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Welcome to the DARQ
Begin your journey into the darkness with Lloyd, a young boy with a special talent. Lloyd has realized that he is dreaming, astral projecting himself into the deepest and darkest parts of his subconscious. To Lloyd’s misfortune, his dreams turn to nightmares… The more Lloyd tries to make sense of where he is the less everything makes sense. Try as he might Lloyd cannot wake himself from this nightmare.
Crawl through the chapters one at a time, slowly getting deeper into Lloyd’s consciousness. Things start out slow for Lloyd as he ventures forth through the tunnels of his mind. This game prominently leads with physical puzzles that you must sort out before you can move forward in the game. The dashes of horror make the puzzles more deadly and time-consuming, which could be the defining line of restarting the level.
Not only does this game contain a multitude of different puzzles, but it also reveals enemies that become a reoccurring theme within Lloyd’s mind. Turn your back for too long, and the ‘Mother’ type creature could sneak up behind you and consume you. Walk too quickly and step into the light, you’ll be shot at viciously from the dark. This game is what I would categorize as a psychological horror puzzle game. Personally, it’s one of my more favorite genres of Indie games, which are more often on PC than consoles. It truly helps DARQ stick out from the crowd, Nintendo Switch seems to be a secondary favorite outlet to Indie Developers.
This game is pretty short, maybe 4 or 5 hours of main story game play. The time has nothing on the story itself, which is both compelling and addicting. A lot of it doesn’t make sense until you’re about midway into the game, but it is very grasping.
I felt almost empty after finishing this lovely little story, as it made me want more. Surprisingly there is DLC for this game, two chapters to add on to the over all game. Joy!
In this chapter of DLC, you start off in a slender tall tower standing on an elevator platform. Unlike the main game where you had a bed to start your adventure, this chapter throws you in as soon as you hit start. Venture through the tower, unscrambling locks with heads. That’s right, heads that rock and roll. Separate from yourself, to truly find yourself. Body and mind must work together to figure these tricks out, or in DARQness you will stay. Come to terms with yourself, only then can you reach the light.
This chapter was quite short, but it was the first DLC to be added to DARQ. Hopefully, the next chapter adds a bit more content to the game as it’s still an under 5-hour game.
The Crypt. Wow. What a chapter. The second part of DLC for DARQ, this chapter adds so many more puzzles and questions. In The Crypt, the puzzles are harder than what we’ve seen so far from this game. It’s like this game went from easy mode to EXPERT in a fade to black screen. Separated from your head, you must find your way through the crypt. This chapter is heavily reliant on the ant-gravity skills you’ve acquired over your travels, as well as a keen eye. This chapter delves deep into what we’ve seen from some of Lloyd’s mysterious followers. Hide in the light from the Mannequins once again as you find your way through the DARQness.
This was an amazing Indie Dev Puzzle Horror Game. One of the best I’ve played on the Nintendo Switch.
7.5/10
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