Darwinia+ is what life would be like in a computer. Single "polygon" organisms called Darwinians live their simple lives learning, growing, and dying to be reincarnated as other Darwinians. In the game, Darwinia is under attack by an evil computer virus (called "Virii"), and it's up to you (a new programmer) to bring this virus under control to save this delicate computer ecosystem.
Your army is a handful of soldiers, which is upgradable from three units to six. You will also have Engineers, which aid in upgrading your army and capturing buildings or locations. Your goal is to kill the virus, and rescue as many Darwinians as you can. The game plays similar to a hybrid between a simple (yet effective) RTS, and Lemmings. While your soldier group will take orders from you, killing enemies in a twin-stick shooter style (you control them with one analog stick, and the other shoots in whichever direction you tilt it), your Darwinians aren't quite as good at listening.
You will upgrade the ability to promote one of your Darwinians to a leader status in the game. Your Darwinians will then follow whatever path you dictate the leader to send them on. They will walk in a straight line, danger or no. You can set up multiple leaders as relay stations to redirect Darwinians, which is part of your strategy for playing.
The single player Darwinia is played in a digital ecosystem. Digital trees, polygon landscape, and digital ambient sounds. Visually, the game is very appealing with simplistic stylized graphics that imitate the environment they're supposed to represent very well. The soundtrack also matches the feel of the game very nicely. Combined with an intriguing story, where you have to dominate landscapes to regain life essentials for the Darwinians to be able to thrive (a mine for processed materials, a power generator, and a construction yard). As the story progresses the virus gets more vicious with bigger, badder, and uglier meanies. You'll have to use different strategies to accomplish your goals, and rescue Darwinians before more of the virus reappears to wipe out your force.
Multiwinia is what happens when you get more than one programmer in the game. This mode was separate in the PC version, but is included in Darwinia+ (which is where the Plus comes in.) Multiwinia is like a series of strategy comp-stomp games. You can play modes called Rocket Race, Capture the Statue, Blitzkrieg, King of the Hill, and Domination. Unfortunately for our purposes, the only two modes that allow for co-op play are King of the Hill and Domination. Unfortunately the story, and gameplay elements change quite a bit in Multiwinia.
The way Multiwinia is the most different than Darwinia (aside from the lack of story mode) is your units. You will only ever have Darwinians as your army, base occupiers, gatherers, and scoring units. Multiwinians will shoot at the enemy, and your leaders get a few more abilities than "walk in this straight line." You can now make squads which attack more efficiently, and utilize different powers that the Darwinians collect in boxes spread around the map.
Some of these powers are things like Nuclear launches, various turrets, unleashing a virus (that is probably friendly to your units), and a handful of other abilities. Some of these things collected are not good for you. Sometimes a plague will attack your own Darwinians after a box has been opened. Or, perhaps a virus is unlocked that is not under any users control (and therefore definitely not friendly to your units).
The two co-op modes, King of the Hill and Domination, have different goals. King of the Hill will have you securing areas with your Darwinians, and using any cheap tactics to hold your ground as long as possible. Sometimes that means taking out the CPU's units, sometimes that means placing a few squads in key locations, and sometimes it means a nuclear launch. You have a limited time to rack up your points by standing in the many "hills" on the maps, so straight elimination is a bit challenging.
Domination is just as it sounds: Systematically eliminate the CPU's units. All of them. You'll have to use a few tactics of your own to not get wiped out yourself, including spreading your forces to take over a few other bases as backup, and searching for item boxes to unlock your powers along the way. This mode takes a bit longer than the King of the Hill, but can be a lot of fun.
Unfortunately, since we don't really consider this form of comp-stomp RTS mode as true co-op, it's difficult to recommend the game solely on the merit of cooperative play. However the entire experience is quite enjoyable, and the overall package is a solid value at 1200. Challenging strategy, intuitive gameplay, and a unique environment and story kept things interesting. The Multiwinia co-op just fell short when it missed the exact definition of co-op, and only had two modes to play together.