There’s a message at the beginning of Dreams’ story campaign that made my heart sink. I’d been waiting for this campaign. I hoped it would prove what Dreams as a package would be. I knew there was a powerful editor because people have been playing with it in early access for months. But what about the other bit? What about what Media Molecule can do with the tools? What about
Finally, yesterday, it – Art’s Dream – arrived. Time to see what Dreams was really capable of. Then, though, that message: “This story was made entirely in Dreams to give just a glimpse of what’s possible with our tools.” Just a glimpse? It’s been how many years and that’s all we get? A couple of hours and that’s it? Sadly, yes.
Art’s Dream is literally Art’s dream. He’s a bassist in a jazz band and he’s riddled with fear and doubt. This manifests in his dream as an evil crow you have to overcome.
The game jumps between genres in order to show what Dreams can do. It mostly flits between action, platforming and point-and-click, thereby demonstrating combat, jumping around and even multiple-choice dialogue, and they all look like different games. My, how versatile you are, Dreams.
The point-and-click parts were my favourite. They’re the ones with dialogue. I roamed around, talked to people, solved puzzles by finding objects and looking around for clues. There’s a lot of charisma and humour. I particularly liked: “Is that a moustache or have your eyebrows come down for a drink?” And the security guard rap song was inspired.