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Dreamscaper is an indie game with satisfying roguelike elements, a story about loss and not fitting in, wide-array of gameplay styles, two different games represented in two playing fields, one while awake and one while asleep. All these aspects mix and match to create, as stated above, a debatably satisfying experience only stained by somewhat floaty feeling gameplay and a short story.
Gameplay:
Without a smidge of doubt the biggest selling point of Dreamscaper is gameplay, no matter how floaty it feels. Let's explain floaty, that is plainly input delay, when you want to go right, you press right button and go immediately. Delay brings a lot of mishaps when it comes to dodging attacks, interacting with the world or even just moving. It stains even more in a roguelike where one single hit can mean starting all over again from the start. Dreamscape offers an enormous assortment of weapons (both melee and ranged), wide array of shields, offensive and traversal spells, different enemy types to keep you on your toes and dangers placed around the levels, it makes for a satisfying grind fest. The weapons are something to praise here, they vary from the most basic (with simple animations and swinging patterns) to some late game weapons with unique designs and effects and some even based from other video games (you’ll the know ones when you see them). This game does incorporate feedback on every hit and on stronger attacks shakes the screen as to translate the feeling of harder hit. Other than that, ranged weapons and spells also bring great variety and do spice up the game quite a bit, with grandiose particle effects and smooth animations. On the later parts of the game, these weapons and spells need more and more grinding to get to their upper limits and that may be tiresome for most, as it was for me.
Enemies should always be at the centre of the attention, but maybe not this extent.
Story:
We follow the story of Cassidy in her waking and sleeping hours. Through the day we traverse the town, meet a respectable number of characters with their unique wants and dreams. These characters offer different bonuses for when we enter her nightmares through lucid dreaming. Story is miniscule in the waking hours, but while sleeping the gameplay and story stand proudly at front, through either random objects, different houses and many more. Each interacted object gives a glimpse into the subconscious and she tells the player what happened here or what this reminds her. These two instances work in harmony with one another and deepen an already surprisingly deep game.
Sound mixing and soundtrack:
Sound mixing and soundtrack offer a mix of slow and tranquil music when exploring and your traditional and faced paced music when fighting. Where it shines is all the special sound cues for absolutely every interaction from every place (be it awake and dreaming) having its own specific soundtrack with accompanying cues to every hit on an enemy and each weapon/spell sounding weak/strong based on what you have equipped. I know it’s not something to praise to such heights, many games do this exact same thing, however praising is saved for those who do something unique or achieve satisfying results and it being their first game ever, Dreamscaper does an exception job.
Graphics so beautiful they literally break the world in half.
Graphics:
Visual style makes or breaks a game, but in the end, it all depends on the certain individual playing it and if it manages to impress him/her. It mixes minimalistic almost hand painted visuals for its terrain and background, but everything has that low-poly look to it. The visual style gets better with the later levels especially the background objects in the night level.
Replayability:
Thanks to the wide array of weapons and spells, Dreamscaper brings high replayability value. You can mix and match different play styles and try to beat it in as many ways as you please. Personally, I liked being the overall brute and just rushing in, bashing faces and jumping to the next one, being boring is something of my forte. However, you can play in any way you like, a spellcasting individual bringing the thunder on every single one with jumping lighting damage or have every element on different gear and witness the explosive results. Being an archer/rogue dashing through the whole area, running circles around your enemies and making them miss every attack is satisfying as well. Freedom is advised and you have only pure fun to gain from that. I mean being a brute is fun, going and hitting stuff in the face is … what you think it is, going and hitting in the face, us brute/warrior players are always on the chopping block.
A charming little game from the guys over at Afterburner Studios, bringing solid gameplay, a wide array of play styles and a cute little story, Dreamscaper is something to play in the sea of videogames.
You can find Dreamscaper on Microsoft Windows (Steam, Epic Games Store, GOG.com, Humble Bundle, Green Man Gaming, Xbox App) , Xbox (One, Series X/S, Cloud Gaming) and Nintendo Switch.
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