D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die tells the strange story of David Young, a detective who pursues his wife’s murderer through a series of outlandish encounters with criminals, stewardesses, and the shapeshifting, violence-prone cat-woman he shares an apartment with.
For anyone familiar with director Swery65’s previous work Deadly Premonition, it’s business as usual. Noted for its bizarre storytelling style and Twin Peaks influence, Deadly Premonition holds a Guinness World Record for the dubious honor of “most critically polarizing survival horror game.”
D4 was originally designed as a showpiece for the Xbox One’s improved Kinect peripheral, and was featured during publisher Microsoft’s E3 presentation in 2013. The game saw a low-key digital release via the Xbox Live Marketplace last year, and was later available as a free download for Xbox Live Gold subscribers as part of the Games With Gold program.
In addition to Kinect controls, D4 also features optional controller support, making this week’s PC release possible. Currently, only the first “season” of content for D4 is available, and the story ends on a tantalizing cliffhanger. Director Swery65 has expressed interest in continuing the series, provided that sales for the first season prove adequate.
“I would love to launch a new game on PC first if I had the chance,” Swery stated in a recent interview with Polygon. “But for the time being, my top priority is D4 and the continuation of that series in season 2. I’m putting all my power into that right now.”
The PC version of D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die is available at a discounted rate of $13.49 during its launch week.
