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The latest PlayStation State of Play showcase may have revealed Horsemarque's new single-player roguelike, Saros, and brought us another look at the likes of Borderlands 4 and Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater, but the biggest highlight for me came in a surprising, octopus-shaped package. I'm of course talking about Konami's new platformer, Darwin's Paradox, which stars a little tentacled blue protagonist who's plucked from the sea and thrown into what looks like one very wild journey in a food factory. The trailer gives off major Inside and Oddworld vibes that I'm already here for, but reading the official PlayStation blog penned by senior producer, John Garcia-Shelton, only makes all the more octi-mistic (I'm not sorry) that this is going to be one whacky adventure that's worth latching onto.
Coming from French developers ZDT Studios, the blog details that the team behind Darwin's Paradox had "one goal in mind" for the platformer, and it sums up just why I'm so excited about the prospect of diving in on PS5. Not only does it look like a creative fish-out-of-water experience, but it also promises to "let players truly understand what it feels like to be an octopus". What more could I want?
Ink-credible
It's certainly not the first time an octopus has taken center stage in the world of video games. Octodad, the Octolings in Splatoon 2, and even Octopus villagers like Marina and Zucker in Animal Crossing: New Horizons come to mind. But I love the idea of using all of the "evolutionary features of an octopus", as Garcia-Shelton puts it, in a story-driven platformer. Thanks to his handy tentacles, Darwin can "climb almost any surface", and his mollusk ways allow him to "camouflage himself" and "shoot ink to evade his enemies". A lot of emphasis is put on the latter feature, with the haptic feedback of the DualSense controller's trigger making the experience of firing off "multiple shots of black ink" more tactile. Again, it's all about making you feel like you're really an octopus, and as ways to use the PS5 controller go, I'm so on board.
Plus, Darwin's abilities have all of the makings of an entertaining solution to platformer problems, with the trailer showing how he can blend in with the environment to hide from a patrolling foe, or spew out ink to cloak himself and get past a searchlight. The ink can also be used to hit "hard-to-reach levers and buttons, or blind security camera feeds to plan your escape", which conjures up all kinds of whacky scenarios we might face as an octopus in a "mysterious food factory".
With feedback that will also allow us to feel every one of our intrepid octopus's movements, everything about the new adventure sounds wonderfully weird. From the many dangers poor Darwin will face - including rabid rats, short-cuit shocks, and metal machines - to the factory setting itself. I mean, what's up with the UFOs in the sky? And what plucked the poor eight-limbed creature from his idyllic sea home? I'm already curious to know what on earth is going on in this so-called food factory.
So much of it reminds me of Inside, Little Nightmares, or Oddworld, with a slightly uncanny feel to its world that seems to capture how alien being on dry land must be for an octopus. Just from what we've seen, I get the sense that nothing is as it seems, with Darwin at one stage sneaking through a lecture hall with a chalkboard that appears to show the fish food the factory is making is being used for some kind of fiendish mind-control plot. From explosions to dicey conveyor belts and underwater chases, it looks like we're going to have our work cut out for us getting through that factory unscathed.
The State of Play showcase certainly had a few unexpected surprises. Like a Dragon Pirate Yakuza has only added to my list of reasons to finally try out Dave the Diver after getting a surprise crossover, Directive 8020 continues to give me strong John Carpenter's The Thing vibes, and I was excited to see more of Split Fiction. But Darwin's Paradox truly reeled me in, and I have a strong inkling that I'm going to enjoy discovering what it actually "feels like to be an octopus" whenever it arrives.
See what other exciting releases are on the way with our round of new games for 2025 and beyond.
