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WC: The Darwin Project delivers a hint of Hunger Games to Xbox One and Windows 10

T

Theorry

Member
Oh damn this sounds so good. Battlegrounds with some Hunger Games and it stands out with viewers having a option to place stuff into the world for players.
Game is on my radar now. For me the game got a little burried during the E3 show and wasnt fan of the whole esport thing onstage.

During my hands-on session, I discovered a game that is already steeped with polish and great mechanics, despite only being in development for around nine months. This is one ID@Xbox game worth keeping your eye on. Here's why.
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The Darwin Project is essentially a third-person competitive action game, taking place in large arenas. For my demo, I found myself deep in a snowy forest wilderness, complete with deer to hunt, trees to cut down, and abandoned shacks to plunder.
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Starting out, you'll essentially have nothing besides an ax, which serves as both a makeshift weapon and an essential wood-cutting tool. The Darwin Project is as much about violence as it is about crafting, and the best players will be the ones who build up their arsenals as fast as possible.

After cutting down a few trees, I was ready to fashion a bow. Feeling like Katniss from The Hunger Games, I began stalking the trees, hunting deer for leather to craft better armor, while listening to the carnage from other players murdering each other echo in the distance.
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I was impressed with how tight The Darwin Project's controls felt at this early, pre-release stage. Considering the game hasn't even completed its first year in development, it's a credit to Scavenger Studio at just how great the game already feels.
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The Darwin Project has dynamic snow, too. You can sink into loose snow quite easily, not only leaving huge tracks and informing players of your presence but also slowing you down. I was lucky that the enemy player decided to flee, because she had far better armor than me and probably would've spilled my blood all over the snow.
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One way The Darwin Project will attempt to stand out from the crowd is with spectator participation. A single player in a Darwin Project match will be able to inject all sorts of hazards into the game, including air strikes, zone closures, and they can even reveal players' locations to other combatants. Additionally, spectators on Mixer streams will be able to interfere during matches, leveraging Mixer's interactive API for developers.
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https://www.windowscentral.com/hands-darwin-project-bringing-hunger-games-xbox-one
 
M

MUnited83

For you.
The game looked terrible on the E3 stage. Hopefully they can show a better slice of gameplay. Without a forced fringy e-sports commentator, preferably.
 
Z

Zedox

Member
I think their premise is smart as hell. Even tho the commentator was like...err, what, but that's how its really gonna sound when it gets popular on mixer.
 
T

Theorry

Member
Zedox said:
I think their premise is smart as hell. Even tho the commentator was like...err, what, but that's how its really gonna sound when it gets popular on mixer.
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Pretty cool the viewers can now be the "viewers" you saw in Running Man and Death Race haha.
 
T

Triggerhappytel

Member
BernardoOne said:
The game looked terrible on the E3 stage. Hopefully they can show a better slice of gameplay. Without a forced fringy e-sports commentator, preferably.
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It was an awful CGI trailer, and the actual in-game footage was ruined by the fucking eSports guy. What's written here actually sounds pretty interesting, so it would have been much better to show some of this and maybe have one of the devs on stage explaining what was going on.
 
R

Rodelero

Member
Everyone harps on about how annoying the shoutcaster was, and they're right, but the gameplay being shown while he was screaming at us was just as bad. It looked extremely rough, and no-one should be surprised that it's only been in development for nine months based on that showing. There are lots of games being pushed into this space (Day Z/Battle Royale/Hunger Games style) and practically all of them are better in concept than in execution. There is nothing to suggest this is any different, particularly with its cheesy sounding mixer gimmick.

Low budget, rushed, gimmick ridden and pushed by a ghastly shoutcaster? Can't wait.
 
T

Theorry

Member
Rodelero said:
Everyone harps on about how annoying the shoutcaster was, and they're right, but the gameplay being shown while he was screaming at us was just as bad. It looked extremely rough, and no-one should be surprised that it's only been in development for nine months based on that showing.

There are lots of games being pushed into this space (Day Z/Battle Royale/Hunger Games style) and practically all of them are better in concept than in execution. There is nothing to suggest this is any different, particularly with its cheesy sounding mixer gimmick.
Click to expand...

Yet in the OP it says how polished it already was. And that you need to cut trees, hunt animals for better equipment, only 7 players and weather plays a huge factor and throwing in power ups sounds different to me.
 
E

ElBoxyBrown

Banned
Rodelero said:
Everyone harps on about how annoying the shoutcaster was, and they're right, but the gameplay being shown while he was screaming at us was just as bad. It looked extremely rough, and no-one should be surprised that it's only been in development for nine months based on that showing. There are lots of games being pushed into this space (Day Z/Battle Royale/Hunger Games style) and practically all of them are better in concept than in execution. There is nothing to suggest this is any different, particularly with its cheesy sounding mixer gimmick.

Low budget, rushed, gimmick ridden and pushed by a ghastly shoutcaster? Can't wait.
Click to expand...
We've seen so little gameplay from that E3 presentation that we might as well not seen any. It needs another proper reveal.
 
F

FaintDeftone

Junior Member
I didn't get to play it while I was at E3, but one of my colleagues did and it was his game of show. One of the devs on site told him that they were pretty bummed out about how the game was presented at the Xbox conference.
 
T

Trup1aya

Member
FaintDeftone said:
I didn't get to play it while I was at E3, but one of my colleagues did and it was his game of show. One of the devs on site told him that they were pretty bummed out about how the game was presented at the Xbox conference.
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It sucks when the suits try to scream esports from the mountaintops instead of letting that sort of thing happen organically if it's meant to be.

It just reeks of "out of touch dad trying to be cool"
 
WaterAstro

WaterAstro

Member
I watched the Darwin Project being played, and I really don't like it because of the announcer feature. It's just stupid that a player has the power to give an advantage to other players by giving them health in a clutch battle or giving them drops.
 
IbizaPocholo

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman
http://www.ign.com/articles/2018/04/20/darwin-project-battle-royale-goes-free-to-play-on-pc

Darwin Project was released on Steam Early Access and Xbox One Game Preview in early March for $15 USD. However, according to Scavengers Studio, there weren't enough players in certain regions to fill the servers. "We want the game to reach as many players as possible," the studio said, "so we decided to release Darwin Project for free sooner than we anticipated."

The pricing change is currently reflected on Steam, though the Xbox One version is still listed at $15 USD. When asked whether or not the console version will be going free-to-play as well, Scavengers Studio told IGN, "We'll have more to share about Darwin Project on Xbox One soon."
 
JareBear: Remastered

JareBear: Remastered

Banned
Maybe a dumb question but why wouldn’t it be F2P on Xbox?

Is it only bombing on PC? Is the console version selling?

Before going F2P the game only had like 190 players on average on PC.

I played it last night. It needs a slider for ADS sensitivity on PC (for aiming with bow). How this and Sea of Thieves doesn’t have that simple but essential feature on PC is beyond me.

I played 6 matches and it’s alright but this game should have been F2P from the start. There’s just not much here. I had more fun as Show Director than actually played the match. Ended with 4.5 rating (out of 5) as director
 
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