This review contains spoilers
Dreams is a “game creation system video game” designed by Media Molecule exclusively for Playstation 4 systems as an exclusive; from what I understand this was announced as a PS4 launch title and got a little bit into development hell. Beyond that, I’m not sure about the development cycle of this game other than what the basic Wikipedia article throws out there. Now I forget how I first heard of this game, but most likely I bought it because both it was an exclusive as well as the fact that it reminded me a lot of an old game I used to play on Xbox One: Project Spark.
In fact their fates are sort of similar at the moment: both were out for a short while and now support will be discontinued (though in Dreams case it’s mostly official developer updates, the servers will stay up after a migration). I enjoyed Project Spark because you could both create games for other players as well as play other people’s games. I feel like this game is naturally an extension of that idea, so when there wasn’t a PS5 port or an actual PC Port (where the community would’ve kept this alive forever past what Media Molecule would’ve I believed), I was disappointed. Especially considering they were originally going to potentially allow users to sell their games on the marketplace? I’m not sure how that would work moderation wise but it would’ve been interesting (https://wccftech.com/dreams-users-make-money-application/amp/).
So this is where I usually go into Plot, Gameplay, etc; but the truth is it’s not one of those games. The closest thing this game has to a campaign is Art’s Dream, a relaxed decent sized game about a man named Art in a jazz band who deals with his own personal issues. Other than that, you develop your own games using the tools that the game gives you as well as search through lists of games developed by other players. As usual with these type of games, there are some fuckin stinkers; a friend has been coming over and we’ve been playing bad meme games, one in recent memory that was a giant parody of Spider-Man where he flies a plane to Brooklyn or something. Obviously not every game is going to be fantastic though, and that’s perfectly ok. However what I can do is link a playlist I put together and describe why I put some of them in this list, a sort of curation of games (which you can also do).
Games:
Here’s the curated list: https://indreams.me/collection/cdGWoMaJUGC
Art’s Dream by Media Molecule- The starter game as I’d call it of Dreams, as mentioned above you play as a Jazz band guy named Art as you struggle with your issues and regain your sense of self worth. Nice little bop, can’t go wrong. Also doing the stuff in this game nets you stuff to use in your creations as well as trophies.
Ancient Dangers: A Bat’s Tale by Media Molecule- A little dungeon crawler by the main devs, the combat while repetitive feels good enough to get through. Also playing this and doing the side stuff nets you trophies.
All Hallow’s Dreams by Media Molecule- A series created by Media Molecule where they actively got involved with the community to get them to contribute horror themed stuff to a single game. The first one were some 10-11 floor haunted floors with each one being created by a contributor in Dreams, leading to varied content. Ghost Train is more of an on rails affair, with some contributions being rail shooters that contribute to a high score while others is just scenery, and the most ambitious one: The Land of Lost Dreams. This one has side quests, a main quest and a giant forest with tons of varied player creations; one that in all honesty I did get kind of tired of by the end going through a massive gauntlet. However there was a lot of effort and charm being put into these so I’d say with these games: short bursts. Also, going through these games past their prime (having only got invested in Dreams now for trophies and because the games are infinite and overwhelming), it kind of makes me sad as they feel like old memories gone I guess.
Silent Hills by DrJones20- As a huge Silent Hill nerd, I was excited for Silent Hills before Konami canned it like everyone else; and even though there’s a bunch of new stuff in the works, one will always think of what could’ve been. This is probably one of, if not the only actual game that tries to do something with what’s given. Not everything is perfect of course, but it has a lot of stuff in it that I liked and got really surreal and weird towards the end, and when me and my buddy played it we enjoyed it a lot.
P.T. Remake by lewisc729- I’m always gonna be pissed off that I didn’t get to experience the PT Demo at all on PS4 and as such this isn’t a bad way to do it; just keep in mind nothing will ever feel the same.
The Backrooms by MarshallsAccount- I’m gonna encompass this as a whole series; there’s a 1-7 as well as a couple of unrelated stuff I believe has the potential to be incorporated into the game. The story follows unnamed researchers going into the titular Backrooms for scientific purposes only to encounter horrors beyond imagination in liminal spaces. Obviously this is based off of the internet horror series of the same name, and keep in mind I don’t follow Backrooms stuff so this is my first real exposure to it and it made me more interested in it as an actual concept. What I really like about this is that depending on whether or not you stick with your team you can get alternate results on whether or not you stick with your team or not. Goof off in the first chapter and the team will be scattered in the other ones, though if you stick with them you’ll see more of them often and they’ll question where you went. Sound design is great and so is voice acting, graphically it’s cool and it’s one of those games I’d love to see to the finish.
