Darwin’s Paradox /REVIEW

It’s funny how, after spring of 2025 brought us a bunch of games where we exterminated Nazis in fun ways, in 2026 we have ended up with a slightly different seasonal trend. Namely, one that lets us enjoy some quality cinematic indie platforming — first in the beautiful *Planet of Lana II, and now in the long awaited cyberpunk story Replaced (more on that in a few days!), as well as in the newest title published under Konami’s amazing initiative that supports smaller titles like last year’s [Deliver At All Costs](https://medium.com/strange-roads/deliver-at-all-costs-impressions-d9c203fd29b2)*.

Developed by ZDT Studio, Darwin’s Paradox takes us to the deep blue sea, where we get to control the cute little octopus from the game’s title. But, Darwin’s life will soon take a turn for the worse, when he gets yanked out of the water by an evil corporation (that’s definitely not controlled by aliens in disguise).

What then unfolds is a fun and unique platformer, in which we get to swim and crawl around various old-timey corporate facilities and warehouses, while solving puzzles and sneaking around enemies along the way. Somewhat surprisingly, Darwin controls great for an octopus, and both swimming and crawling around (as well as jumping) feel just right and more than intuitive — although the fact that you have to keep pressing X to swim faster is annoying and can get tiring during a couple of watery chase sequences that the game throws at you.

On the other hand, crawling around — including up the walls and ceilings — is often used to great effect for some fun platforming sections, like the one where Darwin has to climb pipes that keep heating up and becoming too hot to cling on to.

In addition to his tentacle-enabled mobility, Darwin can also camouflage himself and blend in with the surroundings, just as he can shoot ink that will help him hide from predators underwater, or activate various buttons and mechanisms above it.

But, for all the fun skills at your disposal — and heaps of style, with the game’s visuals and atmosphere bringing to mind stuff ranging from Inside and Little Nightmares, to World of Goo — Darwin’s Paradox suffers from way too much focus on trial and error, in addition to some bad signposting. During the course of the game you’ll encounter — and then get stuck on — different platforming and stealth challenges, that will see you fail again and again, sometimes simply because there’s zero room for error while sneaking around ever vigilant guards, and sometimes because you’ll keep trying to move between the cracks in some huge deadly gears, instead of realising that you actually have to ignore those and just go under them in order to progress.

All of that leaves us with is a game that can swing wildly between one that’s charming and fun to play, and an extremely annoying and unfair one. But, if you can forgive it those design missteps and have some patience to spare, there’s plenty here to enjoy — from the exquisite presentation to some inventive puzzles and eye-catching set pieces that make you hopeful Konami will keep supporting games like this well into the future.

Darwin’s Paradox | developer: ZDT Studio | publisher: Konami | platforms: PlayStation 5 (played on PlayStation 5 Pro), Nintendo Switch 2, PC, Xbox Series

(A copy of the game was provided for review by Konami)