Bacterium: The Evolution of Strategy Demo

Although they are small and practically invisible to the human eye, bacteria is everywhere and it thrives even now, a few billion years after it first appeared. Obviously, a lot of mutations took place between then and now, but the underlying principle is the same and they have the same goals as they did then: acquire food and reproduce, in order to assure the perpetuation of the species.

Bacterium: The Evolution of Strategy provides you with the chance to see for yourself how evolution works and how do the most simple forms of life survive in harsh environments. In essence, the game is all about passing a series of challenges, although the developers also vow that the behavior of the bacteria is quite realistic and the game can be used in educational purposes as well.

There are a variety of different scenarios you can try, each one of which has an end goal and a certain difficulty level. In some of them, you start off with a single bacteria and you must reach a target population in a set time limit, although you must also watch out for the competing bacteria at the same time. Viruses can also be created and spread around, but since they can infect your bacteria as well, you’d better be careful using them.

The control scheme is a tad weird, in the sense that you do not really have full control over the bacteria. Instead, you must use a special substance to lure them in the desired direction, which is both annoying and somewhat pointless at the same time. Thankfully, you can use the points you gather along the way to purchase extra mutations for your population, such as resistance, speed, and a variety of other advantages.

These mutations are then passed on to the other generations as well, which means that your investments can live on for a long time. The appearance of the bacteria changes over time too, since they start evolving new parts to help them survive better. On the other hand, the graphics engine is rather poor and there’s not a lot you can admire when it comes to the environment, so the experience gets a tad boring and repetitive after a while.

Overall, Bacterium: The Evolution of Strategy is not at all a bad game, but the development team was not experienced enough to put their ideas into practice. Hence, even if it sounds fun in theory and you might be tempted to believe that the simulation can become quite complex after a while, you will undoubtedly be disappointed.