The Battle Royale Darwin Project had been in Early Access since 2018 without notable success. Now the game has officially been released and also has a PS4 version.
What is Darwin Project? Darwin Project is a Free2Play Battle Royale, which visually resembles Fortnite. However, there are significant gameplay differences:
- Only 10 players compete against each other.
- Weapons include an axe, a bow, and various skills that can be unlocked during the course of a match.
- There are no building options, apart from crafting your own arrows.
- There is a game master who can influence the events. He decides which areas of the map shrink, can drop bombs in certain zones, or support players with health points or speed buffs.
With this concept, the aim was to attract some fans of the well-known “Battle Royale” titles. Accordingly, Darwin Project was released on Xbox One in January 2018 and in Early Access on Steam, but as a Buy2Play title.
However, the hoped-for success did not materialize; the game switched to Free2Play after 6 months. Nevertheless, the average player numbers on Steam have even fallen below the 100 mark in recent months.
What has happened now? On January 14, Darwin Project officially left Early Access on Steam. At the same time, it unexpectedly launched for the PS4 console. The Battle Royale had not been announced for that platform initially.
It seems they want to make another push with the game, even though there has been little change in content since its first release two years ago.
New Class System and Many Simplifications at Release
What classes are there? Compared to Early Access, our author Jürgen Horn has already played Darwin Project now offers three classes to choose from at the start of a match:
- Jet Wings – Allows you to take to the air and fight from there.
- Grapple Gauntlet – Focuses on mechanical skills, like a hand that can pull you towards opponents.
- Headhunter Drone – You have a robotic companion throughout the entire time that can track targets.
Each class has three abilities, one of which you know immediately and the other two can be unlocked during the game with the currency Darwinium.
What else has changed? The resource leather has been removed. Instead, only wood and Darwinium are needed for evolving skills and crafting arrows.
Air drops have also been simplified. While they used to give special electronic parts and thus skills, they now only contain Darwinium.
Does Project Darwin have a chance? Since the official release of the game on January 14, player numbers on Steam have noticeably increased. Also, on Twitch, according to Sullygnomes significantly more people are watching.
In recent months, Darwin Project rarely surpassed 1,000 simultaneous viewers on the streaming platform. However, on January 15, there were 21,444 peak viewers.
It is quite possible that the new attention may create a small hype again. The reviews from the last 30 days on Steam are 82% positive. Whether the Battle Royale can maintain itself in the long term now remains to be proven.
Project Darwin is expected to survive in 2020. But which MMOs could die this year? We have identified some candidates:
