Evolution: The Game of Intelligent Life is a life simulation and real time strategy game, released in 1997 for PC by Interplay Entertainment. The game revolves around observing and guiding the evolution of (eventually) intelligent life on a planet, either historic Earth or a custom generated planet. The goal is to evolve your species towards intelligence and to beat your opponents to the top.
The game spans geologic time, from the Labyrinthodontia, or the age of the first amphibian tetrapods, to the Age of Mammals. Species earn points needed for evolving new traits or evolving into new species to stay competitive with other species. You can choose from a range of creatures, each of which have multiple evolutionary paths. Intelligent life isn't exclusive to primates, either: it is entirely possible to evolve sapient elephants, for instance.
The world also constantly changes: continents drift and change shape, the climate changes over time, and the landscape can change. This can also affect your species: evolve your species too early or too late, and you may find yourself living in a world unsuited to its needs, which will put you at a disadvantage. This also means you constantly need to keep your species on the move in search of better environments where they can thrive. Creatures that can't keep up will go extinct.
Once sapient life has been evolved, certain other species will also start evolving towards that sapient species, which means there can be only one, and you'll have to block other species from reaching that point in order to win the game.
The game is now Abandonware, and can be downloaded for free.
The game provides examples of:
- Bird People: "Parrot Men" are one of the possible "intelligent" species you can reach, being humanoids with feathers evolved from birds.
- Goal-Oriented Evolution: The "goal" of the game is to reach the "Intelligent Life" stage, with all evolutions up to that point ultimately directed toward it.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: Winning the game gives a video of a modern New York City, with the Statue of Liberty featuring the winning sapient species.
- Lizard Folk: "Dino Men" are one of the possible "intelligent" species you can reach, being reptilian humanoids evolved from dinosaurs.
- Procedural Generation: The game can procedurally generate new and unique maps that will change over the course of the game.
- Speculative Biology: Animals can evolve into fictional or speculative species, like intelligent elephants, parrots, wombats, or dinosaurs.
