Horror puzzle Short horror Horror PS1 horror

D: The Game

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Two hours, no saves, and the truth about your father.

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Stores: Steam, GOG
Price: Paid
Rated: Very Positive on Steam (89% of 159 reviews); 3.6 out of 5 from GOG players (127 ratings)
Length: two hours of real time at most (the game's limit)
Players: 1
Made by: WARP (directed by Kenji Eno)
Released: 1995

What frightens Laura Harris walks into the hospital where her father, a famous doctor, has murdered his patients, and finds it turned into a gothic castle full of grisly clues; a two-hour real-time clock with no saves or pause hangs over everything, and violent and cannibalistic scenes wait at the end of it.
Content: violence, cannibalism, gore, disturbing imagery.

D is Kenji Eno's 1995 horror interactive movie. Laura Harris enters a Los Angeles hospital where her father has killed his patients and barricaded himself in, and finds herself in a castle she must solve within two real hours, with no way to save or pause.

About D: The Game

D was made by WARP, the Japanese studio of Kenji Eno, and first released on the 3DO in 1995, then on Saturn, PlayStation and MS-DOS. It sold a million copies in Japan and became a cult game in the West. Nightdive Studios and Throwback Entertainment brought the DOS version to GOG and Steam in 2016 as D: The Game.

It is 1997 in Los Angeles. Dr Richter Harris, one of the country's best-known doctors and a quiet man, has killed people in the hospital he runs and taken hostages inside it. His daughter Laura drives there to find out what turned him into a murderer. The moment she steps inside, the hospital becomes a gothic castle.

It plays as an interactive movie in first person: you move through pre-rendered rooms, watch full-motion scenes, examine things, carry items and solve the castle's puzzles. The rule that shapes everything is the clock. You have two hours of real time, there is no save and no pause, and if time runs out Laura is pulled back to the real world and the game ends. What you do along the way decides which ending you see.

The horror is slow and grim: an empty castle, a father you are searching for and dread of what you will find out, then violent scenes that Eno added on purpose to shock. Steam players note that the PC edition is the DOS port running in DOSBox, with scan lines over the video. It suits players curious about 1990s Japanese horror and FMV games, and anyone who likes a short adventure under a hard time limit.

How to play D: The Game

Buy it on Steam or GOG and start it; the store edition runs the DOS version for you.
Set aside two hours: there is no save and no pause once you begin.
Move room to room through the castle and examine everything you can.
Pick up items and use them to solve the castle's puzzles and open new rooms.
Reach your father before the real-time clock runs out; your actions decide the ending.

Screenshots

D: The Game screenshot: a dark figure raises an arm in front of a stained-glass window while Laura looks on

D: The Game screenshot: Laura stands in a red-walled parlour with ornate chairs and a small table

D: The Game screenshot: Laura's hand holds up a brass key in a dark room

D: The Game screenshot: a dim castle hall with suits of armour on either side of a staircase

Tips

Play somewhere you will not be interrupted, since the game cannot be paused.
Pay attention to every object in the rooms you pass; clues are easy to miss on a first run.
A failed run is not wasted: you will know the castle better on the next one.
Try again with different choices to see the other endings.