A new battle royale game has entered the online scene: Darwin Project. Created by Scavengers Studio, it’s brought a new exciting part to a standard battle royale game. Players can enter as the “director” of a game, controlling which zones are shut down, placing a “manhunt” on a player, and even being able to heal a certain player during a fight. Directors can also release a “gravity storm”, which lets you jump to enormous heights and adds more fun and skill to fights. This player controlled arena gives a more Hunger Games feel, changing the way battle royale games are fought. This feature, with the game’s stunning graphics, could potentially draw more players than Fortnite.
One thing, until a week ago, preventing Darwin from building up a large community was that it cost $15. The game is now free, which will open the door for all of the players who don’t spend money on video games to try Darwin out.
Fortnite has a few things over Darwin that might keep DP behind. Its content creators are already consistently racking in millions of views a day. From Ali-A on Youtube to Ninja on Twitch, Fortnite is consistently gaining publicity and popularity. Fortnite’s building is still something that no game has yet to match. Popular battle royale games like PUBG and H1Z1 focus on weaponry, while one of Fortnite’s biggest draws is its unique function that allows you to create structures within the map. Also, with season 4 coming out today, Fortnite has added many new skins to draw more people in, and has added meteor landing spots where players can experience low gravity fights.
Lastly, Darwin is well behind Fortnite in its weapon variety. From assault rifles to submachine guns to pump shotguns, you’ll rarely have a repeat experience in Fortnite. Because of Fortnite’s high player count, Epic Games has needed to keep up with player growth by consistently adding weapons and new items into the game, as to not bore its players. Currently, The Darwin Project has only two weapons. The ax and the bow. Some people, however, think just the two weapons make for a better experience, like sophomore Skyler Busch.
“DP has better combat. You only have your bow and your ax. No crappy bullet and gun physics, just point and click.”
Despite the betters of Fortnite, Darwin Project maintains a higher level of reliability in its maintenance. With less crowded servers and a more consistent number of players, Scavengers Studio is able to keep up with bugs and make sure things stay smooth in Darwin Project. Darwin also allows you to craft reusable powers with electronics, which makes fights more random and unpredictable than in Fortnite.
“I’ve played PUBG, Fortnite, and Darwin Project, and my favorite is definitely Darwin project. DP has a more survival based, collecting, gameplay… You have a set amount of time to prepare and collect resources and when the time is up you fight each other… Fortnite has a massive audience and an easy to play game-style that relies less on skill and allows you to have a fun experience without dedicating a large amount of time to the game,” said Busch.
Darwin’s attempt at realism and clear connection to the popular series, The Hunger Games, will definitely keep it in the running as one of the top battle royale games. Within 24 hours of this article being written, The Darwin Project hit a new high of 12,513 concurrent players and continued its download climb to 500,000 players. It’s safe to say DP is joining the ranks of the top played battle royale games. But can it really challenge Fortnite? That’s up to the public to decide.
