The Dream Machine

The final portion goes off the rails a bit, but I respect the attempt to make something different and meaningful. This is, all in all, a truly great point-and-click game; among the best.

Got as far as chapter 3 - great mood and music, but frustrating to play. Game tasks were counterintuitive to me, requiring countless combinations, cursor hunting, and returning to previous screens until you get something right. The writing was poor, and I'm not a fan of the art. Didn't finish this as a result.

It has its scary moments that make you shit clay.

I love adventure games, but this wasn't worth the time it took to play. The puzzles are very simple, with only a handful that posed any challenge and were enjoyable. The interaction design is nonexistent, since half the game mechanics consists of drag and drop. If you release the click you drop the item you're holding. That's perhaps bearable with a regular mouse, but there's this thing called trackpad. Better work on that precision or you're going to have to open the inventory repeatedly. The majority of other adventure games can be played comfortably on a laptop touchpad, but not this one. The writing isn't very entertaining. When you start a conversation the game turns into a small talk simulator. While not out of place, since you're basically confined to interacting with your neighbors, it doesn't make it any more entertaining to read. If you examine items in your inventory in other games you usually get a more in-depth description of the object, but here if you e.g. examine a Magic Potion the most interesting thing the main character can come up with is "It's a magic potion". This happens 90% of the time, and I don't see why. There is no voice acting so you'd think a few extra letters would have been cheap. Most puzzles don't require any effort. There are a few gems but they're far between. Most interaction consists of "Open door" and "Walk through door" with a few "Use key" sprinkled on top for good measure. Why are all these obvious clicks necessary? That it's using Flash player doesn't help with immersion. It's using a regular cursor, showing the Flash right click context menu throughout, running in a window that can be accidentally hidden by a hot corner in macOS, and having Flash player display a popup asking me for permission to store data. The game has some nice moments but there's just too much filler and walking back and forth while dragging and dropping (and missing!).

Warning: Do not buy this game if you have strong emotional ties to infants or have negative or tragic experiences with pregnancy. It’s not worth your time or the heartache to be triggered by such content. In the Dream Machine the first chapter sets up a seemingly normal couple, Victor and Alicia, who find themselves subjected to rather odd circumstances after moving into their new apartment. Victor is a rather dull protagonist who over the course of the game doesn’t really seem to grow much based on his experiences, except that as a player you’re told that this has taken place rather than being shown it. Alicia, his pregnant partner, acts as Victor’s motivation to get things done. I never once felt that Victor really wanted to help the other people living in the apartment block, but simply had to because the ultimate aim was to save the pregnant Alicia. The story itself is an interesting concept, and has all the elements of a real mystery: an unaware couple, a malevolent machine, a creepy landlord, oddball neighbours and a somewhat claustrophobic atmosphere. However, the plot is quick to give way to clichés and tired, edgy concepts which seem to only be there for shock value. I suppose the attempt is to show how the Dream Machine itself is infecting the apartment dweller’s own dreams, but it is a quick and ham-handed way to go about it. The real killer of the plot is a certain event towards the end of the game that could have been handled vastly more sensitively, and in fact, simply did not need to be in the game. If you want a satisfying ending, you will not receive one and it will leave a bad taste in your mouth. Half of the game’s plot is interesting, even as the story dwindles, it’s still just about okay. But showing something as horrific as they try to do, with a fumbled attempt at justifying it, just destroys any respect I might have for the writing. Please see the forum for my full review, but is game is one to leave for time better spent elsewhere.