Isle of Eras Chapter Zero + Main Game by Grambitious- Along with Silent Hills and The Backrooms, I truly feel like this is my favorite on Dreams. The story is about a man trying to find his missing brother in Harper’s County; along the way you’ll discover lore about the surrounding region, your family, time travel and cosmic horror. I love the multiple different ways you can access different versions of time, the multiple choice of where to go and how to do it, the amount of detail is amazing, like truthfully this is one of those games that I would buy on Steam if it was remade for it. By the time I got done I really enjoyed it and felt it was an experience that everyone on Dreams should play.
Lake Juniper by Grambitious- Smaller title, a bit more linear and solid, though I understood the plot a little less and there were a couple of glitches here and there I enjoyed my time with it! I enjoyed the hook of trying to find out about a cryptid while unraveling a deeper conspiracy behind everything. I’d say if you like Isles of Eras give it a shot, just know it’ll be shorter than the previous game.
Citadel Series by schreppybroepke- Inspired by the like of thatgamecompany’s Journey and Team Ico’s Ico/Shadow of the Colossus, the series (consisting of Islands and Citadel Act One and Two for now) was just randomly sent to me by the guy that made it, I don’t even know how and it turned out to be one of my favorites in the entire game. Keep in mind, you don’t do anything else than jump but the environments are beautiful, the sound design is great and the untold story telling I feel is more than worthy of being close to the influences.
Pathogen by Jiffy-Jaff- A gothic horror walking sim about a city where you play as a doctor who comes home to take care of her mom; obvious Pathologic and Bloodborne influences (in art design) aside, I really love the atmosphere, the characters, the lore. It’s fantastic and an interesting piece, though with a couple of bugs here and there. Definitely worth checking out.
Check Out the Bellevue by tony1979- A walking sim puzzle horror game about a man who is exploring a hallway in the mysterious Bellevue hotel; you investigate the death of certain guests in an atmospheric yet claustrophobic game about guilt. Though the ending was a bit predictable, I enjoyed it and I liked the fact the dev added a walkthrough for those who get easily lost like I do in game.
Crash Bandicoot: Retrieval by autofan999- Somehow randomly ran into this Crash fan game and I’ll be honest it’s pretty good. I can’t say much about it except it’s Crash at home for those who don’t have Crash at home; art style is nice, places about the same. Can’t go wrong to be honest.
Golden Kingdom by Chris_Redwalker6- A shortish walking sim about walking through caves in the search for an old treasure. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the game a lot, and graphically it looked cool.
The Lakehouse + ETCA by Ballofspite- A short horror game about a house-sitter who watches over a lake house and discovers a horror in the basement. It’s an interesting bit of lore, which ETCA by the same dev expands upon a little bit in text entries. Whereas the actual horror interactivity is lacking, and in some cases I had to turn up my TV’s brightness to figure out where the fuck I was going, it’s interesting enough to where I’d love to see more.
Also keep in mind my list is subjective, mostly based on my tastes and what I feel works best within the system’s limitations (mostly that combat and shooting can be done somewhat ok but always feeling stiff in the end, understandable considering aforementioned limitations and limited experience amongst developers) so I guess I tended to go towards horror walking sims but I tried to vary up as much as possible. I would also throw away more but the truth is there’s a lot and it’s almost midnight when I post this.
Other things I can mention is that sometimes navigating with the motion controls, while understandable and for the most part freeform, can be a pain in the ass to move stuff sometimes while going through the menus. The aesthetic is really cool and nice, though it leaves the art design of some games looking all too familiar and honestly kind of furry like? But those are also little nitpicks and for the most part everything runs smoothly, though if you’re trying to get those trophies and you’re not a super technical creative person to make games, keep in mind you’re gonna have a tad bit of a rough time with the grinding.
My final thoughts, I like this game a lot. In fact, I truly believe that this could’ve and should’ve been ported to PS5/PC. There is so much potential for this game that it’s not even funny; there are loads of hidden gems tucked away behind whatever is being thrown out there, and everyone contributes to the community in their own way whether it’s creating assets for games, music, inviting people to collaborate, it’s endless and amazing. Which is why I was sad when Media Molecule announced they were stopping official support, not surprised mind you but sad; it’s only natural for people to want to move on creatively but for stuff like this that can not only create interesting concepts and ideas but help develop the skills of potential future game developers? It deserves a whole lot more than what it’s getting right now.
