Introduced in 2005 by Introversion Software the world of Darwinia caught the attention PC gamers who were looking for something a little different. With its hypnotic blend of action and RTS in a distinct and unique virtual world the game became an instant critical hit but the game never really seemed to garner the mass attention of gamers it so strongly deserved. Multiwinia, the upcoming multiplayer version of Darwinia, seems set to change all that soon when it launches for PC, Mac, Linux and Xbox Live Arcade as part of Darwinia+.

The PC build of this multiplayer-only game I played for this preview featured two of the six distinct single player (vs. AI opponents) modes that will be available in the final release, King Of The Hill and Capture The Statue. With King Of The Hill there are specific zones that you must use your Darwinians to control as you earn one point per second by simply having your faithful little minions stand inside and defend it. If you don’t have control of a zone take it over by swarming it and having your men blast their way in. Capture The Statue is a slightly different take on traditional Capture The Flag where there are giant statues that appear at set locations in the world. Have your men surround the statue so they pick it up and start carrying it back to a specific location near your base. If the statue successfully arrives in one piece your team scores. Soon a new statue reappears and the process starts over. If enough of the minions carrying the statue are taken out the group will drop the statue and give the opposing player a chance to pick it up and head towards their own goal. In the two player version of this mode I played there were two points where statues would spawn, of course I made it my mission to control both as much as possible.

Watching your little minions go about their digital war is a hoot as their nameless, faceless yet fiercely loyal selves do your bidding and break their backs for you. Somehow their simple, fixed appearance makes you connect to them in a way that you don’t with usual RTS models. You really believe that the little blips have a motivation to carry out their purpose that is more than because you clicked on a certain part of the map.

The controls are some of the most intuitive that I’ve ever come across in a strategy game. To select units you hold a left click anywhere and a circle starts to grow that will select all the units inside of it once you let go of the click. It’s a quick and innovative way to handle unit selection that I haven’t seen in a RTS game before…until I saw Ensemble showing off Halo Wars during E3 employing a similar tactic but I’m leaving credit with Introversion for introducing this control scheme to me. Either way it’s a welcome simplification that never leaves you feeling overwhelmed that can happen so easily with most other RTS games. There’s no resource gathering that needs to be micromanaged, simply control the various available spawn points by surrounding them with your minions. Occasionally a crate with various special power ups will drop from the sky and all you need to do to gather it is be the first one to have a minion run over it. During my play I picked up the ability to place gun turrets, have squad soldiers deployed and spawn an armored transport to carry my little fighters into enemy territory.

Sound simple for a strategy game? It sure is, but that doesn’t mean it’s not deep. In every round I played of each mode the AI opponents used varying tactics and distributed their minions in different ways each time. I can see discovering new offensive and defensive strategies over the entire life span of the game. With full single player modes against the AI, online multiplayer for up to four and as yet unspecified co-op this is definitely a full package, especially for Xbox Live Arcade players where Multiwinia will be a part of Darwinia+. It’s the perfect example of a game that’s easy to pick up but will take quite some time to master which places it in great position to take over any of the platforms at launch. We’ll be back with a full review when that happens.