Dreams of Another Review

Dreams Of Another

“No creation without destruction”. There have been many games throughout the years that have sought to hold a mirror to the banal violence found in many mainstream video games, to varying levels of success. On its face, Dreams of Another seems to be another one of those, with its abstract depictions of a man in pyjamas shooting bubbles with an AK-47 to create his surroundings. In truth, Dreams of Another’s initial imagery is only telling half the story. Beyond its surface developer Q-Games and director Baiyon have crafted a thoroughly enjoyable abstract adventure that centers itself on exploring existentialism, art, and the many meanings dreams can hold.

Story

Dreams of Another begins depicting a soldier who after seemingly reluctantly joining the army, is unable to fire his gun in a combat situation. The player gains control of a character known as “The Man in Pyjamas”, who commences a journey through dreams and memory, shooting his surroundings in order to materialize them.

This is a case where the less that is said about the game’s narrative is better for preserving the experience. I had a wonderful time peeling back the layers of Dreams of Another’s non-linear, often deliberately abstract narrative over the course of my nearly eight hours with the game. The game centers itself on multiple characters and their stories, but a lot of the intrigue comes from engaging with the player’s surroundings. There’s a gentle curiosity towards the world to be found in Dreams of Another, as you listen to the thoughts of everyday objects such as doors and park benches, as they wax poetic about the meaning of their existence and their relationship to the world around them. These don’t add directly to the narrative itself, but they help explore some of the game’s broader themes.

My only criticisms of Dreams of Another narratively would be that one particular story seems to make its point very early on and, due to the segmented structure of the storytelling, takes far too long to get to its very obvious conclusion. In general each of the stories feel like they have a few too many scenes and would have benefitted from some cuts, but with regard to the content of the scenes and the narrative itself, I was utterly captured for the game’s entire duration.

Gameplay

Like many games in its field, Dreams of Another’s gameplay serves its narrative ambitions through its captivating central hook. This isn’t to say that this hook is without its faults, however. While you will spend your time in control of The Man in Pyjamas shooting your obfuscated surroundings to bring them into shape, there are specific times that the player is required to shoot certain moving objects to return them to their natural state. These don’t offer any kind of challenge or threat, as this would be at odds with the game’s nature, they do require more than the simple shooting into space most areas ask of you.

The main issue with Dreams of Another’s gameplay is that, much like its narrative, the act of shooting your surroundings can grow a little tiresome towards the end of the game, especially since the game repeats the same few areas in rotation in order to tell its story. There are points where you can trade random items found throughout the dreams with The Wandering Soldier to upgrade your inventory for ammo such as for grenades and another weapon introduced late into the game, however the lack of variety for the central mechanic means that there’s no genuine satisfaction to receiving these rewards or real variety throughout the game’s runtime. Again, this is something that some narrative trimming might have resolved.

Visuals & Audio

Visually, Dreams of Another speaks entirely for itself. This is an artful experience and nowhere is that easier expressed than through its beautiful art direction, blending PS1-like voxel art with what the developers dub “point-cloud” technology to render a painterly impressionistic look. I was unable to experience the PlayStation VR 2 version of the game, however I can imagine the first-person perspective presented in that mode looks stunning up close. There are some times where the frame-rate can get somewhat shaky during the experience, however the gameplay is not complex enough for this to ever feel like a major detriment to the game.

The voice acting is something I expect players to be somewhat mixed on for Dreams of Another. Many of the voice performances in the game sound dejected, monotone, and robotic. It was early enough that I realized that this was a deliberate choice, made to heighten the game’s dream-like atmosphere and ambience, and to imply that these are even deliberately bad performances would be a mischaracterization as they often elevate the emotion of scenes by keeping the game from ever existing too deeply in reality.

That said, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find the droning nature of the performances somewhat grating by the end of the experience, at least after a long play-session. It feels like they might contribute ever so slightly to the game feeling a little longer than it should. I also encountered some bugs with the voice acting where one sequence seemingly played dialogue completely out of order, as it was mismatched with the subtitles, and generally mixing being inconsistent at times.

One area I have no notes on is Baiyon’s gorgeous compositions in the game’s score. The gentle and atmospheric soundtrack is one of the game’s strongest assets and contributes greatly to the overall dream-like ambience of the game’s world.

Conclusion

Dreams of Another is a wonderful exploration of the dreams, memory, materialism, and so much more. While there are points where it feels like some narrative elements outstay their welcome and there are some technical issues that can break the immersion, Q-Games and Baiyon have delivered a charming story and world that I have kept thinking about since the credits rolled.