The Darwin Project is an upcoming battle royale game by developer Scavengers Studio. Players will need to survive not only against other players but against harsh environments and an ever-shrinking map. Hunt players using bows and traps to hopefully take first place. Can you outsmart your enemies or will your tactics fall apart thanks to one ill timed arrow? Show your survival tactics in The Darwin Project.

The Darwin Project is a 3rd person action game where players will use weapons such as axes and bows to eliminate their fellow players. Players begin in random areas on a hexagonal shaped map where they must gather resources as fast as they possibly can. Not only do they need to deal with the harsh cold but every area on the map will eventually be turned into a Forbidden Zone which means staying that specific area means death. The game ends when all but one player is left. Get ready for an adrenaline filled multiplayer game where death can be around any corner in The Darwin Project,

Taking place in a post-apocalyptic area of Canada, The Darwin Project acts as an experiment. Various people are thrown into a live battle royale event where they must survive by any means necessary. The participants will be forced to be quick about each movement they make and must somehow survive. Who will be the victor and who will end up with a quick death? Find out in The Darwin Project.

The Darwin Project by developer Scavengers Studio might be in the Alpha stage but we here at Honey’s Anime already see some great things for it. Equally, there are some things The Darwin Project could fix and hopefully will in the upcoming 2018 release. We got to enjoy a few days of playing this ambitious battle royale title and we have some thoughts we’d like to share with all of you readers out there. Welcome to our Alpha preview of The Darwin Project for the PC.

On paper The Darwin Project seems like a pretty simple idea, a 10-player free for all in environments that have random items to salvage for better items and gear. Thankfully though, Scavengers Studio seemed to see this being a possibility and threw in some very interesting variants to create a unique experience for the gameplay and presentation. Let’s explore some of those as we talk about the gameplay first.

As soon as a match begins The Darwin Project throws you quite literally into the battlefield. Here you must use your axe—or shovel as that is an available option in the Alpha—to chop trees and get means to make a fire and or find leather via couches. Both of these resources allow the player to then build either fires—which will prevent you from dying to the cold—and or other resources such as arrows, armor and traps. Once you feel like you’re prepared enough its then time to begin making your moves. Will you lure your enemy to your destination or will you hunt others, the choice is yours but be careful as whatever you can do in The Darwin Project your enemy can do as well.

That’s one of the best elements that we noticed right away in The Darwin Project. While other free for all titles feel random, The Darwin Project feels like everyone has an equal opportunity to win and when you lose its typically because you weren’t cautious enough or someone just out witted you in combat. It doesn’t come down to luck of finding a machine gun in a house or armor in some hidden chest, there are random items known as Electronics—which can let you create camo and other abilities like teleport small distances—and a random spectator can also boost your stats if they wish to but these only add a bit of survivability in the long run and never feel unfair. The Darwin Project is indeed a smart game by design and we can only imagine how future updates or the final product can add to this.

Control wise, The Darwin Project feels pretty responsive. Combat boils down to using the mouse—though there is controller support but we’ll get into that in a moment—to either swing your axe and or shoot your bow. The Q button activates your craft wheel where you can make your traps and items and place them depending on where you’re at. It may seem overly simple but combat can be quite fun thanks to the ability to clash melee weapons together and even hit arrows away with well timed swings. Plus, add the trap elements and you can take out enemies with relative ease thus making each round feel perfect in terms of length.

If we had any complaints with The Darwin Project’s gameplay it comes in two forms. The first is that controller support felt responsive for normal attacks and crafting but aiming was terrible, we tried to tweak our settings but nothing rectified it so we hope that’s addressed later. Our second minor worry is the longevity to be had playing The Darwin Project. In the Alpha of The Darwin Project we only saw one map and while it’s randomized with items, the environment itself seemed the same. That’s why we wonder will there be more maps and if there will be more weapons/traps? These can all help increase the fun to be had with The Darwin Project but can also hinder it depending on how they are executed. Though as it is we’re pretty sure The Darwin Project once finished will be tons of fun with a ton of possibilities that will only help the game in the long run.

Graphically, The Darwin Project doesn’t look that great but is terrible either. The map we here at Honey’s Anime got to play on during the weekend Alpha looked nice in some designs but even on the highest settings it wasn’t enough to blow our minds. Though this could be the fact that again this is an Alpha which usually always have imperfections with graphics to avoid any gameplay issues. We’re sure in the final build The Darwin Project will look a lot better and that’s why our issues aren’t enough to scare us. Though if these issues aren’t addressed when the full game does release then it might be a bit of an issue.

With the recent second closed alpha of The Darwin Project, we got some additional gameplay features to mention. Now players can control the Show Director which adds a truly random element to any match. At any time the Show Director can alter various areas with several powers such as adding a electronic for players to collect, close off an area earlier than it should and even launch a nuke instantly killing off any one still in a zone. Aside from that we also saw all characters rocking Santa hats in celebration of Christmas soon approaching making the killing game a bit more festive. Various gameplay tweaks and stability issues also have been rectified which made our time with The Darwin Project a bit more enjoyable.

While we only got to play The Darwin Project for a few days, what we’ve seen so far is pretty impressive. To try and survive each round is both exciting and rewarding in equal measure. We are now eagerly looking forward to the final product and we’re sure many of you will agree with us. When the full game does release sometime in 2018 we here at Honey’s Anime will try to get a full review out to you all but until then we hope this gets you hyped for The Darwin Project. Depending on the price and if our issues/worries are addressed in the full release of The Darwin Project we might think this could be one of the better battle royale titles out there on the market.

Honestly, while this might be an Alpha play for The Darwin Project we here at Honey’s Anime this could be an awesome title with a little polish here and there. If players can get more maps to enjoy and slightly enhanced graphics, our issues with The Darwin Project would basically be almost nothing. This is an extremely fun game from what we played and we know that The Darwin Project can become even more fun and enjoyable once it drops early 2018. Did you get to play the Alpha for The Darwin Project and are you looking forward to it as well? Comment your thoughts down below and if you loved our review then you’ll want to scour our site for more gaming articles here at Honey’s Anime.