Scavenger Studios first lifted the lid on multiplayer survival title The Darwin Project back at PAX East 2017. Set in the wilderness of the Northern Canadian Rockies, it tasks players with surviving in weather extremes in an arena style battleground that’s half entertainment, half science experiment. The new trailer, which has been freshly released at E3, showcases some of the gameplay below.
Opting for a third person perspective, The Darwin Project doesn’t strictly follow the MOBA recipe but seems to borrow heavily from the genre. Scavenger Studios are playing around with the ingredients in order to reinvent the subgenre of battle royale, and plan to shake things up with a Show Director mode. This grants a player ‘godly powers’ which allows them to watch over the game behind the scenes, giving the underdog a hidden competitive edge, triggering random manhunts, or revealing the location of invisible players just enough to cause them trouble. Each round supports seven players who need to hunt each other down and survive, often employing cunning, guile and strategy to trap opponents, craft tools, and forge alliances in the name of making it out alive. Every player has unique abilities, whether it’s shooting arrows or temporarily turning invisible to avoid detection. A progression system gives players a range of tools to unlock, which can ultimately impact the outcome of matches.
The Darwin Project is expected to release in Spring 2018 for PC and Xbox One. It’s currently in the middle of a closed pre-alpha, but if you happen to be at E3 right now, you can play it in a booth.