There comes a time in every octopus’s life where they must traverse the world and possibly stop an alien take over of the planet. What? That’s not the case for all of them, you say? Well it is for the octopus Darwin! French indie developer ZDT Studio’s debut game is finally splashing up on shore in Darwin’s Paradox! which follows Darwin’s mostly above water adventure to life in a challenging yet extremely silly trek to return home. How does an octopus fair in this situation? Let’s dive in and find out!
Darwin’s Paradox! is a 2.5D puzzle platformer in the same vein of Limbo and Inside. However, whereas those games are dark and dreary in their world and subject matter, Darwin’s Paradox! is the exact opposite as it is mostly bright, colorful, and full of hilarity. From the get go, the graphical quality makes the game look like an animated movie. From Darwin himself being animated so fluidly and even having so much expression despite really only having eyes to the environments being beautiful that especially pop when playing in Quality Mode.
The game starts with Dawin and his friend just living their lives in the ocean until they are captured by the the UFOOD company. Darwin is unfortunately thrown in the trash while his friend is taken to become “simple food for simple people.” Thus, begins Darwin’s quest to save his friend and return home. The simple premise takes Darwin through a plethora of different environments both above and below sea level as he must avoid dangerous environmental hazards, other predatory fish, an ornery seagull named Steven, and UFOOD employees (who suspiciously look like robots and aliens). There isn’t much story overall aside from what’s stated. There are a few cutscenes throughout the game that usually depict Darwin and Steven’s antics against each other or when Darwin stumbles his way into causing misfortune for the UFOOD company. There are twenty Discoveries hidden throughout the game that give a bit a bit of world building and backstory for UFOOD, and then the in plain sight of their take over plans that appear in the environments of the levels.
On the gameplay side, Darwin’s Paradox! is a straightforward sidescrolling puzzle platformer. You are mostly just traversing the world and solving small puzzles to progress forward to the next area. As an octopus, Darwin has a slew of natural abilities at his disposal to help him on his journey both in and out of the water. His sticky tentacles allow him to crawl up walls and on ceilings of rooms. He is able to use his camouflage ability to blend into his environment and avoid enemies. He can also shoot his ink in different ways depending on if he is in or out of the water. In the water, the ink is used to create a smokescreen to disrupt search lights and hide from enemies. Whereas on the surface, Darwin can shoot his ink to cause malfunctions to electrical boxes or cause a distraction for an enemy to investigate to allow progress. Then, as an aquatic creature, Darwin is faster underwater and is even able to dash unlike when he is crawling along the surface.
The one thing that caught me completely off guard when playing Darwin’s Paradox! was how difficult the game actually is. When I started, I thought it would be a quick breezy platformer, but that wasn’t the case at all. Since Darwin is an octopus, he’s not the most durable creature there is. As such, one hit from environmental hazards or enemies will cause Darwin to explode into octopus confetti and take you back to the most recent checkpoint. Darwin does have a small amount of health, indicated by red cracks on his body once it’s low, but it is so minuscule that you still basically immediately die from anything. This is definitely the most frustrating part as sometimes you think you might survive touching a hot pipe for a moment but you still die like a second afterwards without having much time to react or notice your health is running out. Then being seen by the majority of lights or enemies results in immediate death meaning you have to be perfect in your progression with no way to recover and respond in most situation once you are seen. This is mostly a pain in darker or wider sections of the game where it is easy to lose track of Darwin as he becomes so small on the screen.
Overall, Darwin’s Paradox! is a challenging, at some points frustrating, puzzle platformer. Despite that, the game is still a lot of fun with a charming and silly story. While it doesn’t stand against the titans of its genre, Darwin’s Paradox! stands out artistically from its contemporaries. As a debut game, the developers laid a solid foundation and created a really enjoyable experience in a genre that doesn’t get a lot of spotlight nowadays, and I could easily see them revisiting Darwin for more aquatic adventures with how they leave him off in this game.
Score: 7 out of 10
Reviewed on PlayStation 5