In Dreams of Another, you use multiple weapons intended to inflict harm, but in this realm they instead bring order to the world around you.
This unusual new title from the team behind the PixelJunk series feels desperate to present its ideas about life, death, and the human condition, and while it certainly has a lot to say, it doesn’t make for a particularly engaging game.
You play as the mysterious Man in Pajamas, who exists in a strange place where everything is made of tiny specks of colour. Most of your surroundings are obscured, and the only way to put them in focus is to shoot everything.
Another character, the Wandering Soldier, is a constant companion. Unable to fire weapons himself, you can provide him with items you collect in order to upgrade simple abilities and replenish supplies.
Shooting environments to reveal them isn’t an entirely new idea, but the execution here is certainly unique. The point cloud technology powering the game’s distinct visuals is quite impressive and presents a very different aesthetic. Firing guns or throwing explosives into clouds of abstraction and watching it all coalesce can be quite satisfying, even if it grows quite repetitive.
Unfortunately, the game’s messages and story are delivered in such a disjointed way that we found it very difficult to engage with them.
You’ll play for a minute or two, have someone (or something) talk to you for a moment, and then the entire scene may change, or even kick you back to the main menu. It’ll cycle through a handful of environments as a chapter goes on, gradually taking you through a scenario, but the chopped-up nature of the delivery leaves everything feeling needlessly disorientating.
On top of that is voice work that’s extremely slow and, mostly, very flatly spoken; we found it all quite drab, to be honest.
Dreams of Another is quite dream-like in some ways; the way scenes intersperse and the surreal sights and sounds put us in that headspace. However, also like dreams, the game probably does have some sort of meaning at its core, but you’re likely to forget it before long.
