Darwinia on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information

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Darwinia blends real-time strategy, action, and puzzles with a unique gesture-based control system. Save the Darwinians, battle viruses, and restore order in a retro-inspired digital world. Winner of multiple prestigious  awards, including the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at IGF 2006.

Darwinia is a indie, tactical rpg and shoot 'em up game developed and published by Introversion Software.
Released on December 01st 2005 is available on Windows, MacOS and Linux in 5 languages: English, German, French, Italian and Spanish - Spain.

It has received 1,080 reviews of which 864 were positive and 216 were negative resulting in a rating of 7.6 out of 10. 😊

The game is currently priced at 11.79€ on Steam, but you can find it for less on Gamivo.


The Steam community has classified Darwinia into these genres:

Media & Screenshots

Get an in-depth look at Darwinia through various videos and screenshots.

System requirements

These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.

Windows
  • OS *: Windows 7 or later
  • Processor: Intel Core i5 (Westmere) or better
  • Memory: 4GB of RAM
  • Graphics: 4GB of VRAM
  • Graphics API (ANGLE): Direct3D 11+ or Vulkan 1.2.160+
  • Graphics API (OpenGL): OpenGL 3.3+
MacOS
  • OS: macOS 11.0 Big Sur or later
  • Processor: Apple M1 or Intel Core i5 (Westmere) or newer
  • Memory: 4GB of RAM
  • Graphics: 4GB of VRAM, Metal support required
Linux
  • OS: Ubuntu 20.04 or newer distro
  • Processor: Intel Core i5 (Westmere) or better
  • Memory: 4GB of RAM
  • Graphics: 4GB of VRAM
  • Graphics API (ANGLE): Vulkan 1.2.160+
  • Graphics API (OpenGL): OpenGL 3.3+

User reviews & Ratings

Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.

Sept. 2025
A simple, fun and very basic game. Not for everyone. Super old school feel but I liked it.
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Sept. 2025
Darwinia is a nice little RTS which reminded me a lot of the movie TRON. It is not an overly long game, and you could probably beat it in around 10 hours, less if you try to get through as speedily as possible. The writing is decent. The gameplay is decent. The soundtrack is okay. It should be noted that the game is single-player only, unlike most well-known RTS games. You can tell that a lot of care went into this game. It runs well, did not have any noticeable bugs, and also includes some nice extras like a map editor. I really appreciated the work that went into the game's startup screens, which are all very nice and fun to watch. Some of them even reveal background information about the game's story. The number of different startup screens really surprised me. I finished the game over many sessions, and I had already finished just over half the game before I saw a startup screen repeated. It is certainly unusual to see so much effort put into something that most people would probably consider an extremely minor part of a game these days. I have no more to say on the graphics, writing, soundtrack, etc. They are nothing too remarkable, but they are all decent. The gameplay is where my main concern is. Darwinia's gameplay is, honestly, pretty slow-paced. There were a lot of times when I was waiting for my units to get from one place to another. This issue is exacerbated by the fact that this game has the lowest unit cap I have ever seen in an RTS, three units! This is upgradable to five. That's it. Sure, the Darwinians don't count towards that cap, but they are not very useful except for manning fortifications and objectives, which they are required for. The upshot is that building units other than Darwinians is instant and takes no resources, so if you lose a unit you can instantly reconstitute it at the nearest spawn point. Another complaint I have is that the tutorial does not seem complete. Sure, you get walked through a few things, but some very important basic mechanics are omitted from the tutorial. In particular, the transmission dishes which serve as bridges between parts of levels were not explained to me by the game, and I ended up only finding out about them when they were mentioned by another player. This is a central mechanic that exists on every map and is essential for the later missions! I am not sure why something so critical is not in the tutorial, especially considering that there is such a bridge in the tutorial level, though using it is not required to finish that level or the other early levels. This would not be quite so bad were it not for the fact that this mechanic is non-obvious, as the transmission dishes appear to be part of the level as opposed to something you can control. There are some other, less critical omissions as well, like how to switch a squad's weapons. The game does have a well-executed Linux port, which I very much appreciate. The game runs natively on Linux, and it runs well. It is refreshing to see a native Linux port which works just fine and has no issues that I noticed. If you like single-player RTS and computer-themed stuff, this is a good pick.
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July 2025
Nice and ambient setting, pretty fun gameplay, and its fun to command smaller things to shoot at other small things.
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May 2025
You don't need 1 hour to tell this game is a masterpiece. From the nonexistent pathfinding to the NPC Darwinians, Darwinia is a game where you have to do things yourself. That's the reason for 200 of these bad reviews. I have to say, this is probably the most underrated game of all time. It's legitimately a masterpiece, especially in 2022 after the full remaster. I am never disappointed by an Introversion game :) Please, don't listen to the bad reviews, and at least try the game in the demo before not buying it.
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Dec. 2024
Quite a unique little game. Nice blast from the past. Had no problem making this work on the Win 10 and new hardware.
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Frequently Asked Questions

Darwinia is currently priced at 11.79€ on Steam.

Darwinia is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 11.79€ on Steam.

Darwinia received 864 positive votes out of a total of 1,080 achieving a rating of 7.63.
😊

Darwinia was developed and published by Introversion Software.

Darwinia is playable and fully supported on Windows.

Darwinia is playable and fully supported on MacOS.

Darwinia is playable and fully supported on Linux.

Darwinia is a single-player game.

Darwinia does not currently offer any DLC.

Darwinia does not support mods via Steam Workshop.

Darwinia does not support Steam Remote Play.

Darwinia is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.

You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Darwinia.

Data sources

The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.

Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.

Last Updates
Steam data 14 October 2025 15:17
SteamSpy data 10 October 2025 13:50
Steam price 14 October 2025 20:46
Steam reviews 13 October 2025 08:06

If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Darwinia, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.

  • SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Darwinia
  • SteamCharts - Analysis of Darwinia concurrent players on Steam
  • ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Darwinia compatibility
Darwinia PEGI 7
Rating
7.6
864
216
Game modes
Features
Online players
0
Developer
Introversion Software
Publisher
Introversion Software
Release 01 Dec 2005
Platforms
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