D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die - Season 1

Fans of Deadly Premonition will love this bizarre, offbeat murder mystery.

D4 is all kinds of crazy, and you may not take to its unique brand of humor. But if you do, there's no forgetting it.

A strange, intangible experience, with style that transcends its own rubbishness.

D4 is so weird, strange and different that it's hard to pass up

This episodic adventure succeeds in its storytelling and character development. The gameplay offering is all over the place, and often feels disconnected from the narrative flow

It ends on a cliffhanger, but D4 has me intrigued, mostly because I felt a genuine attachment to the characters. I want to see this journey through to the end, and the classic Swery wackiness kept me interested throughout the relatively familiar adventure genre gameplay.

D4 is a wacky and weird adventure game that takes a familiar core premise and spices it up with quirky characters, trippy plot developments, and time travel. Motion controls have been integrated in an intuitive way, which helps to invest the player in their role, but occasional recognition issues and arm fatigue might have you reaching for a controller instead. Either way you play, D4 is a solid start to the series, and it offers up enough offbeat humor and intrigue to satisfy the Deadly Premonition fans. There are gameplay elements that miss their mark, and the pacing isn't perfect, but it's not enough to kill these dark dreams dead. Someone tell SWERY that we're ready for more.

This is just the beginning for D4, as more episodes are forthcoming. But for now, it's a solid package. Swery's latest is off to a good start.

D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die is one of the more pleasant surprises of the year. When one hears "bizarre episodic mystery title that uses Kinect," a high-quality product isn't what immediately comes to mind, but that's exactly what D4 is. It feels like a Telltale Game on LSD, which couldn't be more of a compliment. This is a mystery that's hard not to get sucked into, as its "anything goes" logic will leave players wondering what's going to come next. From its insanely quirky characters to its underlying tragedy, D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die is oddity done right.

A clear demonstration that a Kinect experience, if designed well, can be a lot of fun.