Since
Darwinia+ is actually two games shipped together, we have quite a bit to cover below. Both games are about getting Darwinians to help themselves.
The story of Darwinia is a classic one. The digital world of Darwinia was created by Dr. Sepulveda, who will narrate your journey and help with much needed research. Darwinia is inhabited by sentient digital life forms called Darwinians. You are instantly thrust into a conflict to retake Darwinia from an evil computer virus known as the Virii. Darwinians are independent lifeforms that have set about their world, which exists inside a super computer, creating their own beliefs and way of life. The only problem is that, like any computer, there are viruses that eventually creep in, leading up to a great war with the Virii.
Dr. Sepulveda will give you access to "programs" that will allow you to interact directly with the environment. In the beginning, there are three available spots in the Task Bar, allowing for three programs to be active and running in the world at any one time. Dr. Sepulveda will help you research ways to improve your task bar and allow you to use more programs at one time. This adds the ability to perform more than one action at a time, and hence, be more effective as you progress through Darwinia.
The first program you will want to create is a Squad. This group of armed, offensive soldiers is directly controllable to combat the red Virii menace. You use your Squad to clear the way for your other programs and Darwinians. You may then want to activate an Engineer program that has many useful functions. The first purpose for an Engineer program is to access nodes that the Virii have taken over, such as radar disks, which are used to beam over areas of the environment you can't travel over on foot. You will discover pieces of research that are randomly found in the environment. After the Engineer decodes these pieces of research, they allow for upgrades, weapons, and tools you will need later. Be sure to keep an eye on your research levels, as Dr. Sepulveda can only research one thing at a time to upgrade. If you do not pay attention, you can waste precious time on completed upgrades, which could be spent on another program. As you move along in the game, you then can create dual function tanks called Armors from your task bar. They act as both transport, and when commanded to do so, they transform into a stationary gun turret. These come in very handy when you need to deal massive damage, or hold positions.
Both your Squad and Darwinians will eventually have access to grenades, turrets and lasers. After successfully combating the Virii, the Engineer can collect the digital souls of fallen creatures in order to return them to an incubator module and grow new, green Darwinians.
Multiwinia rounds out this title. With Darwinia being the single player mission-based game we originally knew, we are presented with a wholly multiplayer experience in Multiwinia. The Xbox 360 is a great home for this side of the title. There is a single player version to Multiwinia, which can help you prepare for the players on Xbox Live, but actually I think it may be the other way around. There is more on this issue in the Difficulty section below.
You need to check out the tutorials section first. Controlling Darwinians here is different, and so are the roles of the Darwinians. Once you have started a game, choose the type of game you wish to play, choose your map, and then set the options for how you want to play your game. There are five different game types to choose from: Domination - where you, well, you dominate. King of the Hill - where you camp and hold points on the map. Capture the Statue - where you use the Darwinians to grab, lift and move a statue to your control point. Assault - where you attack and defend fortified areas. Rocket Riot - where you refuel and board your rocket to escape. Finally, there is Blitzkrieg - which is a steamroller of digital death and destruction. Not only do you have all of these options of the type of games to play, there are 49 maps to play in. The ability to be able to affect time, handicaps, and other map options leave you with thousands of gameplay combinations.
There is nothing friendly or cuddly about this game. When your Darwinians first take the field of battle, they tend to meander about and do their own thing. It is up to you to promote privileged Darwinians that will organize and mobilize your digital armies. You can grab individuals with a tool that looks not unlike that of the tool for Pikmin. Send them to collect Crate Drops from the battlefield. They hold reinforcements and tools to use during the fight. There are armored units here as well that will allow you to sprint past defenders. You can defend positions with mounted turrets. Besides the grab tool, and other stay/go commands, the appointed officer Darwinians can organize columns to move together in groups and shoot anything that moves. These organized columns react quicker and cleaner than a disorganized mass of Darwinians and move from point to point.
Both games are right at home on the Xbox 360. I wish that I didn't have to wait so long for them to get here from PC, but I am good with the results after their transition to Xbox 360. There were some hiccups to the transfer, which we will get into later, but in all, I was pleased with the crossover.
