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DreamWeb

Developed by
Published by
Released in
Genres 		Creative Reality
Empire
1994
Adventure

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The intro explains the plot. A bit.

Review

Gore. Sex. Violence. You might be thinking that DreamWeb is one of those games that uses adult subject matter to lure people into buying it. A lot of people do, in fact, think this. I, however, am not one of them. Yes, DreamWeb is a very violent game. Yes, it has a solitary sex scene - but you're missing the point. This is a dark game, and wouldn't be the same without it.

DreamWeb is set in a dark, near future cyberpunk dystopia. You play as Ryan, a man either descending into madness or the saviour of the world, depending what you believe. Plagued by nightmares, you are driven to kill seven people in an effort to save the DreamWeb - a sort of shield from evil.

There is also a very English feel about the setting. It's difficult to explain quite why, but the characters and atmosphere, while gritty, feel very culturally English, although no location is mentioned. This element of familiarity, at least to me, makes the game much more realistic and more believable.

DreamWeb is a point and click top-down view adventure game. Completely adverse to adventure games of the time, the puzzles are very straightforward and direct, often involving just shooting at things. If you're used to adventure games you might get stuck trying to figure out a solution to a problem because you are thinking like an adventure gamer, not like a psychopath with a gun.

On the other hand, the vast amount of items you can take with you (and limited inventory space) means that it's not always clear what the solution is. Even worse, puzzles that often seem like they should have more than one solution only really have one. Thankfully, there is enough inventory space to keep every item you find that seems relatively useful, so it's not a huge problem; and the way you can pick up bits of food and CDs and junk adds to the realism, even if it is completely useless.

The graphics are gritty, depressing, and reflect the setting very well. Interestingly, while DreamWeb has excellent music, the voice acting is terrible. The writing is also average at best, and in particular, the dialogue isn't very well formed. Perhaps those with deep psychological problems aren't very talkative (I doubt conversation trees would have added much to the game anyway) or perhaps the developers were just lazy, I don't know.

The major flaw with the game however, is the loose ends that are left dangling. Even worse - to me - the game feels rushed. Maybe they covered it up well, but there are a few clues. For example, when you kill someone, you go through a door in the DreamWeb, a different one each time. However, some of these doors are never used. Another is that the final few killings happen very quickly: you just seem to stumble into them. The pacing seems completely lost towards the end; and speaking of which, the ending isn't very satisifying. I won't give anything away, but the worst thing is that it is predictable. I also feel it doesn't give much closure to the game.

The most interesting thing, however, is how you perceive the game. Playing through the game it seems that everything is real. Everything you see on the screen - and particularly the game over message you see if you get yourself killed - is true. However, reading the diary that comes with the game (and is linked below), you will doubt it completely. I'm not sure if this is intentional, but if so, it is very artsy and possibly one of the best things about the game.

Grab the CD version. the music is better, has a (not particularly interesting) CD audio track included, and isn't a particularly huge download.

The good
  • + Full of atmosphere
  • + Excellent music
  • + Interesting plot
  • + Artsy
 80%
The bad
  • - Puzzles aren't well thought out
  • - Feels rushed, with dangling loose ends
  • - Terrible voice acting (CD version only)

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