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. ĭARQ doesn’t waste much time plunging you into the story this game is all about atmosphere. The debut title from developer Unfold Games, and published by Feardemic, DARQ: Complete Edition includes the base game’s original seven chapters as well as two additional DLC levels - The Tower and newly-added The Crypt.

DARQ: Complete Edition is an atmospheric psychological horror puzzle-platformer following the plight of Lloyd, a boy trapped in a dilapidated house and his own looping nightmares. So when presented with a game exploring lucid dreams, blurring the line between fantasy and reality, morbid curiosity made it impossible not to play. I have been having trouble sleeping these past few weeks, often tossing and turning at night and waking up anxious.

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