DARQ: Complete Edition

If you've seen absolutely nothing of this game before, you're in for a treat. Darq is an instant classic in my book. I can't believe I haven't played it before considering I'm a huge fan of these types of puzzle games. If you enjoy games like Limbo, Swapper, Inside, and the like, this game is definitly worth a buy. Darq has only 7 quick levels and normally because of this I would say its not worth the full price. However, the atmosphere and gameplay is so well crafted that it makes up for the short length. I'm not exactly sure how to put this without spoiling anything, but there are some moments in this game that just made me sit back and go, "Woooaah, that's so cool!" I don't remember the last time I played a game that surprised me like Darq. The first time I interacted with certain objects, a unique, heart-pounding puzzle on a train, and a classic ending are the biggest things that stuck with me after playing. The gameplay is clever yet simple. The puzzles aren't overly complicated, but they are challenging enough to still give that sense of accomplishment and make you feel like you're the smartest man alive. In short, it's a must play for puzzle game fans, but once you finish, you'll be wishing there was more.

The developers describe it as psychological horror and stealth game but I wouldn't put it in either category. It's an atmospheric puzzlegame. The game isn't too challenging, this kept me in the flow nicely. The controls are simple with a minimal ui. It doesn't overwhelm you with lots of backtracking. It maintains a nice flow where you incrementally think more outside of the box. You even find an optional secret in each level if you take that train of thought one step further. The game has a great physicality to it. It communicates well what you can and can't do and you truly feel like you're 'there', I enjoy that in games. Moving your character and nteracting with puzzle-elements feel great(helped by the great soundeffects and animations). These might seem like details, but they add up to elevate the overal atmosphere. If there's one word to describe this game it's 'polish'. Through the entire game there were only two or three details what i'd describe as slightly out of place or not on par with the quality of the rest of the game. And that's a testament to level of overall quality of the game. The environments, characterdesign, sound, animations are consistenly great and together make create a very atmospheric game. The only real criticism I have with the game is its last trial and error sprint to the finish. It didn't communicate well what a failstate was and made cheapened the emotional impact more than the ' difficulty added to it. All in all, if you are new to puzzlers. Enjoy Atmospheric/horrorgames and want to try something new and short in between, i'd give it a try. Even if this isn't the genre you gravitate towards normally. Keep in mind the game is short! But it's quality over quantity. Excellent cozy game for October. It's currently on sale for €6,79- I think the game is worth more in my opinion. Fullprice might be steep if you just want hard puzzles.a Im very curious to see what Unfold Games makes next, but I can't find much info about them.

What a lovely, little game. It reminds me of LIMBO, but it's better in my opinion. I would say it's well designed experience, and it takes only one session to finish it. Also HIGH PRAISE to the author for showing EPIC STORE the door. BUY THIS GAME! However I have to complain about couple of moments I found really frustrating (SPOILERS at the bottom). It seems that in couple of places gamepad is simply not REALLY WORKING due to its analog nature, and using keyboard gives MUCH better results. I play exclusively using gamepad, and I couldn't pass one of the chapters due to this issue. Not going into details I would recommed playing with keyboard. !!!SPOILER ALERT!!! Chapter 5, spinning wheel, freakin spinning camera, and that bloody mummy lady on the wheelchair. I spent about 15-20 minutes, and god knows how many tries using gamepad (XBOX Elite). It's simply not suitable to for this challenge. On the other hand I passed it only at second try using keyboard. The whole idea with the camera spinning was also quite bad, made me feel dizzy after only a couple of tries. VERY VERY FRUSTRATING! DON'T YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN! Chapter 7, one giant tilt, it seems like the game pad controls are laggy, plus there's a lot of moments, when you have to repeat the whole chunk of level when you die, and you die a lot when use gamepad . For me that's the worst chapter in the game. After having a nice session with a puzzle game turning it into a bloody "miliseconds precision" platformer was unnecessary.

I knew going into this game it would be a short finish. I figured I'd play 2-3 nights in the late evenings when I'm winding down before bed, 45 to 60 minutes tops. I gravitate towards puzzle games, especially sidescroll/platform puzzle games (Limbo, Inside, Blink, etc) so I felt I could casually work my way through it. I beat the game in one sitting, in only about 2 hours. I've got to say, there is one moment of bullspit where I thought "This moment will annoy me on any/all subsequent playthroughs; it might stop me from re-playing the game" and the final chapter is a bit of a let-down. The atmosphere, art direction, design, sound mixing, everything in its presentation is top-notch and would rival any AAA studio production on a game like this. It's beyond what you expect from an indie developer, ESPECIALLY, in their break-out game! That said, it's not perfect and the experience leads me wanting more. I'm looking forward to the DLC. I want you to know, that this game only made it to my radar because the dev stood up to EGS's tactics, and I wanted to show them support--buying it at full price--but my verdict is that otherwise I most likely would have bought/played this game for between USD $9.99 and about $12.99. I'm glad I did get it when I did though! Perfect to hype me up for Halloween.

I am not terribly good at writing reviews but I will say this. From the moment I started the game I enjoyed it. Even when I missed parts and had to go back over some so I could go forward. I used a controller to play it and it was easy to handle. I think the art style worked for the type of atmosphere that was being shown here as well. I also played The Tower DLC. It was a short and enjoyable addition to this game. It is not a terribly long game but I think it works well. I recommend it.