A Gorgeous Nightmare From Which There is No Waking
Some dreams are so beautiful they make you cry from sorrow when you wake up. Other dreams are so terrifying you can’t help but cry from relief when they’re over. Feardemic and Unfold Games’s surreal puzzle horror game DARQ draws inspiration from both these kinds of dreams, and in the newly-released DARQ: Complete Edition, they’ve taken the surreal horror to a whole new level. This edition includes both the existing DLC The Tower and the brand new, never-before-seen DLC The Crypt, which promises to introduce new game mechanics, be twice as long as its predecessor, and contain all the lore tidbits a game theorist could hope for. Also, it apparently has the most mind-bending puzzles in the game, which–given what we’ve seen so far from the base game and The Tower–is saying a lot.
If you’ve ever wanted to know what it’s like to be trapped in a nightmare, give DARQ a shot. It captures everything that’s horrific about dreams in gorgeous side-scrolling graphics, flickering near-monochrome lightning, and the kind of outlandish problem-solving that can only come from dream logic. Stuck in the same room as a monster? Walk up the side of a pole while its back is turned so that it can’t see you. Can’t get where you need to go? Rotate the screen so new paths open up for you. Been decapitated? Get ready to roll around as your own severed head. Lloyd’s story isn’t over yet, and as long as he’s still lucid dreaming his way through a nightmare, we’ll be following him.
Another awesome announcement to come out of Unfold Games this week was the launch of Unfold Games Awards–an “indie game competition with over $170,000 in funding and prizes.” Entries are free, so if you want to know more, check the site out here. We love indie games and we hope to see great things come of this.
DARQ: Complete Edition is now available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC, with Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and physical releases scheduled for 2021.
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