Set in a cyberpunk city which exists in a blanket of eternal night, D1AL-OGUE is a puzzle game unlike any other, as you take on the role of a technician who must repair the bodies, and hearts, of your android customers. As you turn the dials of your machinery and fix their broken bodies, you will also hear their biggest worries, regrets, and problems, and most importantly, learn what it means to really be human and the bearer of that ever questionable soul.
Released back in February, D1AL-OGUE was recommended to me by Steam based on my love for Cyberpunk 2077, and it is not hard to see why. Set in the near future in a dystopian city seeping in artificial light, D1AL-OGUE is what you imagine would take place in the backstreets of Night City. However, this game by CherryPicker, takes place in Chroma City, a place where the sun never rises, and the only light comes from the commercialized ‘Neon-Shine’. It is here that our protagonist, Chris, has set up a repair clinic tucked away in a quiet area in the shopping district, and where he makes a living fixing the bodies of androids known as E.V.E.s. Using your diagnostic console known as D1AL, you will solve puzzles and heal their broken bodies, but most of all, you will find out about their lives and their fears at the same time.
A Diverse Cast of Characters Await
Throughout the story, you will meet four unique E.V.E.s: Pray, Lianne, Orca, and occasionally, the mysterious Blade. Each day, you will welcome them into your clinic and work on their issues, but along the way, their company and unique personalities will help you discover that you may be hiding a lot more inside than you initially thought. Although the puzzles in D1AL-OGUE were fun and quite challenging at times, it was the characters that made this indie game stand out for me. You have Pray, who first appears soft and angelic, but you soon learn she has a feisty streak, or there is Lianne, who works for a pharmaceutical company and helps Chris find out more about his own problems, and finally, there is Orca, an E.V.E. who specializes in recoveries and puts herself in all manner of harms way to save everybody she can. It is through their various visits, their stories, and their personalities that help both Chris and the player ask: what does it mean to be human? Can only humans have souls? If so, how are these androids capable of all the thoughts and feelings that we are?
Four Endings Will See How Your Story Ends In Chroma City
D1AL-OGUE presents the player with four different endings based on who they want to attend Chroma City’s Polar Night Day event. As the longest day of the year and with the city shimmering in even more artificial light than usual, festivities are set to begin and Chris must decide who to attend with. However, after learning that there is more to his little sister than first meets the eye, the mechanic has to confront his past, and his future, and what it truly means to grieve in a world where the dead never truly disappear.
Offering around 3–4 hours of gameplay, D1AL-OGUE can be completed in a single sitting and that is definitely how I recommend playing this hidden gem. Better yet, it is completely free to play. You can play the full game for free, and keep it in your library to play whenever the mood takes you, if you wish to one day bag those different endings. It is hard to believe that a game as good as D1AL-OGUE is free to play, and it is even harder to believe that it has gone under the radar. However, with an ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ rating on Steam, you have no reason not to try out this Cyberpunk 2077-inspired puzzle game with heart at its very core.