With all the latest news on how Unfold Games is planning to continue their debut game Darq and turn it into a series with a well-planned future, I was more excited for the final free DLC to drop for the initial game than I was when they released the first free DLC called ‘The Tower.’ This time, the DLC takes place in ‘The Crypt’ and definitely does a good job to provide some uniquely strange puzzles while exploiting the eerie atmosphere this gothic-themed puzzle game has provided from the start. On top of the atmosphere, it was definitely a solid add-on to the overall game experience.
Gameplay
While the gameplay itself is the same as the main game itself, there is the added element that your head is missing and used as a secondary component to control and interact with the puzzles. That said, these DLC’s are free right from the start regardless of what platform you play on and so I must encourage you to play the base game before playing either of the DLC’s, especially this one.
Once again you will be using all sides of the rooms as walkable surfaces, given they are flat and uninterrupted by plants, coffins, or other elements. You will also have to know where the head needs to be or needs to go so that you can put your body in the right location or set up the pathway before using the access port that lets you switch control to the head. Combining the use of both body and head parts, you will need to find your way through the puzzles and collect key pieces to activate other puzzles in order to proceed.
Overall, the gameplay is very similar to the rest of the game, but the added separation of body and head definitely made the puzzles a little more intriguing to solve. They did a great job with bringing unique puzzles to this DLC chapter that you don’t see on the previous ones, which can also be said about each chapter of the game as a whole. Rarely do you see similar puzzle setups used more than once, but the variation of how they are presented and solved really makes this game one of my favorite puzzle games; this DLC being no exception.
What Could Be Better
As it has been a problem with the base game and previous DLC, the length of the playable experience is pretty short. Given that both DLC’s were free, neither DLC on their own was too short of an experience, but even with both DLC’s completed and the base game beaten, my total playtime sat just over 4 hours. This is a rather short time for a game, but at least the experience with the DLC’s alone was memorable, just as the base game was exceptional.
Conclusion
Darq’s new DLC, ‘The Crypt,’ is more than worth downloading and should be experienced by anybody who enjoys puzzle games! Even if the gothic-theme isn’t really your type of setting, this is a unique puzzle game that you won’t be able to experience with any other title and the DLC’s prove that this developer has nothing but creative ideas to bring and new puzzles to be solved.
