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When I first saw Darwin’s Paradox, I didn’t know what to make of it. A platformer featuring an octopus? Pretty cool, and there have been weirder platformer stars in the past. SEGA’s Sonic is hardly the only animal hero in gaming. Ever heard of Aero the Acrobat or Gex or even Bubsy?
Weirdly, it’s becoming rare these days to play a decent platformer. They were all the rage back in the 80s and 90s, but time and gaming tastes have moved on I suppose. Maybe they’ll get more popular in the future?
Whatever the case, Darwin’s Paradox is here now.
So how does it play?
What is Darwin’s Paradox?
Darwin’s Paradox is a 2D platformer with 3D backgrounds developed by ZDT Studio and published by KONAMI. It is available right now on the PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.
Our review copy was awesomely provided by the super folks over at KONAMI! Thanks so much!
I’m reviewing the game on our trio of gaming machines as always.
Here are their specs:
Desktop 1 –
– MSI B550M Mortar WIFI
– AMD Ryzen 9 5900X with NZXT Kraken X73 RGB Liquid Cooler
– MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Suprim X 24G
– Teamgroup T-Force Dark Z 64GB DDR4 RAM
– Samsung 980 PRO 2TB SSD
– NZXT C1200 Gold ATX 3.1
– Lian Li LANCOOL III RGB case
Desktop 2 –
– MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi
– AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D with Cooler Master MasterLiquid 360L Core ARGB cooler
– Sapphire Pulse AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX 24GB
– G.SKILL Trident Z5 NEO 32GB DDR5-6400 RAM
– Samsung 990 PRO 2TB SSD
– Corsair RM850x PSU
– Lian Li LANCOOL 207 Digital
Notebook –
MSI Raider GE78 HX 14V
– Intel Core i9 14900HX
– NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
– 32GB DDR5 RAM
– 1TB SSD
There’s really not much to say here except the hardware we’re using is overkill.
The game is optimized enough that the minimum requirement is a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 2060 so it doesn’t take a genius to see that our gear will run the game with no issues at all. There was no hitching, stuttering, freezes , crashing or anything of the sort. I never got a CTD or even had an issue with any slowdown or input lag.
On 4K, with everything maxed out, the game played sublimely, which is the best compliment it can get.
Darwin’s Paradox is the tale of a little octopus (Darwin) and his friend, who are abducted from the sea by aliens (who are disguised as workers for a company known as UFOOD). Darwin escapes captivity and sets out on a quest to rescue the other octopus.
In the adventure, Darwin can utilize a ton of skills octopuses are known for. He can cling to walls and ceilings, he can shoot ink, he can camouflage himself and swim really fast underwater. You don’t start with every skill, but only unlock them once you hit certain points in the game.
That little bit there makes the game feel much more interesting. You’ll keep looking forward to what’s next. I know I did.
The environments Darwin encounters are pretty decent too. There’s a definite sense of scale to them and the visuals look stylized enough to feel like something that Pixar or Dreamworks would come up with. In fact, the whole time I played the game, the more I thought that this would be a good fit for one of those companies’ movies.
From the junkyard (and its sewers), to the UFOOD factory and main building, the locations seem mundane at first until you notice the teeny (sometimes not so teeny) details hidden away.
For example, in the sewers beneath the junkyard you can eventually stumble upon the remains of a huge underwater beast, or during the sneaking sections after the factory, the guards all have the Metal Gear Solid detection sound effect and ‘!’ when you’re noticed.
Yup, the game even has stealth sections where Darwin has to evade detection by camouflaging as the aliens wander around. Nothing too special, but fun (and sometimes a bit frustrating) nonetheless.
The platforming itself is nothing special, though some of the puzzles are certainly inspired.
Utilizing Darwin’s skills (especially his clinging ability) lends to some pretty unique problems to be solved. The heated pipe puzzle in the factory stands out for me quite a bit. In it, you have to time your jumps juuust right as Darwin hops and sticks from pipe to pipe as they get hot and cool back down.
Unfortunately though, for every cool puzzle, there’s an absurdly hard platforming section. Some of them are rather difficult, even for me. The rotating gear puzzles, the turbines and a couple more instances spring to mind. Some of the issues stem from the platforms themselves blending a little too well with the rest of the scenery.
I’ve had to jump blindly more than a few times, hoping I’d land on whatever it is the developers want me to jump just because I don’t know what’s a platform and what’s part of the background.
I shudder to think of what it’d be like for regular or even casual gamers because the game does tend to have some weird difficulty spikes. You’d go coasting from point to point, only to have to deal with a stupidly tough platforming section. Checkpoints can be few and far between too, so death means you’d have to restart from quite a distance at times.
Since Darwin can only take one hit (barring some special circumstances) before dying, it makes for a rather challenging game. Thankfully, the game doesn’t really have enemies per se, just environmental obstacles you have to overcome.
The Bottom Line.
Darwin’s Paradox succeeds because it commits fully to its bizarre premise. Controlling an octopus sounds gimmicky on paper, but the movement mechanics, environmental puzzles, and stealth sections make Darwin feel genuinely unique among modern platforming mascots.
The game also deserves praise for its presentation. Its stylized visuals, cinematic framing, and subtle environmental storytelling give it the feel of an interactive animated movie at times. Performance is rock-solid too, even at max settings.
However, the experience is held back by uneven difficulty balancing. Some platforming sequences feel significantly harsher than the rest of the game, especially when paired with occasionally unclear environmental readability and sparse checkpoints.
Still, if you enjoy platformers with personality and don’t mind a challenge, Darwin’s Paradox is an easy recommendation. It’s weird, creative, charming, and at times frustrating — but rarely boring.
TLDR:
Darwin’s Paradox is a gorgeous, inventive octopus platformer packed with charm and clever mechanics, though brutal difficulty spikes and unclear platforming occasionally drag down an otherwise memorable adventure.
The Technoverdict: Get it on sale
The Good:
- Cool environments.
- Some inventive puzzles.
- Tight controls.
- Good visual style.
The Bad:
- Uneven difficulty.
- Platforms blending into scenery.
- Checkpoints can be sporadic.
Salehuddin Husin, EIC
Sal's been in the industry since the early 2000s. He's written for a ton of gaming and tech publications including Playworks, Hardwarezone, HWM and GameAxis. Recently, Sal served as a juror for the Indie Game Awards at Taipei Game Show 2020. A geek and hardcore gamer, Sal will play everything, on any platform.
