Dream Reviews

I don't like being negative about a game that was obviously a passion project of a few people, but at the same time it should not be free from criticism. I did not really enjoy this game at all, even though the concept of a dream exploration game is something i really enjoy. There are numerous games like Yume Nikki on RPG maker where you explore a characters dreams. Plus there are a number of indie games i found on steam with similar concepts i found as well, but this game is the only one I REALLY did not enjoy. The first and biggest problems are related to the story, the writing is clearly very amateurish and honestly quite bad. The story at it's core is probably fine, but the way it's presented is nearly unbearable. The main character in this game talks, and does so a lot. He comments the most moodkilling stuff at every other landmark. And to make things worse, every time you reload a map, he comments the EXACT same thing every time. The main character Howard is such an unlikable guy as well, where he also mentions the exact meaning of certain objects in the dreams. Like: "Hey Louis, Remember the time i was in College, this looks just like that. Oh this is like the time i went to a bar with my uncle" etc. Honestly the writing got so hard to listen to for me it started to almost get enjoyable in an ironic way. But it's not just so bad it's good, it's just bad. The biggest example of that, is this overarching conversation that Howard has with his uncle, that they force you to listen to 5 times, each time adding more to the conversation. But every time it's just the same unskippable start with some extras at the end. The exploration and the maps are generally fine or moderately fun. Nothing special, no mindbreaking sights or experiences, but it's mostly fine. Although there are sections where the object collision is bad, where there are misspelled words or the lighting is not great. There was this one section with a rollercoaster that took ages to sit through and the whole thing was rather boring. And most of the maps are filled with environmental puzzles, which range in quality as well, but are generally not great. The worst "puzzles" were right in the first area, where you have to navigate these 4 mazes to turn off the lights. The music in the game is generally pretty good actually, the tracks mostly add to the atmosphere of the map and without them it would be a lot worse. The audio mixing is however quite subpar as well. The achievements in this game are also quite unenjoyable, from just stumbling on an object getting you one to standing around for 30 minutes! doing nothing in one area. Lastly, there were some times where the game crashed as well, although these were quite rare. TL;DR Passion project i don't recommend with bad writing, bad voiceacting, and bad puzzles.