I’ve seen this game sell for around thirty dollars or so: if you’re looking for a game to kill time with and don’t feel like playing anything specific, you want to go out of your way to create something and test stuff out, maybe kill an hour or two with friends on some funny meme games you guys see around and you own a PS4? This is it. Also this plays on PS5 as well and surprisingly from what I heard some games play better on PS5 even though it’s a PS4 game that you can just install on it without an official port. No clue on how that works but hey for what it’s worth, it’s a fuckin fantastic game. Again, not officially shutting down servers but live support ends in September so keep that in mind.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/11/23678609/dreams-live-support-ps4-media-molecule
In fact their fates are sort of similar at the moment: both were out for a short while and now support will be discontinued (though in Dreams case it’s mostly official developer updates, the servers will stay up after a migration). I enjoyed Project Spark because you could both create games for other players as well as play other people’s games. I feel like this game is naturally an extension of that idea, so when there wasn’t a PS5 port or an actual PC Port (where the community would’ve kept this alive forever past what Media Molecule would’ve I believed), I was disappointed. Especially considering they were originally going to potentially allow users to sell their games on the marketplace? I’m not sure how that would work moderation wise but it would’ve been interesting (https://wccftech.com/dreams-users-make-money-application/amp/).
So this is where I usually go into Plot, Gameplay, etc; but the truth is it’s not one of those games. The closest thing this game has to a campaign is Art’s Dream, a relaxed decent sized game about a man named Art in a jazz band who deals with his own personal issues. Other than that, you develop your own games using the tools that the game gives you as well as search through lists of games developed by other players. As usual with these type of games, there are some fuckin stinkers; a friend has been coming over and we’ve been playing bad meme games, one in recent memory that was a giant parody of Spider-Man where he flies a plane to Brooklyn or something. Obviously not every game is going to be fantastic though, and that’s perfectly ok. However what I can do is link a playlist I put together and describe why I put some of them in this list, a sort of curation of games (which you can also do).
Games:
Here’s the curated list: https://indreams.me/collection/cdGWoMaJUGC
Art’s Dream by Media Molecule- The starter game as I’d call it of Dreams, as mentioned above you play as a Jazz band guy named Art as you struggle with your issues and regain your sense of self worth. Nice little bop, can’t go wrong. Also doing the stuff in this game nets you stuff to use in your creations as well as trophies.
Ancient Dangers: A Bat’s Tale by Media Molecule- A little dungeon crawler by the main devs, the combat while repetitive feels good enough to get through. Also playing this and doing the side stuff nets you trophies.
All Hallow’s Dreams by Media Molecule- A series created by Media Molecule where they actively got involved with the community to get them to contribute horror themed stuff to a single game. The first one were some 10-11 floor haunted floors with each one being created by a contributor in Dreams, leading to varied content. Ghost Train is more of an on rails affair, with some contributions being rail shooters that contribute to a high score while others is just scenery, and the most ambitious one: The Land of Lost Dreams. This one has side quests, a main quest and a giant forest with tons of varied player creations; one that in all honesty I did get kind of tired of by the end going through a massive gauntlet. However there was a lot of effort and charm being put into these so I’d say with these games: short bursts. Also, going through these games past their prime (having only got invested in Dreams now for trophies and because the games are infinite and overwhelming), it kind of makes me sad as they feel like old memories gone I guess.
Silent Hills by DrJones20- As a huge Silent Hill nerd, I was excited for Silent Hills before Konami canned it like everyone else; and even though there’s a bunch of new stuff in the works, one will always think of what could’ve been. This is probably one of, if not the only actual game that tries to do something with what’s given. Not everything is perfect of course, but it has a lot of stuff in it that I liked and got really surreal and weird towards the end, and when me and my buddy played it we enjoyed it a lot.
P.T. Remake by lewisc729- I’m always gonna be pissed off that I didn’t get to experience the PT Demo at all on PS4 and as such this isn’t a bad way to do it; just keep in mind nothing will ever feel the same.
The Backrooms by MarshallsAccount- I’m gonna encompass this as a whole series; there’s a 1-7 as well as a couple of unrelated stuff I believe has the potential to be incorporated into the game. The story follows unnamed researchers going into the titular Backrooms for scientific purposes only to encounter horrors beyond imagination in liminal spaces. Obviously this is based off of the internet horror series of the same name, and keep in mind I don’t follow Backrooms stuff so this is my first real exposure to it and it made me more interested in it as an actual concept. What I really like about this is that depending on whether or not you stick with your team you can get alternate results on whether or not you stick with your team or not. Goof off in the first chapter and the team will be scattered in the other ones, though if you stick with them you’ll see more of them often and they’ll question where you went. Sound design is great and so is voice acting, graphically it’s cool and it’s one of those games I’d love to see to the finish.
Isle of Eras Chapter Zero + Main Game by Grambitious- Along with Silent Hills and The Backrooms, I truly feel like this is my favorite on Dreams. The story is about a man trying to find his missing brother in Harper’s County; along the way you’ll discover lore about the surrounding region, your family, time travel and cosmic horror. I love the multiple different ways you can access different versions of time, the multiple choice of where to go and how to do it, the amount of detail is amazing, like truthfully this is one of those games that I would buy on Steam if it was remade for it. By the time I got done I really enjoyed it and felt it was an experience that everyone on Dreams should play.
