Developer: Desert Fox
Publisher: PlayWay S.A
Rrp: £5.99 (Steam)
Released: 9th March 2017
Available on: Steam
Played Using: A Mouse
Approximate game length: 3 hours per session
Dreams can be a terrifying thing, a world where cause doesn’t always equal effect doesn’t sit right with me. Now if I imagine a scenario where I was in a dreamscape from which I couldn’t escape… that right there is the kind of thought that makes me not want to sleep ever again.
Horror themed point and click games are starting to become a lot more prevalent and that’s a good thing, as much as I love the humour of the old Lucasarts games not every point and click should be funny. Bad Dream: Coma is very much that, horror themed, however having the themeing of a horror doesn’t actually make the subject scary.
I’m hoping that you, the reader, are at least a little familiar with the genre of game that is point and click. Just in case you aren’t, the point and click genre
is generally a series of games that involves solving puzzles by collecting objects and using them on the environment to get some kind of reaction. Ok, now that we’re all on the same page lets get into some of the more unique aspects of the game that set it apart.
The aesthetic of the game is one of drawings on paper, this design choice isn’t just one of visual style but also has a narrative reason (which I won’t go into) and is brought into the puzzle solving several times.
Like with most point and click and adventures there is a certain amount of ‘moonlogic’ to the various puzzles. Strangely though the themeing of the game excuses that. The whole game is mean to take place in a dreamscrape… or nightmarescape as the case may be. That means that the answers to the puzzles can seem a bit esoteric and nonsensical unless you look at it from a very specific perspective.
There is more than one way to solve the puzzles and the way you solve a puzzle will affect how the game treats you as a whole.
Once again its the sound
design that really makes this game go from a bit off-putting to
horrific, sure some of the visuals are gruesome (especially if you’re
heading toward the bad ending).
The game separates itself into eight chapters, which can be restarted at any point from within that chapter, so if you make a decision that you suspect will lead you to an ending you don’t wish you can restart the chapter.
It’s a pretty entertaining game, and the story kept me intrigued enough that I sought out the other two endings (of which there are three) once I had completed my first run. If you fancy a point and click with a bit of a different twist then this may work for you.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Rusty Lake: Roots
Bulb Boy
I Have No Mouth and I Must
Scream
