BinaryMessiah The Dream Machine Review

Surrealism is something that The Dream Machine does well. The Dream Machine masterfully crafts an otherworldly art style that is both familiar and dream-like. It's the best part about the game, which also took 7 years to make. The first two chapters were released all the way back in 2010—14 years ago. It took 7 years to develop the following 4 chapters. This game might hold the record for the longest time between episodic content. Imagine having to wait nearly three years for a single chapter. The longest gap was in getting the final chapter out the door. While this was only a two-man team behind the game, I can't fault it too much for its release schedule. Regrettably, akin to numerous point-and-click experiences, the game is rife with incomprehensible puzzles and ambiguous objectives that impede its progress throughout. I highly recommend playing this for the first time with a guide. There are just too many obscure objectives you need to complete to get through the game without hours of backtracking and guessing. There are some context clues, such as when you solve a physical puzzle together, Victor will indicate if it was successful or not. However, the game heavily relies on gathering items, determining their direction, and determining if they are related. The game's premise is about a single couple expecting their first child and renting a new apartment in a new town—a fresh start. They end up discovering a strange secret their building holds, and Victor is now transcending reality and entering dreams. Through each chapter, you will enter another tenant's dream, and some of the puzzles are about how to get to these tenants. You travel between areas, examine everything you can, and figure out which items go where and who to talk to. Towards the end of the game, you end up entangled in dialog trees that are required to trigger certain events. In this game, talking and exhausting all dialog options is a must, or you will end up stuck, not knowing where to go. It could simply be a dialog option you forgot to click on. Certain items in this game don't function as they would in the real world due to its abstract logic. This can lead to serious frustration and roadblocks along the way, but I always play point-and-click adventure titles with guides first, and then if I like the story enough, I will go back through it again alone. While some are fun to figure out by yourself, others, like this game, can be a convoluted mess. Clicking on everything and guessing with so many areas and objects is just a recipe for disaster. The visuals, ambient music, and sound are what really kept me playing. While the story itself is a theoretical tale of dreams, life, death, and rebirth, the surreal visuals that move from recognizeable everyday objects and locations to pure dream-like states of pure consciousness are a treat to look at. The hand-modeled backgrounds made out of real-world objects are a joy to look at. The music is haunting and mesmerizing, and it will occasionally invoke feelings of nostalgia for a long-distant memory as a child and innocent years of a simpler time. Each location effectively balances the game's light and dark elements. The overall story isn't anything that will stick with you, but it's still well done, has a conclusive ending, and is thought-provoking for at least a little bit. The game's visuals will remain in my memory far longer than any character names or the story itself. The Dream Machine demonstrates a clear dedication to both visual arts and sound design. While there are better adventure titles out there, gameplay-wise, there's no denying that this is a game that every fan of the genre needs to experience.