Darwinia

Darwinia is the new game from the folks at Introversion (the last of the bedroom programmers as they like to call themselves). They are a small independent game company and the only reason I found out about them, was that I liked their previous game Uplink, which is some sort of hacking simulator. Enough with the href-pimping, on with the impressions.
The box of Darwinia is green, and when I say “green” I mean “GREEEEEEEEEEEEN”. It practically yells at you. That way it’ll be relatively easy to find it should a retailer stock it (which may or may not habe been their intention ). The game itself seems to be some sort of action RTS, a bit reminiscent of “Cannon Fodder” or maybe even “Syndicate”. Graphics-wise, the Introversion-folks have made the best of their lack of graphic artists and implemented a retro-futuristic, texture-less “dreamscape” which fits the game well. The interface takes a no-clutter approach (using a separate gestures screen) and some clever computer-metaphors (ALT-Tabbing your units). I am not sure about their decision to compress chip-tune music as ogg, I would have much preferred an actual SID emulator (or code something akin to kb[fr]‘s software synths) — if only for the additional geek factor.
It is a labour of love, and it shows. Everytime I’ve started the game, I was greeted by a different intro, some reminiscent of 4kb-intros from the scene, others being digs at long out-of-business software companies (“Sensible”), and others still “emulating” a C64 loading process complete with flickering. And all have evoked feeling… Recommended (even for people like me that hate “proper” RTS games)!