It has finally happened! It took three damn games about traversing minds themselves but I finally found one not afraid to be dark and sinister with it! Have fun with this one!
Story: Welcome to the Neurostalgia Institute and congratulations on joining the team here! You are the newest Neuroprober to join up. And what does that mean? Well it is your job to enter the psychie of your patients and help them uncover the trauma now causing them mental anguish. You will listen to each patient's interview before entering their mind and review their memories to find out exactly what their own mind is hiding from them so they can begin to heal.
That is about all there is to the overarching story. You yourself will not evolve and change, but this is not about you. It is about your patients, and that is where the story really shines. Each patient you help is having issues you will help them with by facing the darkness their mind hides, and this game pulls NO punches. You will wince once or twice for the poor person who's memories you are probing just by what you witness on their behalf. If you concider each of these a self-contained episode, this is an EXCEPTIONALLY well crafted set of stories. Just beware it is NOT for the feint of heart.
9/10
Graphics: As you start up the game you are going to be wowed. This is one of those games where the Unity engine is actually allowed to show what it can do from start to finish. Everything you see is crisp, clean and looks fantastic as not only did they create a new world for each patient, they all are tweaked to reflect how memory is as much about feel as it is about photo reflection. You will be everywhere from a quaint little town that reflects being huge for someone as a little child to a literal meatgrinder of a world exploding in fire and flames.. and that is before the world you are in warps even further under the influence of it's owner's mind trying desperately to protect itself from the truths you are here to reveal. It is all done very well and helps to keep the patient themselves and their struggle up front and brutally close.
But this is also a game where explaining the details as I normally would would be a detriment to the game itself as the world created here is rapt deeply into the fabric of the stories.
8/10
Sound: Presentation is a huge part of this game and their sound-work encourages this immensely, starting with the theme as you first walk into the office. Upbeat, and purposeful you will be encouraged to move forward, at least through the waiting room. Then as you are supposed to get serious about your work the music dies, leaving only an ambiance. Expect the game to play with switching at will through the rest of the game. True, the music is pretty much generic and will not stick with you long after if at all when you "call it a day" as exiting to Windows is called, but it fits it's roll and does so so well that you almost question it's existence at all over the atmosphere in total.
Sound effects, on the other hand, will have a much more lasting impact due to how effectively they are used to push a feeling of dread (and peacefulness among others) bringing the world together brilliantly.
And yes, there is voicework in this game and it is also very good, but it isn't stressed as far since most of it is when you first interview and when you finish helping a patient. It just doesnt have the same impact as when you are in the middle of it all.
9/10
Gameplay: While the atmosphere and storytelling here are top notch, the gameplay itself is actually pretty basic. As noted in the graphic section, you will play from a 1st person perspective, but your actions are very limted. You will basically look, move around, and interact with items you find on the way. There is no running and there is no jumping, nor will you need them. Anything that can hurt you is setup so that you can get around it by paying attention to the patterns and is really secondary to why you are here.
And you are here to recover memories. As you journey through the world of the patient's inner mind you will be on the lookout primarily for 10 poster-like memories which are hidden about. Once you have them, you can return to the starting place of the world to sort them: 5 will be fake while the other 5 can be ordered into the story of the trauma haunting the patient. Get that order right and your patient will have a breakthrough and be able to really begin healing.
But you do have more to do then dodge obstacles and look for 10 objects. To get through the mind, you will also need to complete puzzles of descent variance, from placing objects in the right place to playing a version of "Lights Out" to mazes, this game will offer you a lot to do before you get to finish up, and all of it will require you to pay attention to the world around you to understand what that goal in. It adds variety to the game without removing the simplicity and letting the atmosphere take center stage.
Still the game did not reveal all it's secrets to me, as originally it was made with the idea of using it with a heart monitor and a webcam to record your reactions. If you get stressed, the game punishes you. I used neither because I didnt feel like trying to figure out if my camera had enough length in the USB cord to hook up, nor do I have a monitor. If you use these things, the game may even get better for you, but even without them, this is the total package.
7/10
Bugs: While playing this game, I couldnt really see any bugs. Outside of a pause while saving your place as you enter maps, this game ran absolutely perfect for me.
Overall: When I started playing Dream, I was hoping for some real scares since I love the idea of "the worst things that happen to you are in your own head" but in that way the game disappointed me. This one right here offered me exactly what I was looking for in all it's brutal glory. This one has no mercy and while not the scariest game I have ever played, it doesn't back down from hitting you right in the gut repeatedly. If it has any real weakness it's that I wish you have more patients since you only get a simulation to get used to it followed by 4 patients before the game is over. But what is here is straight up masterful.
Score:
8/10
System Requirements:
- Intel i5 5000 series processor running at 1.6Ghz
- 4 GB RAM
- Intel Iris Pro Graphics 5200
- 5 GB hard drive space
- Windows 8
- Ryzen 7 (2700) 3.2 Ghz
- 16 GB RAM
- Nvidia Geforce 1660 (6GB VRAM)
- Windows 10 (64 Bit)
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