In the tradition of indie classics such as Limbo and Inside, comes a new action adventure starring a cartoon octopus caught up in an alien invasion.

We don’t actually play that many video games that are truly awful, since there’s usually nothing of note about them to make a review worthwhile. There’re occasional exceptions, like the mind-bogglingly terrible Code Violet and the baffling MindsEye, but most of the worst games are just worthless slop of the sort Sony is currently trying to clear out from the PlayStation Store.

The majority of video games aren’t unusually good or bad, they’re somewhere in the middle. And so it can be difficult to know which are worthy of further investigation, given there are dozens of new indie games released every week, even at quiet times of the year.

We’re not familiar with French developer ZDT Studio, since this seems to be their debut game, but since the graphics for Darwin’s Paradox looked good, the publisher is Konami, and octopuses are cool we decided to give it a go. In the end we wish we hadn’t, not because it’s terrible but because it’s so deeply average.

Maybe average isn’t entirely fair. The graphics are really good for an indie game and on paper your octopus powers are all very neat, including the ability to camouflage yourself; shoot out ink to cover your escape; and walk along any surface, including the ceiling, like a spider (which we’re pretty sure octopuses can’t do, but whatever).

Darwin’s Paradox is, rather randomly, named after Charles Darwin’s discovery that tropical seas don’t seem to contain enough nutrients to sustain coral reefs, despite the fact they’re teeming with life. That has nothing to do with the game, other than the octopus you control is called Darwin, whose friend is captured by secret aliens running a food processing company and planning to invade Earth.

What this translates to in gameplay terms is a 2D platformer influenced by the likes of Limbo and Inside, but swapping melancholic mystery for cartoon silliness. Darwin spends a surprising amount of time on dry land but whether he’s hiding from guards or trying not to get eaten by a moray eel everything works in the same general way.

His camouflage ability is basically a cloak of invisibility and as long as you activate it in time you become completely invisible to enemies. Although it does take a while to complete, so you spend a lot of time slowly inching your way across the screen, spending more time going into camouflage than moving or hiding.

Spraying ink is only good for masking your movement underwater but the gob of liquid you shoot out can be aimed quite precisely and so ends up getting used to activate switches and machinery when you’re on land. Although you don’t have any offensive abilities at all.

The climbing on any surface gimmick is used a surprising amount and while it seems quite clever at first it’s fiddly and inconsistent. Not enough to be a total wash but certainly enough to irritate, with sticky and slow movement that makes you constantly wish you could just get back in the water, where you’re much more mobile. The worst thing, though, is the game is filled with trial and error traps that often cannot be foreseen.

The checkpointing is generous enough that you don’t usually have to repeat too much but it’s still frustrating getting caught out by something you couldn’t have anticipated, especially as it happens so often. Even without this, the puzzles just aren’t interesting enough to engage you, as the solution is usually instantly obvious but pushing items where you want them or getting a pixel perfect jump just right is frequently more difficult than it should be.

As the scope of indie gaming begins to grow wider, from tiny games made by a single person to those whose scale begins to rival low-end games from traditional publishers, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to judge how fair their price tags are.

Darwin’s Paradox is relatively expensive and it’s only around six hours long and yet you can see where all the money went, as the cartoonish visuals are excellent and mixed in with almost photorealistic backdrops. That said, it’s never actually funny, no matter how often Darwin’s googly eyes try to emote as he’s being pecked to death by birds or squished by alien machinery.

Despite its attempts to provoke a reaction we found it impossible to hold any strong feelings about Darwin’s Paradox. It’s competently made, very pretty, and almost completely uninteresting. The dull and long-winded puzzles are the biggest problem and give the impression that the whole game was designed around the visuals, with everything seemingly having been worked back from there.

That’s never been a good way to make a video game and while this is an acceptable enough way to waste away a rainy Sunday afternoon, that’s about as positive as we can be about it.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC
Price: £19.99
Publisher: Konami
Developer: ZDT Studio
Release Date: 2nd April 2026
Age Rating: 7

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