DARQ

This game features creative puzzles, creepy horror elements, and a unique art style. It's everything I love in one package.

---{ Graphics }---
☐ You forget what reality is
☑ Beautiful
☐ Good
☐ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ MS-DOS

---{ Gameplay }---
☑ Very good
☐ Good
☐ It's just gameplay
☐ Mehh
☐ Watch paint dry instead
☐ Just don't

---{ Audio }---
☐ Eargasm
☐ Very good
☑ Good
☐ Not too bad
☐ Bad
☐ I'm now deaf

---{ Dialogue }---
☐ Deserves an Oscar
☐ Great
☐ Decent
☐ Underwhelming
☐ Horrible
☑ 404 Dialogue not found

---{ Audience }---
☐ Kids
☑ Teens
☑ Adults
☑ Grandma

---{ PC Requirements }---
☐ Check if you can run paint
☑ Potato
☐ Decent
☐ Fast
☐ Rich boi
☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer

---{ Difficulty }---
☐ Just press 'W'
☐ Easy
☑ Easy to learn / Hard to master
☐ Significant brain usage
☐ Difficult
☐ Dark Souls

---{ Grind }---
☑ Nothing to grind
☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks
☐ Isn't necessary to progress
☐ Average grind level
☐ Too much grind
☐ You'll need a second life for grinding

---{ Story }---
☐ No Story
☑ Some lore
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Lovely
☐ It'll replace your life

---{ Game Time }---
☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee
☑ Short
☐ Average
☐ Long
☐ To infinity and beyond

---{ Price }---
☐ It's free!
☑ Worth the price
☐ If it's on sale
☐ If u have some spare money left
☐ Not recommended
☐ You could also just burn your money

---{ Bugs }---
☑ Never heard of
☐ Minor bugs
☐ Can get annoying
☐ Significant, nothing but a big terrarium for bugs
☐ Call the exterminators

---{ ? / 10 }---
☐ 1
☐ 2
☐ 3
☐ 4
☐ 5
☐ 6
☐ 7
☐ 8
☑ 9
☐ 10

Good but strange. You sort of get thrown into the game with no idea of what's going on, and it ends the same way. I'm not sure how the nightmares are supposed to be deciphered either. It's clearly a nightmare though with an interesting atmosphere. The puzzles were a fairly good difficulty, never requiring a walkthrough. Whenever I got stuck more exploration inevitably led me to the solution
Pros:
- Creepy atmosphere without getting into jumpscares or true horror territory
- The puzzles are well done
Cons:
- Apparently there's a meaning to the dreams?
- Whatever story there's supposed to be besides 'guy stuck in nightmares' is completely lost on me
Verdict: 8/10

Art style is pleasing and very Tim Burton-esque. There are some unique puzzles and it has some of the most innovative level design I've ever experienced with some decent jump scares. I enjoyed this a ton but the second DLC broke me and I gave up on the 100%. Worth a playthrough
My Curator Page

Very creepy puzzle game! In general, puzzles aren't hard; only a couple of them represent a real challenge. Loved the experience and recommend it!

Difficulty: medium
100 % achievement difficulty: easy
Graphics: Decent dark art and nice atmosphere
Music: good sound effects

Review from 2020:
I bought this game when it came out to support the dev for fighting against Epic's anti consumer bullshit, but I got a good game in the process, albeit a very short one. The main game is great as is the first DLC, but the second DLC has some new obtuse puzzles that don't really mesh with the rest of the game. The plot is anyone's guess, but the puzzles were pretty fun

This creepy and beautiful little game puts you into an atmosphere of a sad nightmare. Yuo wake up again and again, only to find yourself inside another weird, decrepit place full of dangers and puzzles. I love how it employs the traditional "moon logic" of adventure games: after all, it's a dream, so why can't a snake can become an extension cord? In a larger game such puzzles would feel obtuse, but Darq's level are just too small for it to become a problem.
One thing that pulled me out of the otherwise perfect atmosphere was an over-reliance on literal puzzles. At one point the game requires you to do the Towers of Hanoi -- that's how you know the designer is out of the ideas. These parts felt too mechanistic, too game-y for the otherwise engaging experience. Thankfully, none of them is too hard, so they don't take you out of the dream for too long. But I wish the developers of the games that follow Limbo's example took a page or two from the walking simulator genre's playbook, and added more contemplative sequences instead of padding time with tile-moving busywork.