Darwin Project
Developer/publisher Scavengers Studio
Format PC (tested), PS4, Xbox One
Release Out now
Where does the battle royale go from here? In less than three years, we’ve had three titans establish themselves as the boundaries of the genre. Right now, it seems unlikely anything will dethrone the current holy trinity, excepting another Apex-style surprise, but while those games are constantly iterating, there must be room for something a little more transformative. Darwin Project doesn’t uproot the genre, but playing it is like watching someone reimagine the battle-royale template from first principles.
Part of this is a result of the game’s history. It first launched into early access at the start of 2018, with mania. retreated, dropping its price of entry for a free-to-play model after a few weeks, and it’s remained a work-in-progress ever since. Here at its eventual release, the crisp snow of its arena remains relatively untouched by the footprints of the competition. This is a battle-royale game without guns, with far fewer than 100 players, and with no need ever to pose that epoch-making question, ‘Where we dropping, boys?’ And, blessedly, it works.
