Darwinia

The world of Darwinia is a virtual themepark, running entirely inside a computer network and populated by a sentient evolving life form called the Darwinians. Unfortunately Darwinia has been overrun by a…

82 4 March 2005

Indie Real Time Strategy (RTS) Strategy Tactical Action Science fiction

Darwinia is an indie developed by Introversion Software, released 4 March 2005 on Linux, Mac and PC (Microsoft Windows). The main story takes about 5 hrs to finish.

Verified 21 Aug 2026 Sources: IGDB , Steam , Wikipedia

What Darwinia is

Darwinia is an indie game developed by Introversion Software and released in 2005. It was published by Ambrosia Software. It is available on Linux, Mac and PC (Microsoft Windows).

The premise, in the publisher's words

Darwinia is a 2005 real-time tactics and real-time strategy video game for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It is the second game developed by Introversion Software, and is set within a computer environment that simulates artificial intelligence. It received favourable reviews and won three awards at the 2006 Independent Games Festival. A multiplayer sequel, Multiwinia, was released for Windows in 2008. Darwinia and Multiwinia were released together as Darwinia+ for the Xbox 360 in 2010.

Description from Wikipedia · source

How it plays

It is played from a bird view / isometric perspective. Its themes are action and science fiction. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component.

How it was received

Darwinia holds a critic score of 82 out of 100. That places it above 78% of the 5,098 rated indie games in our database, which average 72. Games released in 2005 averaged 67, so it scored 15 points above the year average.

How long it takes, and what that costs

The main story runs about 5 hrs. Completing everything takes closer to 8 hrs, roughly 1.6 times the length of the critical path.

What you need to run it

The minimum specification calls for Intel Core i5 (Westmere) or better, 4GB of RAM and 4GB of VRAM. At 4GB of RAM, it will run on essentially any working PC — that is below what a budget laptop ships with today.

Full requirements and PC checker →

What it launched against

Darwinia launched on 4 March 2005, within three weeks of God of War, God of War I, Tekken 5 and Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening. It reviewed better than 1 of the 4.

Released around the same time: God of War, God of War I, Tekken 5, Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening.

Cheats and codes

We have not confirmed any working cheat codes for Darwinia yet. Rather than reprint a list we have not tested, this section stays empty until one is verified.

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