Comunidad de Steam :: duhnuhnuh

duhnuhnuh_duhnuhnuh

Andy B.

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Nivel

ASCENDED DETECTIVE

500 EXP

There is a giant ball there. And evil apes. And the evil apes are dukin' it out on the ball. You're one of them. It's basically all just evil apes dukin' it out on a giant ball. - Limbic System, Disco Elysium

There is a hole at the center of everything, and it is always growing. Between the stars I am seeing it. It is coming, and you are not escaping, and the universe is forgetting you, and the universe is being forgotten, and there is nothing to remember it, not even the things beyond. And now there is only the hole... You are atoms, and your atoms are not caring if you are existing. Your atoms are monstrous existence. - The Sky Cat, Night in the Woods

Ver más información

Jugando

Finding Paradise

Insignias 185

374

Outofmana
Sin conexión

221

EGOIST
Sin conexión

219

Bio
En línea

206

Raigeki
Sin conexión

176

thehotrock
Sin conexión

169

Citrinate
En línea

I finish games and usually review them

Recently Beaten:
- Animal Well
- Mothmen 1966
- The Good Time Garden
- Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
- Critters For Sale

Now Playing:
- Helldivers 2 (reviewed)
- Finding Paradise

Colección de juegos

Juegos destacados

Expositor de logros más infrecuentes

+5,368

5,388

Logros

Juegos completados

65 %

Media de obtención

Expositor de logros

5,388

Logros

Juegos completados

65 %

Media de obtención

Colección de insignias

185

Total de insignias obtenidas

Insignias reflectantes obtenidas

Tarjetas

Expositor de reseñas

DARQ

5.7 horas jugadas

Sights & Sounds

Hues are for suckers

Even the oldest color monitors were 4-bit, permitting nerds in the 80s to finally see in a stunning array of 16 colors in an incredible 100x100 resolution without leaving the darkness of their mothers' basements (provided they were willing to fork over the money for an expensive adapter)
Eventually they kept raising two to higher and higher powers until we stopped thinking about color depth altogether. Darq said "♥♥♥♥ all that" to the decades of technological advancement and decided that shades of gray were good enough
I suppose that Darq isn't entirely black and white; as you progress, you'll get a subtle pink hue imparted by an emergency light, notice the almost imperceptible yellow glow of a sodium lamp, or spot the pale blue of a sparking wire
And while the world never really burst into a wide spectrum of colors, your eyes will eventually adjust to pick out the muted palette of some interior settings. It's a strange visual effect. It's almost as though the colors are muted disproportionately to the light levels. Very eerie
Another noticeable bold choice Darq makes is the near absence of a soundtrack. Oh, sure, if you go look it up, you'll find a nice track listing of haunting orchestral music, but little to none of that shows up until you see the credits roll
The sound design, conversely, is very in-your-face. Beyond the nearly constant machine droning emitted by the various puzzle contraptions you encounter, you'll hear tons of squeaking gears, crunchy footsteps, and a healthy dose of "Inception noises as you make your way through the game. It sounds like lower frequencies are boosted and maybe compressed, making them sound more punchy and distorted

Story & Vibes

Tim Burton presents

Being an artsy puzzle game, there's no overt narrative in Darq. You just go through your your moody, surreal puzzles in a dimly-lit world until the game ends more or less where it began
Instead, Darq is all about the vibes. The cacophonous sound effects and lack of light build an unsettling atmosphere, as does the absence of music
The creepy air ramps up a bit once you begin encountering the blind, pale, twisted inhabitants that would like nothing more than to wring the protagonist's impossibly skinny neck
Speaking of the protagonist, the exaggerated size of his facial features and head in proportion to his rail-thin frame reminded me of characters from The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach

Playability & Replayability

A new perspective

Darq is a puzzle adventure game where there isn't really a stated goal other than to move forward. You start off in your bedroom (serving as a hub world), go to bed, and wake up in a new puzzle-filled reality in a spooky setting. At the end of the stage, you return to your room to repeat the process anew
On the whole, the puzzle variety was quite good. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was little to no block-pushing mechanics, which are the definitive hallmark of an uncreative puzzle game
Instead, Darq will test your perception. Our protagonist has the very interesting ability to walk up or down whatever surface is in front of him. See a wall? No bother! Just plant a foot on it and keep walking. The screen will rotate to keep your character vertical
This perception-shifting meshes well with the other more traditional puzzle elements like switches, item assembly, sequencing, and timing. The little gameplay twist makes for some truly clever puzzles
The most notable of these, in my view, is the level taking place at the intersection of two city streets. At the middle of the intersection is a pair of hanging rings; grabbing these and pressing left or right will shift the world 90 degrees, permitting you to see a single side of one of the streets depending on the way you rotate. Very cool
Remember those monsters I mentioned? Yeah, you'll need to avoid them. The good news is that they're blind, but the bad news is that they're very capable of hearing you. You'll need to sneak using the dedicated control to get past them unnoticed
I got all of the achievements in the main game as well as all of the non-speedrunning achievements in the DLC included in the Complete Edition, so I'm not feeling a replay anytime soon. I just don't get much enjoyment out of speedrunning

Overall Impressions & Performance

First try

It's hard not to be impressed by the fact that this was the developer's first game. I've tried a number of people's first Unity projects, and I rarely come away with this positive of an impression
He clearly had a vision in mind when putting together this game. The strong artistic choices that are simultaneously minimalist in most ways but excessive in some make this a memorable game
And it's always nice to get a breath of fresh air in the puzzle scene. The most similar game I can think of that matches Darq in tone and gameplay is Creaks, though I can see some similarities to PLAYDEAD titles like Limbo and Inside
The game performed quite well on the Steam Deck. I'm not sure why, but these compact, artsy puzzle titles feel perfect for the platform

Final Verdict

7.0/10. The strong audiovisual design plays well with Darq's creative puzzle mechanics, putting an interesting twist on a well-trodden genre. While some lore, narrative, or objective could have enhanced the experience a little, this is still a worthwhile experience for those looking for something a little creepy and mysterious

Escribir un comentario

Expositor de completista