Dia is a short horror game that takes place in an empty and colorful city. The first thing you’ll notice when walking around is the corpse following you, and the sign that says “Population: 1”. Any time the corpse is moving, it changes to 2, letting you know that it’s not really dead. These signs are all around the city for some reason, maybe they had a use at some point?
The game leaves a lot of questions like that unanswered. Why have the population signs everywhere? Why is it empty, and how did you get here? Of course a good explanation is just that the author wanted to have all this for the setting of the game, and to have a mechanic that creeps out the player. The mystery of it was interesting though, and the blue/purple color scheme fits well with that. It makes the world feel like a strange dream.
The atmosphere and emptiness of the city is something I always enjoy. It’s easy to navigate and find the next part of the game. Although empty, I always kept my eyes on the many population signs for when the body will come around again. Eventually you find a radio, and the woman tells you to meet up with her. She’s in a tower that’s supposedly safe from the creature.
After she lets you through the gate to where the tower is, the world goes dark. Maybe she shouldn’t have been trusted? The true nature of the city and the corpse is revealed. This place was a trap all along, a lair for the creature. Dia was a fun and short horror game, I wish there would have been at least some story and background to it. A few pages of notes along the way would have been good, but keeping everything a mystery for the reveal worked out really good too.
