Darwinia - 10000th Anniversary Edition

After 30 minutes fighting with the controls, I definitely can't recommend this game. The story-line is poorly introduced, the graphics are minimalist, but not the genius way. Camera management is lame as playing this game just felt like browsing google maps whenever it was first released with super slow network connection. What's more, units don't have smart trajectories and there is no way to queue orders. I played Populous, The beginning long before this and Darwinia lacks everything that makes this kind of games fun : -Characters feel buggy and unnatural. -Not appealing story -No strategy -No funny powers

Surprised to see so many reviews praising this game's innovative concept without mentioning the horrifically bad pathfinding, braindead AI, or even inability to save game mid-level. I remember enjoying some version of this game many years ago on Xbox360, but apparently my nostalgia for this game was based largely on its interesting aesthetic choices and not the gameplay itself. For starters, once you beat the tutorial stage, the pace is PAINFULLY slow. Most of the time is spent micromanaging your units across the map as they run straight into any obstacle they encounter, be it the edge of an island or your protective walls, often fatally. Since the first couple levels only let you use 3 units at a time, I often found myself wondering what happened to one of my squads, only to realize they ran headfirst into my own defenses and killed themselves, losing the several minutes of progress it takes to move them from the spawn area to the nearest enemy units. If any RTS game released this year had such bad pathfinding AI it would be absolutely eviscerated by user reviews. Darwinia apparently gets a pass for being a novel idea, and not something that fits nearly into any strategy subgenre. This level of micro might be tolerable if there was an option to save, in which case I'd have maybe a slight chance of finishing the game by chipping away at each level in brief 20-30 minute increments. As it stands, even the early levels require an hour-plus time commitment that is not particularly rewarding on the other side. Oh, did I also mention you can't even pause the game? Inconvenience and frustration as gameplay mechanics may be appealing to some, but not this reviewer.

I recommend the campaign to start with. Levels start short and easy, taking 10 Minutes to play, but get bigger. The game has a good difficulty level and gives a nice feel of progress.

As I grew up I was fascinated about all these fantastic digital worlds in computer games. Nearly every one was a beauty as its own. But as the games became more sophisticated, especially in graphics, there was more and more a lack of ideas and fantasy in the games. Darwinia is outstandig! The idea is absolutely genius. This game is not only fun it tells a unique story. The player enters a digital world that could be real. His quest: protecting digital lifeforms. Darwinia gives me back what I missed. Buy it and taste it.

Missed playing this for soo long