Darwin's Paradox was provided by KONAMI for review. Thank you!
Darwin's Paradox intrigued me from the moment I saw it. It felt fresh and different, especially from a big name like KONAMI. We're used to larger companies playing it safe, so seeing a puzzle platformer was a nice surprise following Metal Gear Solid Delta and Silent Hill f. That being said, expectations for puzzle platformers are high nowadays thanks to indies, but Darwin's Paradox surprises.
The story of the game is a basic one: Darwin is abducted by the UFOOD megacorporation (in a very Finding Nemo-esque fashion) and must escape their vast factory complex, all while accidentally uncovering a conspiracy that may well threaten the world. It's simple and predictable, but it does the job.
Darwin's Paradox is, first and foremost, a puzzle platformer. It would be hard to describe anything that happens in the game as "combat", and so the majority of your time will be spent figuring out how to progress, either by using Darwin's unique moveset or by maneuvering objects in your environment to open up a new path.
Darwin's moveset is quite unique and creates interesting gameplay opportunities. You can camouflage to avoid detection by enemies, stick to surfaces, which forces you to analyse the world differently from most other platformers to find solutions to puzzles, grab objects to reposition them, and more. As this is a platformer that places heavy emphasis on puzzles, it's a welcome sight to see all these different ways to interact with the environment, without overwhelming the player with choice.
The controls, while serviceable, I did find fiddly. Some of the puzzles require quite precise jumps, and unfortunately, Darwin does not control precisely. Small movements are difficult to do, and when you're trying to grab a barrel underwater with your tentacles, it can be a challenge to maneuver into position without overshooting one way or another. Likewise, making precise jumps between platforms can be tough, given our protagonist's somewhat skittish nature.
I did find that Darwin loves to stick to surfaces, and that can catch you off guard if you are running to the edge of a platform to jump off. Sometimes, Darwin will attach himself to the edge of the surface instead, ruining your jump. Likewise, when in a section with cogwheels, I would sometimes find myself brushing past another surface, with Darwin automatically detaching from my current one and attaching to the other; it can get frustrating.
With all that being said, Darwin's Paradox has a good balance of difficulty. It requires some good platforming skills, as timing windows are tight for some puzzles, but at the same time, almost every puzzle in the game allows you to display an optional hint for it, giving you a clue as to how to proceed, but still requiring you to have the skill to pull it off.
Some later platforming did cause frustration, as well as some slight inconsistency between what was presented to the player and how the game actually calculated line of sight, which made a later part of the game a little miserable, but seasoned platformer players shouldn't struggle much.
Aside from the issues above, Darwin's Paradox appears to be a fairly polished game as well. The visuals are nice, especially the water effects, even on low settings. The environments are also detailed, albeit of a similar theme throughout. The game's audio is nothing special. I did find myself getting a little weirded out by the squelch of the tentacles at times, but the music does a good job of providing atmosphere, and the noises made by the UFOOD employees are also humorous.
The length of the game also surprised me. I thought this might end up being a short 3-4-hour adventure when I first started, given how quickly I was progressing through the chapters and the game's budget price tag, but my playthrough actually took me around 7 hours to complete. I was worried that I was learning too many of Darwin's moves and that I would only get to use them once in my playthrough, but you do find yourself revisiting old moves that you've learnt, which was a welcome surprise.
Darwin's Paradox isn't the kind of game you will find yourself going back to and playing through again, but any platforming fans out there will probably have a good time with this unique and charming take on the genre.
Darwin's Paradox plays well on the Steam Deck, although perhaps not quite as well as you might hope. The controls work beautifully, and the game supports 1280x800 resolution, but we are limited to 30 FPS.
Darwin's Paradox has a "Steam Deck Mode" in the options menu, which you should always use. It appears to lower the graphics lower than the "low" setting available otherwise, and it's the only way to achieve 30 FPS on the Steam Deck. I would recommend you limit the FPS to 30 in the SteamOS menu, as the game has no built-in frame limiter.
While the experience largely holds to 30 FPS, there is occasional traversal stutter, and some scenes dropped to around 27 FPS on my playthrough. But the game is definitely playable.
Power draw is on the high end, thanks to the intense GPU usage. Expect a draw of around 18W-21W, giving you playtime of around 2.5 hours on a Steam Deck OLED and around 1.5-2 hours on a Steam Deck LCD. Temperatures were around 65-70 °C.
Darwin's Paradox has some limited accessibility options. Such as aim assist for firing ink, the hint system for puzzles, and subtitles for the limited voiced dialogue.
Darwin's Paradox is a relatively short and sweet adventure, completable in a day if you really go at it. For the 7 hours it lasted, I had an enjoyable time, despite a couple of frustrations. Darwin makes for an interesting (and somewhat cute) protagonist, with a unique moveset that makes you think outside of the usual platforming box in this beautiful world.
Performance on Steam Deck is acceptable thanks to the Steam Deck mode in the game. While it largely hits 30 FPS, do expect some drops here and there. The game is perfectly playable, though, with my entire playthrough being done on Steam Deck.
このレビューはPC版に基づいています。
このレビューをお楽しみいただけたなら、SteamDeckHQ の他のコンテンツもぜひご覧ください！あなたのゲーム体験に役立つゲームレビューやニュースを幅広く取り揃えています。ニュース、ヒントやチュートリアル、ゲーム設定やレビューをお探しの方も、最新のトレンドを知りたい方も、ぜひご利用ください。
Darwin's Paradox is a unique platformer, and a bit of fresh air from a big publisher. It's also been optimized specifically for Steam Deck, which helps to make it playable despite pushing the device hard.
