So how do I feel about my first ever royale? Honestly, pretty good. With others that have been out, they can be intimidating at times. Being placed in a lobby with 100 players first time out can be super frustrating and honestly is what turned me away. Taking only 10 people into a medium-sized map and letting them go at it is honestly a really great start for someone new like myself. The colors are a cool futuristic look and the map landscape is honestly cool itself, no freezing and snow puns intended. Some of the processes like buying ramen and just how exactly all your special abilities are hard to understand fully at times, but that is OK as the more you go the more you unlock. The way this made me feel was that this is a good starter. If you want to get into the Battle Royale landscape and have no clue how or where to start, Darwin Project is a good ‘starter kit’ for anyone. There are times where its hard to understand and figure out, but that’s OK. It’s a really good game to get you into the genre.
So I need to preface this as fast as possible. I know we live in the United States of Battle Royales and I have made it this far in my life without touching one, until now. No, I don’t have a problem with them. I know there is an audience that love and cares for them. I have never been part of that crowd. Then I got my hands on Darwin Project.
Developed by Scavengers Studios, Darwin Project rakes the somewhat played-out ideas of a Battle Royale and flips it on its head. Instead of being placed in a massive 100 people or pretty large lobby, you’re dropped in with 10. Yes, just 10 people in the entire map. While they aren’t the biggest maps in the world. There are still pretty large and honestly easy to get lost in (speaking from 100 percent experience). The level design is also an intricate part of the game. You get dropped into a snowy and icy wilderness that is you’re forced to think fast and ahead constantly. Not only are you left worrying about other players killing you and the map getting smaller, but you also have to manage body temperature. You will freeze to death (again speaking from 100 percent experience). Even the AI will kill itself by freezing itself. The only way to stop it is to build fires and chop wood. Going back to thinking ahead though, you can either build arrows for your bow or build a fire. Resources are scarce at times so it depends on how well you pay attention.
A lot of how you play also comes down to what class you want to play. You can choose some sweet jet wings to help fly around the map and get out of harms way, a rapid fast grappling gauntlet to pull yourself into or out of harms way, or have a headhunter drone that helps you find resources or allow you to track down other players a little easier. I loved the flying in the game though. It was honestly the best class for me. As I am new to Battle Royales, being able to have the high ground on the others was something that I needed (there’s a pun somewhere in there, you can figure it out). This also has an effect of your special abilities. Each class comes with its own perks for what you’ve chosen. For flying, you get boosts that help you get out of tough situations quicker. However, going back to resource management depends on your Darwinium. Located throughout the map in small amounts and dropped in while playing you again need to pay attention to how you’re using it. Having special abilities are honestly key in battle.
Overall, game play and controls feel good. Everything is fast pace and quick to react. The AI is super tough. I had some struggles finding online public lobbies so I would play the AI as much as possible. They were ruthless at best. I got beat about six times on easy and the highest I came was second. The AI is willing to put up a fight and make ‘training’ you legit. The tight one on one combat is very high stress and tight. The bow and arrow is kind of hard for me to handle, honestly I just haven’t had that much experience aiming with a mouse on PC. Going one on one with the AI is super fun though. You can’t just go in willy nilly, you need to think ahead of where you are and what your next few moves are going to be. The flying is really fun and super easy to pick up on. The grappling hook can be a bit overwhelming and kind of hard to handle bit it gets familiar as you go. The hunter drone is really useful but honestly feels kinda meh to me. Flying and the Grappling are super useful and can help in battle. To me, the drone feels useless. That could just be my playing style, you might find the drone super useful. In retrospect, it’s better for someone who will play more of a safe and strategic game (that’s a little above my pay grade though). Leveling up these classes is also slightly hard. It feels like it would take some time grinding to get them fully leveled up, but that’s fair for a battle royale.
Character customization is also nice. You do have a lot of options for your player, but the prices and currency are kinda strange. You have ramen (yeah the college student poor kind of ramen) that you use to buy stuff in-game. Your outfits are kinda limited at first, but there is a lot of items to grab as the game goes on. The pricing is a little high, 300 ramen for the first purchasable ax feels kinda high, but if you’re willing to either you can get ramen through completing daily challenges or buy pay to play (though I couldn’t seem to get them a pay window for some reason). All the clothes for your character are pretty fair priced though which is fair.
So how do I feel about my first ever royale? Honestly, pretty good. With others that have been out, they can be intimidating at times. Being placed in a lobby with 100 players first time out can be super frustrating and honestly is what turned me away. Taking only 10 people into a medium-sized map and letting them go at it is honestly a really great start for someone new like myself. The colors are a cool futuristic look and the map landscape is honestly cool itself, no freezing and snow puns intended. Some of the processes like buying ramen and just how exactly all your special abilities are hard to understand fully at times, but that is OK as the more you go the more you unlock. The way this made me feel was that this is a good starter. If you want to get into the Battle Royale landscape and have no clue how or where to start, Darwin Project is a good ‘starter kit’ for anyone. There are times where its hard to understand and figure out, but that’s OK. It’s a really good game to get you into the genre.
