go full streamer only status.