The start of a new year is always a good time to try something different, and today marks the first step in what we hope is an interesting journey into the future of PSU. Several months ago we announced that our website received a new investment, and while we’ve carefully prioritized our objectives, we have taken steps behind the scenes to provide our community with the best possible experience. Our community will start to notice more additions like the following article in the coming months, and we welcome your input as we work together to create the voice of PlayStation fans.
With that in mind, we are pleased to present you with our inaugural Community Review. We worked with PSU Subscribers to create the following review of Dream Chronicles. PlayStation Network codes were distributed to participating subscribers in exchange for 200 words, give or take, on what they thought of this puzzle game.
Simple, yet artistic and interesting, the game is a PC port that made its way to the PSN a few weeks ago. If you are a fan of games like Myst, this may just tickle your fancy. See what our subscribers had to say about it below. If you like what you see, want to take part in our next Community Review, or think it’s utterly stupid, drop us a line in the forums, comments section, or via email and tell us what you think. We’d like to thank the four users who helped put this together and Hudson for supplying us with extra review codes.
Community Review: Dream Chronicles
dc89
Dream Chronicles is essentially a hidden object game. Needless to say, the objective of the game is to find hidden objects, which you will use to solve puzzles and move on to the next level. Some may say the game shares its core mechanics with titles such as Broken Sword and Myst, but I say that is an unfair comparison. But does Dream Chronicles grab you and immerse you in its world like those games did?
The story is initially promising. You play as Faye, a woman who lives in the Village of Hope alongside her husband Fidget and daughter Lyra. I don’t want to ruin the story (as there is not much of it) but Faye awakens from a dream, or what she believes to be a dream, to find her husband missing and her daughter in an eternal slumber.
Dream Chronicles is obviously a PC port, in fact it is the first game of a series of three with a fourth game on the way. The point-and-click style of play is more suited to the mouse, but the controls have been adapted well with certain buttons moving you around the screen quicker. For example, R1 snaps you to your inventory and this helps speed up what is a slow game due to its nature.
Finally, the game has great music, which you soon find yourself humming along to. The art direction is really unique and reminds me of Myst, with elaborate patterns, intricate interiors and bright colors making for an interesting world. If you are a fan of this style of game you can’t go wrong.
Tutankhamun
Dream Chronicles is a puzzle game where you play as a loving wife set to rescue her husband who has been put under a spell by an evil queen who can control dreams. When you enter a level, you are presented with the task to solve a puzzle. It can be anything from finding glass paintings and putting them back in the roof where they belong in order to be able to move to another part of the world, or finding pieces to a theater and restoring it. The story isn’t that important or incorporated into the game in a deep level to get you really engaged.
I sometimes found it rather frustrating to locate the different objects and the game does very little to move things along if you get stuck, which can be frustrating. This takes away from what otherwise is a rather fun and, certainly, challenging game. Overall, it is a good puzzle game with a fun and somewhat classic and simple storyline. There isn’t that much replay value in the game, but I think you get your money worth regardless. If you don’t mind getting a little frustrated at times, you’ll enjoy playing this simple, artistic puzzle game.
VintageElise
Dream Chronicles is a downloadable game available from the PSN store. It’s a simple game and can be picked up by almost anyone at any time. The game begins after Lilith, the fairy Queen of dreams, casts a spell over the entire town causing everyone to fall into a deep sleep. Lilith also abducts Fidget, who before getting captured awakens his wife, Faye, from the sleep.
You play as Fidget’s wife, and the goal is to follow clues left in Fidget’s diary to rescue him and wake everyone from the magic sleep.
The game is played in a simple, first-person perspective and you must use the analog sticks to look around the room for clues as to how to progress. These can vary from a matchstick to light a fire to open a frozen door, to finding a key in your daughter’s favorite toy. To help you along, you will have a diary left by Fidget, which gives you clues as to what to do next so you’re never really stuck. But to help you along, the objects you are looking for will sometimes shine to give you a clue as to their location.
Overall it’s a fun and simple pick-up and play game. It’s easy to play for 15 minutes or so, now and again. But it’s short, so you won’t have any trouble completing it in one sitting. There’s even a Trophy for completing the game in less than 25 minutes! The only faults I can find are the length and the slightly weak story.
Tyrien
Dream Chronicles, developed by Hudson, should be considered part of a long-forgotten niche within gaming genres: the point and click adventures. While it’s a great concept that has been missed on consoles, the game is not without its faults.
All of the elements to make a successful point and click are present. There’s a brow-raising story, brain-rattling puzzles, a hazy atmosphere, and a mysterious world to explore. The problems lie not within the core elements, but execution. The first problem is the control interface. This game landed on PSN on Nov. 22. Knowing the nature of the game, Move support was expected; however, the game does not provide motion control support. The reason PCs shine with point and click and consoles do not is a limited control interface. Move could have bridged this gap.
The second major issue is the game’s linearity puzzle interaction. There’s no exploration in the game. A formula is closely followed throughout progression: enter a room, solve a puzzle, and go to the next room. No back tracking, no dead ends, no adventure. To Hudson’s credit, some of the puzzles are somewhat challenging.
Through each room there are hidden gems players may discover to reconstruct figures, which admittedly holds no apparent purpose other than unlocking a Trophy. There is a multiplayer component where two players can cooperatively solve the mystery themselves. The graphics are generic, and remain static and uninteresting. The music becomes very redundant; repeating itself through each room.
Overall Dream Chronicles is a failed attempt to revive the point and click adventure genre.