XBOX REVIEW | Dreamless

I love horror games, I especially love Indie horror games as it’s always interesting to see how a smaller developer can push through and make something so fantastic that it defines them as a creator forever. Unfortunately Dreamless is not going to go down in history as one of the greats, in fact I found it to be quite tiresome the more I progressed through the acts. Dreamless is a game I would expect to see as a free title that the developer uses as a test run to perhaps get used to making horror titles, but with so many more interesting games out there, I’m just a little disappointed with this one. I do understand that a lot of work was likely put into the game but as it stands right now, even on full release, it feels like an unfinished demo.

Things I liked!

• Voice Acting | Like is a strong word, in this case I admire the voice actors for acting in a language that isn’t their first, attempting to convey emotion in an unfamiliar tongue is never going to be easy. I would actually have preferred to hear them act out the characters in their own language with subtitles added to help make the characters more believable.

Mixed & disliked!

• Atmosphere | The game starts off with a slight feeling of dread, but as you progress, it becomes quite samey, there is no sense of urgency, no feeling of fear as you casually meander around the house and dreamscapes. There was so much potential for fear in the game that just wasn’t realised.

• Sound | The sound effects were sporadic, you would hear a knocking for no reason, a slight whisper but nothing came of it. It felt like sounds were just added to startle instead of lead you through the story. Also as mentioned, the voice acting didn’t give any sense that the characters were afraid or even concerned about the situation.
  
• Graphics | A lot of generic graphics were used to make this game, the missing girl poster was simply a picture but when you pick it up it supposedly had a lot of information that just wasn’t shown. Also the game was exceptionally dark in areas that didn’t really need it, In fact your flashlight and camera didn’t do much to light up the surrounding area at all. The Monsters were extremely one dimensional and I had zero sense of foreboding at all when I played.

CONCLUSION

Score:20 /100 – A very poor attempt at a horror game, but I hope that the developer tries again in the future and learns from this one as there is potential in there to perhaps make something awesome. As it stands however I cannot recommend this game at all to horror fans. This is only my opinion however and as always I encourage you to make up your own minds. Basically Dreamless is less of a nightmare and more of a disturbing thought.