The Dream Machine: Chapter 1 & 2 Reviews

If you dream it, they will build it.

Still playing it. It runs with no lag. The characters are likeable. A relaxing game.

Absolutely horrific performance issues. Wait for the remaster.

Fantastic story. Dark. Full of life and wit. Great soundtrack as well. Took me a couple of years to play through.

Is the island with the two palm trees picture supposed to be a reference to The Static Speaks My Name? Not sure if anyone else noticed this. I love the art style of this game. The puzzles are fun and the story is interesting so far.

I love the look of the clay animation and the interactive story pulls you in to uncover more of the mystery.

I really enjoyed this game and it's a personal favorite of mine! If you're a fan of sci-fi, especially related to things like dreams and psychology, alternate worlds, and strange technology, I would recommend it. The story is also compelling, showcasing through the protagonist the complicated feelings of starting a new phase of life as a parent. And it's clearly a passion project, with all of the hand-crafted environments and the weird and unique scenarios present across each chapter, which is cool to experience and support in indie games. For some things that may put people off: The puzzles can be a bit confusing at times, I didn't mind using a guide when needed but it does make later chapters harder to replay and I could see this being more frustrating to some players. I've heard some people have performance issues, but haven't run into these personally. Also, later chapters can get weirder or a bit uncomfortable but still worth playing through and it adds to the general strange atmosphere and absurdity of the dream world. Overall it's a very underrated game though and I hope more people check it out! Or check out the definitive edition when that releases with added content/performance fixes!

This game is simply GREAT! It offers: * Increasingly challenging but not unfair/illogical puzzles. * An emotionally engaging story that's never cliché. * A unique art style that's a treat to look at. Seriously, give it a try. I'm still on the fence about the ending but the road there is one helluva emotional rollercoster, A BLAST even. I'm currently on my 2nd replay and I realized how much this game makes me feel things (especially now that I know how the story ends and can pick up on pieces of foreshadowing). For me, it's right up there, emotionally, with Disco Elysium, BoJack Horseman, the beginning of the movie "Up!". When it comes to art style and general vibe. If you enjoy the wonderful art, music and general vibes of Amanita Studios' games, or the old claymation classic Neverhood, you'll feel right at home here (though it's less whimsical, has actual dialogue and a progressively darker tone). There are lots of minor characters which whom you only spend a brief time, yet get to know them and form some form of relationship with. There's one whose backstory is mostly implied but still broke my heart when I connected the dots (the character dying wasn't even the most tragic part). Another one seems scary and malicious but actually helps you and when they return later, you realize how glad you are to see them. (Which, for me, evokes comic-book writer Grant Morrisson's tendency to have his heroes fight a non-human monstrosity, only to end up making friends with an even more alien entity because different doesn't equal bad and friendship is good.) Regardless of whether you're a fan of adventure games or not, please give this one a try! (And no, regardless of what some reviews claim, the story does NOT require you to abort a fetus. You could deliver the baby instead.) And oh yeah, they're apparently making an indie movie adaption so go play it before the movie comes out.

---{ Graphics }--- ☐ You forget what reality is ☐ Beautiful ☑ Good ☐ Decent ☐ Bad ☐ Don‘t look too long at it ☐ MS-DOS ---{ Gameplay }--- ☐ Very good ☐ Good ☑ It's just gameplay ☐ Mehh ☐ Watch paint dry instead ☐ Just don't ---{ Audio }--- ☐ Eargasm ☐ Very good ☑ Good ☐ Not too bad ☐ Bad ☐ I'm now deaf ---{ Audience }--- ☐ Kids ☑ Teens ☑ Adults ☐ Grandma ---{ PC Requirements }--- ☐ Check if you can run paint ☑ Potato ☐ Decent ☐ Fast ☐ Rich boi ☐ Ask NASA if they have a spare computer ---{ Game Size }--- ☐ Floppy Disk ☑ Old Fashioned ☐ Workable ☐ Big ☐ Will eat 15% of your 1TB hard drive ☐ You will want an entire hard drive to hold it ☐ You will need to invest in a black hole to hold all the data ---{ Difficulty }--- ☐ Just press 'W' ☐ Easy ☐ Easy to learn / Hard to master ☐ Significant brain usage ☑ Difficult ☐ Dark Souls ---{ Grind }--- ☐ Nothing to grind ☐ Only if u care about leaderboards/ranks ☑ Isn't necessary to progress ☐ Average grind level ☐ Too much grind ☐ You'll need a second life for grinding ---{ Story }--- ☐ No Story ☐ Some lore ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Lovely ☐ It'll replace your life ---{ Game Time }--- ☐ Long enough for a cup of coffee ☐ Short ☐ Average ☑ Long ☐ To infinity and beyond ---{ Price }--- ☐ It's free! ☐ Worth the price ☑ If it's on sale ☐ If u have some spare money left ☐ Not recommended ☐ You could also just burn your money ---{ Bugs }--- ☑ Never heard of ☐ Minor bugs ☐ Can get annoying ☐ ARK: Survival Evolved ☐ The game itself is a big terrarium for bugs ---{ ? / 10 }--- ☐ 1 ☐ 2 ☐ 3 ☐ 4 ☑ 5 ☐ 6 ☐ 7 ☐ 8 ☐ 9 ☐ 10