Lake Juniper by Grambitious- Smaller title, a bit more linear and solid, though I understood the plot a little less and there were a couple of glitches here and there I enjoyed my time with it! I enjoyed the hook of trying to find out about a cryptid while unraveling a deeper conspiracy behind everything. I’d say if you like Isles of Eras give it a shot, just know it’ll be shorter than the previous game.
Citadel Series by schreppybroepke- Inspired by the like of thatgamecompany’s Journey and Team Ico’s Ico/Shadow of the Colossus, the series (consisting of Islands and Citadel Act One and Two for now) was just randomly sent to me by the guy that made it, I don’t even know how and it turned out to be one of my favorites in the entire game. Keep in mind, you don’t do anything else than jump but the environments are beautiful, the sound design is great and the untold story telling I feel is more than worthy of being close to the influences.
Pathogen by Jiffy-Jaff- A gothic horror walking sim about a city where you play as a doctor who comes home to take care of her mom; obvious Pathologic and Bloodborne influences (in art design) aside, I really love the atmosphere, the characters, the lore. It’s fantastic and an interesting piece, though with a couple of bugs here and there. Definitely worth checking out.
Check Out the Bellevue by tony1979- A walking sim puzzle horror game about a man who is exploring a hallway in the mysterious Bellevue hotel; you investigate the death of certain guests in an atmospheric yet claustrophobic game about guilt. Though the ending was a bit predictable, I enjoyed it and I liked the fact the dev added a walkthrough for those who get easily lost like I do in game.
Crash Bandicoot: Retrieval by autofan999- Somehow randomly ran into this Crash fan game and I’ll be honest it’s pretty good. I can’t say much about it except it’s Crash at home for those who don’t have Crash at home; art style is nice, places about the same. Can’t go wrong to be honest.
Golden Kingdom by Chris_Redwalker6- A shortish walking sim about walking through caves in the search for an old treasure. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the game a lot, and graphically it looked cool.
The Lakehouse + ETCA by Ballofspite- A short horror game about a house-sitter who watches over a lake house and discovers a horror in the basement. It’s an interesting bit of lore, which ETCA by the same dev expands upon a little bit in text entries. Whereas the actual horror interactivity is lacking, and in some cases I had to turn up my TV’s brightness to figure out where the fuck I was going, it’s interesting enough to where I’d love to see more.
Also keep in mind my list is subjective, mostly based on my tastes and what I feel works best within the system’s limitations (mostly that combat and shooting can be done somewhat ok but always feeling stiff in the end, understandable considering aforementioned limitations and limited experience amongst developers) so I guess I tended to go towards horror walking sims but I tried to vary up as much as possible. I would also throw away more but the truth is there’s a lot and it’s almost midnight when I post this.
Other things I can mention is that sometimes navigating with the motion controls, while understandable and for the most part freeform, can be a pain in the ass to move stuff sometimes while going through the menus. The aesthetic is really cool and nice, though it leaves the art design of some games looking all too familiar and honestly kind of furry like? But those are also little nitpicks and for the most part everything runs smoothly, though if you’re trying to get those trophies and you’re not a super technical creative person to make games, keep in mind you’re gonna have a tad bit of a rough time with the grinding.
My final thoughts, I like this game a lot. In fact, I truly believe that this could’ve and should’ve been ported to PS5/PC. There is so much potential for this game that it’s not even funny; there are loads of hidden gems tucked away behind whatever is being thrown out there, and everyone contributes to the community in their own way whether it’s creating assets for games, music, inviting people to collaborate, it’s endless and amazing. Which is why I was sad when Media Molecule announced they were stopping official support, not surprised mind you but sad; it’s only natural for people to want to move on creatively but for stuff like this that can not only create interesting concepts and ideas but help develop the skills of potential future game developers? It deserves a whole lot more than what it’s getting right now.
I’ve seen this game sell for around thirty dollars or so: if you’re looking for a game to kill time with and don’t feel like playing anything specific, you want to go out of your way to create something and test stuff out, maybe kill an hour or two with friends on some funny meme games you guys see around and you own a PS4? This is it. Also this plays on PS5 as well and surprisingly from what I heard some games play better on PS5 even though it’s a PS4 game that you can just install on it without an official port. No clue on how that works but hey for what it’s worth, it’s a fuckin fantastic game. Again, not officially shutting down servers but live support ends in September so keep that in mind.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/11/23678609/dreams-live-support-ps4-media-molecule