D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die is an episodic game exclusive to Xbox One. I played the Prologue, which was surprisingly short. I’m not sure it took me even an hour to get through. But, it does come with Episodes 1 and 2. In playing the Prologue, I didn’t feel like much happened beyond the set up of this story in the first episode, but nevertheless, minor spoilers follow.
In D4 you play as David Young a private investigator whose wife was murdered. David apparently has the ability to travel back in time when he finds certain objects, although I didn’t feel this aspect of the game was really explored at all during the Prologue. Instead, in this first installment, we learn to “play” the game, learn a little about the background, and meet a couple of characters that I assume will be key to the story later.
I found this game to be a bit bizarre. Not necessarily in a bad way, but bizarre nonetheless. I found myself thinking about Twin Peaks while playing, and I’ve since read that others have compared it to Deadly Premonition, which also has a strong Twin Peaks vibe. The gameplay in D4 is nothing like the gameplay in Deadly Premonition. The gameplay in D4 feels more like point and click, although I gather that’s not the way it’s supposed to feel. The game was designed for the Kinect, but also gives you the option of using the controller. I prefer to play with the controller, so that’s what I did, but playing with the controller did make the actions feel forced or a bit unnecessary. I don’t know if playing with the Kinect would solve that problem, but I didn’t feel using the Kinect would feel natural either. It seems like a point-and-click game, so waving my hands around felt silly.
But, the story seems at least initially interesting. And, some of the mundane actions are pretty detailed. The dinner scene almost grossed me out with their gluttonous eating. The characters’ accents are also pretty cool. The story is set in Boston, and you can hear that when they talk. One character, in particular, that I found especially bizarre was Amanda the “mysterious stranger” who is somewhat inexplicably living with David. (Minor spoilers here:) She arrives and immediately starts attacking David. (But, he lets her live there?) She is also wearing an outfit reminiscent of a Playboy Bunny, and she ate her dinner with her legs spread open. Hm. It’s bizarre.
Overall, I’m intrigued. I like quirky stuff. If you like point and click, or I guess want to mess around with the Kinect, then you might enjoy this game. I would probably wait for it to go on sale, as $19.99 seems a bit steep for what you get at the moment. From what I’ve read online, Episodes 1 and 2 are also about an hour each, so you are getting about 3 hours of game time for $19.99. I will say, I’m glad they didn’t just include the Prologue because the ending of that left me with a weird sense that it was supposed to be a cliffhanger but yet I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be anticipating. Weird, but intriguing game. I’ll keep playing.
