Review: Dream World

I wasn't sure how to start this review so I guess I'll begin with the developer's own words: "Dream World is an unique and exciting turn-based multiplayer RPG. Please give it a try, you will love it." Sounds promising right? When you realise the game is set in sci-fi/fantasy hybrid setting due to its world being part of a dream which you inhabit it sounds even better, especially when you take into account the 4 stars it's averaging on the kongregate rating system. So many possibilities for a wide range of skills, classes, enemies and areas to explore which is exactly what you want from an RPG right?

The more keenly observant amongst you will have sensed a but coming (OK so it was obvious but hey I can pretend I don't suck at subtlety). The setting and the ideas behind it are all fine, good even, and the game starts promisingly enough. You pick a class, you go fight some weak enemies, pick up some side quests and you get the spark of a storyline. All the normal seeds for a solid RPG have been sown here but sadly at some point KingK decided to throw a little salt over everything to make sure those seeds never grew. And the salt comes in the form of the horrible combat system and utterly repetitive gameplay.

In my first post I mentioned grindfests but at the time I had no real concept of what that meant until I played this game. The main bulk of the game is using the energy that steadily replenishes as time goes by to activate random events, most of which are fights with various creatures but also include encounters with people or objects which you can interact with. The problem is apart from the names and the pictures every single fight is the same. It's just stats against stats and if you're stronger than the monster you win and if you aren't you don't. There are no buffs, status effects or elemental weaknesses to exploit and very few special attacks. Those that do exist are simple more powerful regular attacks which consume skill points and since those are only replenished either when you level up or after 24 hours they aren't all that useful unless you are facing a particularly strong enemy. There are potions as well but they're too expensive to be worth the effort for the most part. Even PvP is dull since without all the options of a normal RPG battle it's basically just another super-strong enemy. The game even has an autofight function which takes care of the majority of your battles so it's even less engaging. Imagine buying a boxing game and finding you actually play the role of the coach not the fighter. That is exactly how this game feels most of the time and it's boring.

In Dream World's defense it does have a few nice touches. There are puzzle chests which a mix of math and logic problems which help break up the monotony and the wiseman's trivia questions are occasionally interesting (plus it gives you the time to google any answers you don't know) but again, this mechanic never changes. No matter whether you are level 50 or level 5 the challenges are always the same so once you've got the strategy for each cracked it just becomes another chore. It's a shame because it feels as though there were some good ideas in here but they just become trodden under by the repetitiveness of it all.

Visually the game is about as consistent as a British summer, blazing colour and interesting artwork one second and dull, dreary or just plain horrible imagery the next. The characters you repeatedly encounter such as the gambler look great with a lot of detail but then certain monsters look as though they were just knocked together in photoshop within the space of two minutes. The backgrounds are colourful but mostly uninteresting but this isn't too much of an issue since the game is mostly menu driven.

One bright side is that the game is very easy to navigate and control so you never feel at a loss what to do but that's like having a decent steering wheel on a reliant robin, no matter how good it is it's still not disguising the fact that driving the damn thing is a pain. Even the storyline, a major part of the RPG experience for many gamers, has no charm whatsoever with barely enough plot to provide you with an excuse to kill endless waves of the same boring enemies.

But if this is all true how come Dream World has 4 stars? To be honest I still don't know but when I asked people on the forums what they thought I noticed the same answer cropping up again and again. The community. And they have a point. The Dream World community is, for the most part friendly, helpful and above all up for getting properly involved with guilds. For many players the best friends they've made on kongregate came from this game. Is this enough to make this game worth playing? Well that's really depends on how much you like MMO aspects of an MMORPG. Personally the gameplay's inherent flaws are too much for me put up with (insert some terrible pun about Dream World being a Nightmare here) but you if you're looking for a time sink which might lead to meeting some fun new people then maybe this is worth a go. Otherwise avoid!

Gameplay: 4/10 Puzzles help break up the monotony but not for long
Graphics/Visuals: 6/10 functional and occasionally very good but some parts look awful


Overall: 5/10 Too many flaws and too repetitive to be worth your time

Badge Hunter Notes: (80 points available)

All badges can be acquired by just playing through the game but be warned the hard ones will take a very long time so if you decide to go for them be prepared for a long haul.