Superb soundtrack (like all of Master Boot Record's music), a perfect blend of chiptune and metal. WARNING/NOTICE -- If you bought VIRTUAVERSE.OST on Bandcamp, then you already own all 23 tracks. It's easy to miss, but near the top of the BC page in dark grey on black, it says "Includes 10 exclusive bonus in-game loops that don't appear on the main soundtrack. Total running time ~20 minutes." Those extra 10 bonus tracks don't appear on the BC web page, but they do appear in the Bandcamp app and in your downloaded files.
I bought this primarily for the soundtrack and to call that a mess would be generous. To be clear, I'm not talking about the music (which is mostly ambiance/atmospheric, but I like it); I'm talking about the files (encoding quality and metadata). Below are the details for the soundtrack files. MP3: 64 kbps 48000 Hz Joint Stereo for tracks 1-8 (Mick Gordon) 64 kbps 44100 Hz Joint Stereo for tracks 9-17 (The Brotherhood) 64 kbps 48000 Hz Joint Stereo for track 18 (The Brotherhood) ID tags (Track #, Title, Artist, Album, Genre, Comment) and 1000x1000 cover art NOTE 1: Title tags have "Music Desolation Mickgordon" or "Music Desolation Brotherhood" prepended to the actual titles. NOTE 2: Tracks titles "Windy synth" and "All things must end" have spaces removed (titles are "Music Desolation Mickgordon Windysynth" and "Music Desolation Mickgordon Allthingsmustend"). NOTE 3: Track 18 artist is listed as The Brotherhood (it's listed as Mick Gordon in the FLAC file). NOTE 4: ZIP file includes separate cover art images (two different images -- 1920x1490 for one image and 1920x1080 for the other image). FLAC: 2-channel, 24bit, 48000Hz sample rate for tracks 1-7 (Mick Gordon) 2-channel, 16bit, 48000Hz sample rate for track 8 (Mick Gordon) 2-channel, 16bit, 44100Hz sample rate for tracks 9, 12, 13, 14, 16, and 17 (The Brotherhood) 2-channel, 24bit, 44100Hz sample rate for tracks 10, 11, and 15 (The Brotherhood) 2-channel, 24bit, 48000Hz sample rate for track 18 (Mick Gordon) Metadata (Track #, Title, Artist, Album) and 1920x1490 cover art NOTE 1: Title tag is all lowercase (but is the actual title). NOTE 2: Tracks titles "windy synth" and "all things must end" have spaces removed. NOTE 3: Track 18 artist is listed as Mick Gordon (it's listed as The Brotherhood in the MP3 file). NOTE 4: ZIP file includes separate cover art images (two different images -- 1920x1490 for one image and 1920x1080 for the other image).
This soundtrack contains beautiful piano-centric music which is perfect as background music or music on which to focus while relaxing. The soundtrack is provided in MP3 and WAV formats. MP3 FORMAT: 17 tracks, 49m38s total length 320 kbps CBR, 48000 Hz, stereo Metadata: Track #, title, album, year, genre, composer, 1000x1000 cover art 1000x1000 cover art also included as image file (JPG) in ZIP file NOTE: The composer tag is set, but the track artist tag is not set. WAV FORMAT: 17 tracks, 49m36s total length 24-bit (except track 4, which is 16-bit), 48000 Hz, stereo Metadata: Track #, title, album, genre, composer 1000x1000 cover art included as image file (JPG) in ZIP file NOTE: The composer tag is set, but the track artist tag is not set.
I guess the developers think repeatedly showing "The End" and rolling the credits is somehow clever or amusing. It's not. It's annoying and frustrating. Just let me play the damn game without the continuous interruptions.
DARQ is a bittersweet experience. I absolutely love the art style, the sound effects are wonderful (there is no music), I love the walking and shifting mechanics, and the puzzles are fun without being complicated. There are 7 chapters in the game (not including the DLC), and I competed them in just under 2.5 hours (the DLC added another 22 minutes of play time). There are a few negative points, however. 1. Chapter 7 was not enjoyable at all; it was nothing but a long chase scene with traps you could not anticipate (thus you could not avoid them the first time you encountered them). This did not fit the style of the game, which was otherwise a puzzle game. 2. There was one puzzle (the maze/camera puzzle) which is completely unfair and not at all enjoyable. You are shown a picture of a simple maze and you need to use your movement keys to move a ball through the maze. However, once you press the button to start the puzzle, the camera starts rotating horizontally, so the maze scrolls off the screen and you spend most of the time not seeing the maze you're trying to solve. To make matters worse, there is an enemy approaching you from behind, so you have very limited time to complete the maze (which, again, you can see for only a few brief periods of 2-3 seconds each). 3. The game is short. I completed the entire game in 2.75 hours (2 hours 24 minutes for the base game and 22 minutes for "The Tower" DLC). I loved the style and the gameplay, so this really left me wanting more. I was very disappointed that it was over so soon. If you enjoy puzzle games and enjoy this art style, then I definitely recommend this game, but keep in mind that it will be a short experience.
Remember when a "supporter pack" was offered as an add-on to a game which was released for free (or very low cost)? It was offered as a way to support the developer who gave away the game for no cost or sold it for very low cost. Now we have this $35 game which offers an add-on "supporter pack" for an additional $10. I guess paying $35 for a game is no longered considered "support".
This OST is somewhat short (33 minutes 4 seconds total, including the three versions of "No Last Eternity"), but it contains wonderful music. Urnique Studio has put the soundtrack on YouTube, but you can buy this OST for offline listening and/or to support the studio. Tracks 1-14 are 320 kbps MP3, 48 KHz, with full tags and cover artwork Tracks 15-17 are 320 kbps MP3, 44.1 KHz, with full tags and cover artwork
I had prepared an in-depth review, but it exceeded GOG's 2000-character limit for reviews, so I'll just list the pros and cons. PRO: + There are many puzzles. + The puzzles use various mechanics to keep them from being repetitive. + Many of the puzzles are very enjoyable. + The music is good, but it does get repetitive when you spend so long solving the puzzles. + There is an interesting story revealed as you progress through the game. + Excellent voice acting by Abigail Turner. This is easily one of the best aspects of the game. CON: - Some of the puzzles are extremely difficult, which forced me to look at a walkthrough. - Most of the puzzles in the bridge section (which contains about 20% of the total puzzles) combine mechanics, making them brutally difficult. Expect to use a walkthrough for many of the puzzles in this section. - Some of the puzzles aren't puzzles at all -- they are pure trial-and-error, not logic-based. - The ending makes no sense and explains nothing. NEUTRAL: The rules are not explained for any of the puzzles. It is up to you to determine the rules. They are usually pretty easy to figure out, but a few sections did cause me to look at a walkthrough to find out the rules beaause they weren't intuitive. I enjoyed most of the puzzles until the bridge section. Having to play a game by following a walkthrough is, to me, not fun at all. I really didn't want to continue, but the story was compelling and I wanted to find out what happened to the ship and its crew. Unfortunately, the ending made no sense and didn't explain anything, which was a huge disappointment and negatively impacted the overall experience. I don't regret purchasing this game, as I did find it enjoyable for many hours, but I am very disappointed that the compelling story was not given a proper ending.
