Fortnite was fun for a while, but eventually I got bored of battle royale games. Then today I noticed that a new one, The Darwin Project, was free to download on the Playstation Store. The graphics immediately reminded me of Fortnite, but the description piqued my interest. It's a battle royale with actual survival elements. Rather than picking up weapons that are just lying around, you have to scavenge resources and craft them yourself. Since you're on a snowy mountaintop, you also have to watch your heat meter and build a fire to warm up every couple minutes. Every time you build something, it leaves behind a "clue" that other players can notice scan to get a temporary lock on of your position.
When I read that, I imagined a game where you're battling the environment for survival just as much as you're battling the other players. Scavenge for resources, hunt for food, maybe set up a makeshift camp, do some actual preparation before hunting your opponents while knowing that they might already be hunting you. Sadly, that isn't the case. It's just Fortnite with only one gun (a crappy bow and arrow), a single melee weapon, and no building. Trees only take one hit to knock down, so you'll deforest the entire map while running aimlessly around. The heat meter is just an annoyance rather than an interesting mechanic. Whenever it gets low, spend one "wood" to build a fire and raise it again, the end. Everything is moving so fast that you won't even stop to worry about leaving clues behind.
Then there are the classes. One gives you a jetpack, one gives you a grappling hook, and one gives you a robot buddy that will track other players--but only when they're close enough to make it worthless. The only other resource you can collect is "darwiniam" which lets you unlock two special moves for each of those classes, but you'll find that junk more easily than you'll find trees, which makes me wonder why they didn't just let you start off with them.
I'll admit the map system is an interesting change of pace. Rather than a "storm" closing in on a random point on the map, the map is hexagonal and certain sections of it will randomly become "forbidden," meaning that you have to leave it or else die. Plus, there are only ten players instead of 100, which means matches go a lot faster.
In case it's not obvious, I'm not impressed. There aren't enough weapons to any playstyle besides "miss with all your arrows and then hit them in the face with your axe." It has a couple interesting ideas, but feels afraid to use them in case players decide it's not Fortnite-y enough and lose interest. I downloaded it, played three matches, and deleted it again.
The Darwin Project (PS4)
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Retro STrife
- Posts: 2553
- Joined: August 3rd, 2015, 7:40 pm
Re: The Darwin Project (PS4)
Well, thanks for trying it so we don't have to.. I eventually got tired of Battle Royale games too, and haven't played one in a long time. It was fun while it lasted though. IMO, Fortnite deserved to be the phenomenon that it was. It's one of the 20 best games I've ever played.
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DaHeckIzDat
- Posts: 2015
- Joined: April 9th, 2015, 1:41 pm
Re: The Darwin Project (PS4)
Retro STrife wrote:Well, thanks for trying it so we don't have to.. I eventually got tired of Battle Royale games too, and haven't played one in a long time. It was fun while it lasted though. IMO, Fortnite deserved to be the phenomenon that it was. It's one of the 20 best games I've ever played.
If someone were to make a BR game that actually makes use of these mechanics, and makes it more realistic like PUBG, I might be interested enough to give it a try. But I think as long as Fortnite is on top, nobody is going to want to break the mold too much. Sadly, I see more money in being a Fortnite clone than anything original right now.