Great Cheap Games is back and better than ever!

Well, it’s back in any case.

Today’s game, Darwinia, doesn’t fall into the criteria of $19.99 or under (it’s $29.99), but it’s such a great game that I don’t mind pimping it as a cheap game.

It’s hard to explain what Darwinia is. Essentially it’s a complicated game of Lemmings, but it has so much more depth than that simple description. You play the part of an anonymous computer user who stumbles into Darwinia. Unfortunately, Darwinia is under lockdown because of a viral infection. The person running this virtual playground - Dr. Sepulveda - recruits you into restoring Darwinia to its former glory.

The residents of Darwinia, the Darwinians, resemble the cacture from Final Fantasy 6 - they’re small, green, stick-figure shaped beings. Unlike Final Fantasy 6, however, they won’t kick your butt with “100 Needles.”

The goals in each level vary. In one level you’ll be asked to save a certain number of Darwinians, while another level will ask you to have the Darwinians produce a certain number of items. In every case, your basic task is to save as many of the little green guys as possible.

As in Lemmings, you do not have direct control over the Darwinians; however, in order to meet your objectives you can run several different programs which can perform various tasks. Squads can destroy viruses while engineers can reprogram parts of the world so you can use it (such as satellite dishes).

The gameplay mechanics are pretty slick: you start a program with a mouse gesture, while actually controlling a program is simply point and click. You can switch between programs using the classic Alt + Tab combination. You can only have a certain number of program open at a time, so in order to run another program you’ll have to close an existing one with the Ctrl + C keyboard shortcut.

The controls are very responsive, and fairly easy to get along with. My only complaint is: in the heat of battle, mouse gestures are a royal pain in the butt to get right. You may want to swap out your Squads secondary weapon for something else, but are unable to do so because you’re rushing. Other than that, everything works pretty flawlessly.

The gameplay itself isn’t perfect, but it is far superior to some of the crap that is produced by the gaming industry. The biggest drawback is the pattern I found myself in: kill the viruses, spawn more Darwinians, and finish the level. It’s a formula that works in this game, but can become tedious during long gaming sessions; however, Darwinia keeps your interest with its upgrade system: as you clear objectives in each mission, the good doctor will upgrade a piece of your inventory; for example, the Darwinians can be upgraded to shoot lasers, so they can fend for themselves against a small virus.

The camera is easy to move around using the WSAD keys as well as the mouse. Generally, the camera acts as a view port instead of another obstacle for the player, although there are some times when the camera will be jerked back because you selected a unit that’s directly underneath the camera.

The graphics in this game are very basic, made up of simple triangles and textures; but, it just works so well in this game. Instead of the latest in ultra-realistic graphics, Darwinia presents itself as more of a computer simulation, where AI takes precedent over graphics. Overall, the presentation is excellent, and works surprisingly well.

The sound isn’t anything great. Yes, you’ll hear lasers being fired, and bombs exploding, but there’s a serious lack of a soundtrack, or at least, it wasn’t working for me. In any case, the repeated sounds of your Darwinians being eaten can become annoying - frustratingly so - over a long period of time. It’s not a major problem, but it does stand out as the only real weak point in this game.

Overall, this is an excellent game. It’s addictive, time consuming, and fun! If you ever have a weekend to waste, waste it with Darwinia, you’ll be glad you did.

Click here to check out Darwinia.

Provided by Geekstreak.