Darwin Project is a game being developed by Scavengers Studios in Montreal, Canada. The Battle Royale is putting it’s players in a harsh survival experience as they have to survive not only against the strong weather, but also against other players.
Do we recommend it? Yes, but a few changes are needed.
Platforms : PC
Languages : English
Release date : March 9, 2018
Our score : 7/10 (the game is still in early access, we will be making an updated review once the game is fully released)
[Summary from Steam page]
Darwin Project takes place in a dystopian post-apocalyptic landscape in the Northern Canadian Rockies. As preparation for an impending Ice Age, a new project, half science experiment half live-entertainment, is launched. It’s called “Darwin Project” and it challenges 10 participants to survive the cold and fight to the death in a treacherous arena.
Introducing new concepts to the battle royale genre : Show director & Live specators
The pros
Show directors are an interesting new concept that we are greeted with in Darwin Project. The players who take up the role are granted the chance to dictate a few aspects of a match (healing players, closing zones,..). This is really unique and really interesting. We have had the chance of playing with incredibly entertaining directors who made our first matches so fun. We were also able to rate those amazing directors at the end of them match and we were happy to do so.
The live spectators on the other hand are gamers who are watching a match live and can opt to vote for who they think will win. They can also vote to help the director make important decisions. This is a really great addition to any streamers who wishes to let their community play a part in his or her gameplay as directors. It is such a great tool for platforms like Twitch to also help promote great possible casters and professional streamers!
Show director & Live spectators : The cons
While the Show director idea was great on paper, and while there are many great directors out there, it still needs a lot of work. Unfortunately, some players are abusing of it by taking this as an opportunity to be toxic to other players. Sexist and racists insults are then very present in some matches since the voice chat is always active. There is no push-to-talk options and the only way of dealing with those kind of abusive directors (other than the report system) is to mute ourselves at the start of the match and then players. The tools provided could also lets directors intentionally target someone and make their life impossible, or doing favoritism towards another. Which does get irritating for everyone at some point. Being a great director is rather complex, so we just want to clarify that this negative review is only pointing towards the toxicity of some players rather than the lack of experience. Many things seems to be in development concerning the Directors as we are seeing a few changes coming in. We will be keeping a close eye on this feature!
The second feature that does not seem to work as well as intended is the live spectators, not because it’s not working, but because there is a lack of spectators. 
Duo mode : we can’t get enough of it!
The duo mode that was added in the game is definitely our favorite and we are glad that it’s here to stay! Planning out resources together, being on the look out for other players and working together to hunt them down is really fun. However, don’t forget to mute your mic if you are using a software like Discord or Skype in the background since there is no push-to-talk!
Speaking of voice chat…
A push-to-talk seems like a necessity in a game like this one. Muting yourself entirely to be able to Stream or talk with your friends without having everyone around hearing your conversation is a bit strange and unnatural. But this has been mentioned many times already in the Steam discussions and in many other reviews.
Overall, we do recommend this game and think that you should give it a try. It is progressing rather fast and it is clear that some issues are being slowly improved. This is a title that we will keep a close eye on and will review again once it’s fully released! We can’t wait to see how far it goes!
All screenshots and images are copyrights of Scavengers Studio.
FrontSeat Gaming 