This is arguably one of the weirdest games I've ever played. Disjointed, intentionally obscure, and just plain strange, I would half expect this to be the contents of a haunted game cart you might read or hear about if you are the type to enjoy CreepyPasta.As a side note, this feeling was not helped when due to recent changes to how Steam does things, I honestly could not track how I got my hands on it. But for all the weird vibes this game gave off, was it worth taking some time with, or would I be better off expecting some Japanese ghost climbing through my monitor to take me out of this world? Let's find out.
Story: Reader is dead has crossed over. As such, he has but one desire... a common one for all the recently deceased. He wishes to return back to the other side. Why, they no longer knows however. In fact he remembers very little at this moment. Only that he is traveling with his friend Writer. Even their names are not their real ones... just what they remember doing most.
But this also makes them blissfully unaware of their situation. The desire to go back is usually based on the need to tell those they left behind that they are ok and everything is ok, but the space between tends to cause ghosts to lose their memories, of both that and the danger of staying there too long. Stay too long, and become a demon.
And with this basic start you will take Reader and Writer on their journey to find the living world once more. There is little in the way of twists and turns, but that is more then ok as the entire game feels so alien it might as well be one big twist. Most of the story is told by conversations between Reader and those he runs into, but these conversations are just plain awkward. You will never be blind to what's going on because of it, but the tone, direction, and feel of these conversations are just strange, and often sound like you might expect an artificial intelligence or alien who's words are being interpreted from a language not of this world. It sounds amazing for the vibe of the entire game, but it doesn't help the story much. It is interesting to see the odd ends where Reader seems to get moments of clarity to the fact that he is indeed in a video game, though.
6/10
Graphics: This game tells a very ghostly tale, and the graphics reflect that very well indeed. The world Reader inhabits is always moving and immaterial, made of dark colors which swirl and move like patterns in ghostly mists. In essence almost nothing in the screen every truly looks stable, keeping that feel that you could put your hand through it without any effort at all. The things remaining tend to be objects planted in this ethereal scape, like lanterns or doorways (sometimes) or graves you go by. But even this looks more like it's stuck in the miasma, in this world because something wanted it there more then it belongs. And yet that look gives it a reason to be there that fits with the rest of the world.
But to go with this rather ghostly appeal is who you will meet, and while the cast is not huge, it is very varied... demons who guard the way to other ghosts and even gods, you will meet all types with their own reasons for being there. All of these characters carry a charm much like the world itself, but much brighter, as if an internal light eminnates from any given one of them.
The total effect looks like no other game I have ever seen. On the plus side it looks so cool that I mean to look into the artist behind it, cause their work is simply captivating. But on the downside that feel came before making it easy to understand where you can go.
7/10
Sound: Do not expect to remember any music from this game when you finish. It is creepy, it is ghostly, and it fits the themes of this game brilliantly, but it is also incredibly generic and unmemorable. And the same can go for the very few actual sounds you will hear.
What you will remember, however, is the voice work, but not for the reason you might think. It is not clear, and it can be very hard to understand so you will be very glad to have text to read instead of just relying on it. But it is also distorted to go with the other-world feel this game just never stops oozing, even as what is being said is just so bizarre. Is it good? Is it bad? Really tough call as it is clearly bad quality audio, but it also fits so beautifully in this total otherworldy picture in all it's additional weirdness.
6/10
Gameplay: And this is unfortunately the weakest part of the game. Despite being a point and click title, GhostDream is structured into seven small level-like chunks called acts. Each one features a few screens you can wander around to talk to other ghosts and deamons and collect information, and ends with a puzzle you need to finish before you can proceed, meaning you really only have a hand-full to complete.
And those puzzles are straight up diabolical to figure out on your own... if you want to do that. Because the developer understood how tough these were and supplied the solutions in the downloadable manual for you, rendering them little more then a few key presses between acts for the most part. But there are two (act III and act VII) that are rough anyway as they are pixel-hunts requiring you to find the exact spot your cursor reacts to in order to proceed.
So if the puzzles are done for you, all that is really left is to explore, which the art makes it worth doing, but it does render this game into more of a point-and-click version of a walking simulator.
5/10
Bugs: There were no bugs I could see while playing. The game ran perfectly fine from start to finish.
Overall: I'm not going to tell you this game is good. It is not. But despite that, it definitely has something that keeps you playing till the end. Be it the theme, the conversations, or even just how bizarre this game is from start to finish, you won't want to stop till you've reached the end. And that is definitely worth something in it's own right. But what, I'm not sure.
Score:
5/10
System Requirements:
- 900 Mhgz processor
- 256 MB RAM
- Any graphic card with Direct X support
- Windows 7
- 2 GB Hard Drive
System Specs:
- AMD FX 8350 (running at 4.0 Ghz)
- 16 GB RAM
- NVidia Geforce 960 with 4 GB VRAM
- Windows 10
Source: Steam
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