Miyuki Aizawa

The story starts out fairly innocent. Our protagonist gets thrown far away from home and has to find a way back. But as the game progresses, the atmosphere becomes increasingly strange, unsettling, and at times even surreal. The game does a fantastic job building a sense of confusion and the feeling that something here is deeply wrong. The entire experience is presented with a dose of humor and plenty of references to other games and pop culture, which I absolutely love.

The first thing that immediately stands out is the responsiveness of the controls. Our little octopus moves very smoothly and precisely, which is absolutely crucial in platformers. Playing on keyboard is possible, but in my opinion this game practically begs to be played with a controller, which the developers themselves even point out.

I also really liked the game’s approach to teaching mechanics. It does not bombard players with tutorials or giant messages saying things like “To continue, use ability X on object Y.” Instead, it subtly suggests solutions through level design. You see a barrel? Maybe it can be moved. You notice a strangely placed object? Maybe it is not there by accident. Because of this, you genuinely feel like you are discovering solutions on your own. There is also a hint button, but I only used it a few times for the sake of this review, just to see how the game guides the player.

Unfortunately, there were moments where I felt like the game was slightly “softlocking” the player. A few times I got stuck and became convinced that something had broken or that I had overlooked an important detail. In the end, returning to a checkpoint, taking a moment to think, and approaching the situation differently was usually enough. A bit frustrating, but thankfully never an actual progression blocker.

Exploration is unfortunately somewhat disappointing. I am the type of player who always goes “the wrong way” first just to check whether the developers hid some kind of secret there. In Darwin’s Paradox, this very often ended with… death and a return to the checkpoint. The game does not really reward player curiosity in the same way other platformers of this type do. I am not saying there are no collectibles at all. There simply are fewer of them, and they are often missing from places that practically beg for at least a small easter egg.

The biggest issue for me, however, came during the later stages of the game. At a certain point, the game starts heavily demanding that players complete sections exactly the way the developers intended. Multiple times I performed jumps that logically should have worked, landed safely… and then the game basically went: “Nope, you die.” Which meant replaying the entire segment from the beginning. Honestly, I personally prefer a bit more freedom in how I reach the goal, but that is probably just my own preference.

Technically, the game has a few issues. For a production with relatively simple ideas, Darwin’s Paradox feels slightly poorly optimized. I suspect this is partially due to the use of Unreal Engine, which at times feels like overkill for a game like this. During cutscenes I encountered the classic “Fatal Error” crash several times, which definitely hurt immersion. Whenever it happened, I usually took it as a sign to stop playing for the day and come back later.

Despite these problems, I still believe Darwin’s Paradox is an interesting and atmospheric game. If you enjoy titles like Limbo, Inside, or Little Nightmares, this is definitely something worth keeping on your radar.

Personally, however, I think the game is slightly overpriced compared to the amount of content and enjoyment it offers. Because of that, I would recommend waiting for a sale or maybe grabbing it later as part of a Humble Bundle or another game package.

You can buy this game on different platforms here from my reflink: 👉Darwin's Paradox👈