By all accounts, Darq is a solid, spooky puzzle-platformer, with broadly positive reviews from both critics and Steam users. But it also got an extra bit of fame shortly before launch in 2019, when developer Wlad Marhulets of Unfold Games revealed that he had turned down an Epic exclusivity deal, after which Epic would not put the game on its store. Now, two years later, Darq is coming to the Epic Games Store, free for a limited time.
You’ll be able to grab Darq: The Complete Edition from the usual Epic Games Store promotion page on Thursday, October 28 at 8am PDT / 11am EDT / 4pm BST. It’ll be there for one full week, at which point it’ll be replaced by another freebie. As always, you’ll ‘purchase’ the game at a price of zero dollars, and it’ll remain in your library just like any game you might pay money for.
So what happened with that whole Epic exclusivity thing? The game’s console publisher helped smooth things out. “It so happens that the CEO of Feardemic, Scott Millard, has a good relationship with the EGS,” as Marhulets explains in a Medium post. “At some point, Scott asked me: ‘Hey, do you want to have a chat with people at the EGS?’ I thought it would be great to connect and have a proper phone call since we hadn’t got a chance to do that previously.”
Epic’s payout from the giveaway will help to fund the next project from Unfold Games, which is much larger in scope than Darq. Beyond that, Marhulets is making good on his promise to donate all Darq sales revenue generated through the Epic to charity, starting with Gamers Outreach.
For more free PC games, you can follow that link.