Like a bad dream, Darq is devilshly creative, memorable and short. Its signature ghostly look and refined array of perspective-shifting and gravity-defying mechanics are a marvel to behold.

So as I was saying, yeah, I think the Epic Store is alrigh... OH GOD NO!

Darq-style lucid dreaming with sleep paralysis produced some of the the most terrifying experiences of my own life. Of course, what monsters might populate such a dream state of many a Steam user but Tim Sweeney, the Epic Games Store logo on legs and the physical embodiment of a lack of a shopping cart?

Yes, Darq has been propelled into the limelight by the Epic Store living nightmare debate, but far far more impressive to me is the developmental genesis of Darq. As the first game of a mostly lone developer quitting his day job and learning to program during development, it's quite remarkable. When the indie scene is struggling more and more year by year, it's heartening to see a confluence of events bring a developer's debut release such support - whatever the reasons.

The local hospital after Brexit is looking good.

The actual game of Darq is many things. It's short for one, perhaps unsurprisingly, but only in keeping with the gaming expectations of anything resembling a Braid/Limbo/Inside. Summarily, it plays like a side-scrolling 'walk and click' puzzle game. Find and deliver items to the right spots - so far so standard - but it's spiced-up verily by its wholly unique surrealist perspective-shifting, gravity-defying mechanical antics served with a horror-twist.

The plot matter has the absolute lightest touch, propelling you into control of an 'alone in the darq' boy (that you'll simply have to take it from the store page is a lucid dreaming Lloyd) without a trice of distraction. It's a delightfully metaphor-laden romp - something right up my alley. Every location, item and ghastly figure is ripe for dissecting. Always a good way of adding meat to the bones of longevity and it particularly works here.

Can I lend you a leg?

Darq betrays the feeling of a game that has been culled to absolute freshness. Whilst it could have lived off its initial mechanic of gravity-defying wall-walking, each level continues to introduce fresh moments, mechanics and then expansions to those. Be they 2.5D plane shifting backwards and forwards/up walls or even complete 3D rotation, Darq smashes through the perspective limitations of a sidescroller in almost every conceivable way (prove me wrong in the DLC!). Puzzles are nearly wholesale friction-less non-confounding, but they're enjoyable all the same for their sheer creativity and variedness. They did, however, engage too much with The Witness-esque panels towards the end for my liking. They always seemed better off avoiding such an approach, although, in defence of such puzzle design, it does provide one of the single most ingeniously horrifying moment I've seen in a game - perhaps period. You'll know it when you see it. That epitomises how Darq works for me - it trades in single moments that can only come from a single vision and small teams that don't have to check with every other department to get a pen on a desk signed off, as well as only the best of its ideas escaping the developmental darq.

When a wheelie bin blocks my path I just go home.

Aspects of its horror face aren't such an unremitting success. Avoiding the spectacular wrath of the various dreamscape Darq-Souls/Amnesia: The Darq Descent-like figures is less a tense activity and more so gaming par for the course. You can sneak to avoid immediate detection, but usually have to rely on some variation of a hidey-hole to duck into until they've back-and-forthed themselves out of the way. There remains that characteristic creativity here. Each 'monster' is completely and memorably unique, and to their credit so are the specifics of each means of encounter evasion. Immediately, both the gun-toting lampshade women of whom you have to time your movements with their alternating lights or the tuba-headed figure in a wheelchair slowly brass winding himself side to side come to mind. A difficult, near-impossible task perhaps, but avoiding enemies here just couldn't help but feel like an annoyance that broke up the flow of gameplay. So too, an extended escape sequence straight out of Limbo/Inside, whilst a refreshing chance of pace, is blighted with all the hallmark issues. Namely, stop and start gameplay wherein you merely have to unfairly die your way through scenes to know what to avoid and how to progress. It's a one-off and arguably important to the plot, so it's hardly game-ending.

Nothing beats bed yoga.

Before the Epic Store was a twinkle in Tim Sweeney's eye, what has throughout really helped Darq escape obscuredom is its signature look. Through its superb ghostly monochrome aesthetic combined with great lighting, it's able to hide any imperfections in the visuals and achieve something singularly striking. The animations, too, impress. I recommend you spook every monster you can at least once, just to watch what unfolds. Its sound dimension is lifted by the involvement of Bjorn Jacobson (lead sound designer on Cyberpunk 2077) and Adam Schmidt (sound engineer known for working on Inception and Dark Knight Rises). As for music, however, there's only one track (confined to the credits) to speak of. There are many games for which the dearth of a soundtrack would feel stark, but it doesn't here. The background ambient audio is more than sufficient in carving the tone of each chapter.

For all the justifications for brevity - that it's predominately the sweat of a single developer and the game shines brighter for being cut so finely - it remains a fair concern. After all, it's potentially only a couple of hours long for many if, unlike me, you don't feel compelled to replay it. Given, however, that the upcoming DLC will be free, such fears may be extinguished somewhat. Indeed, the compensation for work should always be less of an issue when it comes to supporting smaller devs like this regardless. I'm very excited to see any product of an expansion on as exciting a base game as this.

Like a bad dream, Darq is devilshly creative, memorable and short. Its signature ghostly look and refined array of perspective-shifting and gravity-defying mechanics are a marvel to behold. Definitely not a Perfect Darq Zero - this is a Perfect Darq.