Bad Dream: Coma

I am deeply impressed with this game, especially with its constantly growing atmosphere of low-key, nothing-is-scarier creepiness. I'll give a few examples to illustrate what I mean. First, the visuals. The game world consists almost entirely of somewhat sketchy black pen lines on a brownish-yellow background, with a decorative border running all around the screen. The mutedness of this is what makes the few splashes of color that /do/ occur so startling. For example, when the player character injures themself, the screen is covered in red splotches of varying size, accompanied by a scare chord. Likewise, the coloring page and the blue ink further on in the game are mildly unsettling in their unexpectedness. Also, those tiny background details, like the ball-on-a-stick creature swimming in the river to the left at the very start of the game. Next, the sounds. The music is quiet and ominous throughout, punctuated by the occasional scare chord, very effective. What is fun is that clicking on a non-usable background item will give back a suitable sound effect: a glass bottle goes "ping," a coat gives a sound of rustling cloth, and so on. This makes the game world feel more real. Another point is the dialogue, in that there really isn't any. Characters talk to the player, but the player gets no opportunity to talk back in the form of dialogue options, although the other characters' speech regularly implies that a back-and-forth does take place. This invisibility of the player character's words, together with there being no voice recordings, leads to a weird sense of isolation, no matter how friendly the other characters may be. Finally, the story. It's very understated, relying almost exclusively on implication and understatement, but that's what makes it so powerful, especially towards the end, when the game's version of reality starts to disintegrate. It's so sad and creepy that it gives you pause. All in all, I recommend this game. Very much.

To be honest, my first impression of this game wasn't very positive. But I'm glad I kept playing because I got a lot out of it. After my first playthrough getting the bad ending, I was actually happy to be done with it. But curiosity got the better of me and I started another play through for the good ending. And then for the neutral ending. And then, as the game description above suggests, I started wondering, "What if I did this or that differently in that chapter?" And so I played through a few more times, and every time I did something even a little bit differently I was rewarded with some different outcome later in the game. Sometimes the differences are very subtle. But in the case of playing for either the good or bad ending, they're basically entirely different games. Every action has a unique consequence. As others have said, the atmosphere is very distinct and memorable. There are a few scenes that really stuck with me even after moving on. There's no narrative or forced message of any kind. It just tells a story in a way that's unique enough to be remembered. A few downsides. It can be very frustrating when something really small changes on a screen and you don't notice it straight away. Some of the puzzles can be very counter-intuitive as well, but I think that some of the complaints can be explained by player confusion over object interaction indicators. In short, a question mark means you need a specific item to interact with an object. A hand means you can interact with it straight away. There are one or two more rare indicators, so pay attention to any cursor changes. The music is fairly minimal but adds to the atmosphere. There's not much else to say about the sound. What's there is good. I got it on sale, but I think it would have been worth it even at full price. It's not a perfect game, but it's a very memorable experience. What more could you ask for from a game like this?

The game is surely well written. It accomplish its goal of creating a creepy atmosphere that makes the player uneasy at each step. The graphics are also well done and convey that sense of distress that the game aims for. I've found some puzzles quite hard to figure out, especially at the beginning. After some time, though, I've kind of understood the way of thinking of the game and things got a bit easier. On the negative side, at some point there is a scene where you're supposed to control a clown. That's it. You don't know why the clown is there, what's supposed to happen, nothing. You basically have to guess what the developers wanted you to do and click everywhere until you get it. Unfortunately, there is only one valid action at any given step, so the whole thing is just annoying, unrewarding and it feels like it lasts forever. Also, locations are not arranged in a "spatial" way, so I got lost many times while navigating through them. Apart from that, as stated at the beginning, the game is solid, enjoyable and well written.

This is a neat little game with a creepy atmosphere, eerie music & visuals that look like doodles in a kid's sketchbook. There's different outcomes that can happen depending on whether or not you make good, neutral or bad choices. (For example, I felt bad about killing any birds or bashing the crying doll with the crowbar, so I kept to the "good" path). You also gain achievements depending on what actions you choose, but you can't collect them all because again, it depends on if you're making good, neutral or bad choices. I took a look at a walkthrough for those because I was curious on what could be found! Also, it's a point & click game, so a lot of the times I was moving the cursor over everything to see if anything could be picked up. However, you can't pick everything up at once--you have to do certain things before an item is needed & then you'll be allowed to pick it up. That means a lot of backtracking has to be done. Overall, I enjoyed the game! I bought it on sale, which was a bonus!

I enjoyed this as well as another game by the same devloper. Great hand-art style graphics and wonderfully retro style point and click. Definitely worth a go through for adventure gamers of the retro kind as well as those who enjoy creative, strange INDIE style gaming