2005. Unless you’re a time traveller, that was a really long time ago. A lot has changed since then, and technology is no exception. What I’m getting at is that as video games age, sometimes, a fresh coat of paint is in order – which is exactly what Darwinia got, in the form of Darwinia 10000th Anniversary Edition. That and a slew of technical improvements. Perhaps the latter more than the former, but you know what they say about messing with perfection.
Real-time strategy (RTS) might be a relatively dead genre in 2022, depending on who you ask. Personally, I’d say it has simply changed, morphed into something that’s slightly different… yet very much still, you know, real-time strategy. Darwinia 10000th Anniversary Edition is a good example of this. Sure, it’s a remaster of a 2005 game, but I’m still gonna count it (and not just so this article doesn’t veer way off-topic). Oh, and I actually revisited the game briefly prior to writing, and simply put: it totally holds up, some seventeen years later.
It might be slightly slow-paced for those with hundreds of hours logged in StarCraft II and I did notice somewhat wonky pathfinding, although those are honestly minor issues within an otherwise rather unique experience. As far as the remaster itself goes, and exactly what’s changed, well, quite a bit actually. On the audio side of things, 7.1-channel surround sound has been implemented, among other things, while the visuals, oh man, the visuals – this is probably where the most changes were made: OpenGL 3.3, Vulkan 1.1, Direct3D 11, even Metal(!) can now be used to render every last lovely pixel. UI scaling? A slew of anti-aliasing options? Check and check!
Combining fast-paced action with strategic battle planning, Darwinia features a novel and intuitive control mechanism, a graphical style ripped from 80’s retro classics like Tron and Defender, and a story concerning a tribe of nomadic sprites trapped in a modern 3D world.
Loads of behind-the-scenes stuff too, like bugfixes “on numerous axes, including scripting, level editing, input handling, graphics, sound, stability, and game AI”. Quite a mouthful. Oh, and the Steam version now has cloud support. Groovy. Unless I’m reading the post wrong, I think… Steam Deck support is also a thing? Maybe? Might be pretty neat, as the slow-ish pace of Darwinia 10000th Anniversary Edition should help make for a fun on-the-go experience. So what are you waiting for? That virus isn’t going to eliminate itself!
Darwinia 10000th Anniversary Edition is available on Steam and GOG.com with a $9.99 price tag (note: $1.99 until April 21).
