The need to scrutinize every scene and carefully examine your surroundings also makes the game’s jump scares particularly jarring. It is at times frustrating to find yourself walking the same paths again and again, until you notice a detail that your eye had passed over before and the solution suddenly becomes obvious and unmissable. It’s a side-scroller that isn’t just about moving from one end to another. The game encourages you to look at something once, then again from another angle. The genius of DARQ is in how deceptively simple it can be. Later in the level, when I came across a large chasm and could find no other way forward, I selected the watch from my inventory on a whim and watched as it grew larger than life, stretching itself and forming a bridge for Lloyd to cross. But DARQ is a game that rewards trial and error and leaning into dream logic. I was puzzled as I picked up an abandoned wristwatch and added it to my inventory, wondering how this tiny object was going to help me escape the sinister factory I was trapped inside. Meanwhile, the objects you come across seem innocuous at first. Press a button and watch as what appeared to be the fluorescent-lit factory basement you were exploring transforms into living, dripping flesh, removing an obstacle in your way. Pull a lever and the game’s camera shifts perspective, entirely altering the layout of the map and revealing a new path forward. Layers of illusion and creative interpretations of everyday objects lay groundwork for dozens of gravity-defying puzzles (with some light stealth elements mixed in) as Lloyd sneaks and scurries across the screen to avoid dread-inducing monsters and escape his lucid dreams.Ĭome across a wall, and you can suddenly walk up it. Lloyd’s nightmares aren’t much different than the drab world he left behind, except now the rules of reality are lifted. However, there’s no rest to be had in sleep. After passing through a sparse kitchen and a shadowy hallway, you come upon a mattress and are offered the option to go to sleep. Your surroundings are swathed in shadowy hues of purple and grey, all blanketed in a dreamlike white mist that seems to mimic that hazy feeling of trying to recollect a memory. I was immediately struck by DARQ ’s score, which completely elevates the game’s tortured dreamscapes and blankets them with creeping trepidation. You wake up in a crumbling, dilapidated house as Lloyd - a pale, skinny boy in a striped shirt and pointed black boots. DARQ doesn’t waste much time plunging you into the story this game is all about atmosphere.
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