*Before jumping into this preview, I want to issue a short disclaimer. When I work on a game, I spend about as much time researching it as playing it. This means reading patch notes, old Discords, and developer interviews. I do this to have as clear a picture in my head as possible of what the game is and can do.
All this being said, I am fully aware of the dialogue surrounding this game’s history.
In this preview, I will only be talking about what the game is now, not what it was, and not what it will be.*
So, to begin like I usually do…
DreamWorld is an open-world sandbox MMO game created by indie developers, DreamWorld Realities. Players log in to a world where they will harvest resources to build whatever they can imagine.
Gameplay
This game is built for PC gaming, and currently, the only platform offered is Windows. I am not much of a keyboard gamer, but thankfully I was able to use my Xbox controller to play. Developers helpfully included a side-by-side key so I could check which buttons mapped to which function. Still, there were some things it was easier to reach out and use my mouse for, like clicking in menus and crafting. My mouse just moved the cursor a thousand percent faster than my controller.
After naming and creating a character, players are introduced to Nara. This floaty blue sprite guides players through the tutorial. The tutorial consists of basic information such as using the chat box, pulling up different menus, harvesting resources, building, and using a glider.
The tutorial takes place on a massive floating island in the sky that contains the “City” and some forest biome. Once Nara makes players a glider, players can jump off the island’s edge and float down to begin exploring the world map.
Building
DreamWorld developers have openly said Minecraft is a massive influence on the game, which is not hard to see. Right now, building is the primary purpose of the game. Unlike Minecraft builds, though, any resource can be used to build anything. For example, I was messing around with the “Change Asset Material” function and started building giant apples out of wood, stone, grass, bone, etc. I think the only resource I can’t use to make a house is meat (but now that I’ve said that, I want to go check.)
New build assets are gained by fighting enemies in the wild. As you hunt for the resources to build, you get more things to build.
Players are allowed to build absolutely anywhere in the game (except the City). Players can build as much as they want on the map, but they are allowed only four “Bases,” one in each biome, which can be fast-traveled to (a handy feature since running for an hour to harvest the same resource over and over can get old pretty fast.)
In the beginning, I spent a lot of time running to the very edges of the floating island and looking for an idyllic spot with deer and cute ponds and nobody nearby. And I chose my location and built my first house, a week later, I had a neighbor. This was true for both my forest and desert houses. Thankfully, my new neighbors are never at home.
Fighting
I don’t have much to say about the fight systems because they basically don’t exist. Digging through the Discord, I read that the emphasis at this point of Early Access is to focus on creating a beautiful exploration experience for players.
While there were enemies to find and fight, I quickly stopped dodging and blocking. I just stood still in front of them, whacking away, trying to inflict more damage than I received.
Exploration
When a game says I can explore to infinity, I’m going to see how far I can really go. In my playthrough, I set out in each cardinal direction for as long as my patience could hold out (about an hour in each direction). I traveled far enough that when I pulled up my map, it wouldn’t show the City, even though I could still “see” the City floating in the distance.
Currently, there are 5 main biomes to explore in DreamWorld (the Discord lists 6, but I couldn’t find the last one, or they just looked really similar to another biome). The forest, the desert, the tundra, underwater, and mountainy forest. In my travels, I saw each biome repeat, no matter what direction I went. Going East would take me to desert, then forest, then a little bit of snow, then lots of ocean, then desert in the ocean, then forest again.
Different biomes contain different harvestable resources, but these resources repeat when the biome repeats. I didn’t get different grasses if I ran an hour East than I would have if I ran an hour south.
And the resources I found between biomes, well, they lacked variety. I found boars and reeds in the desert and ice boars and frost reeds in the snow.
So far, the most exciting part of exploring is finding all the fantastic glitches and bugs in the game. A previous patch update announced that the developers had dealt with Land Sharks, but thankfully, they haven’t done anything about Water Boars.
How Long is this Game?
Well, it depends on who you ask.
The developers say it’s a marriage; this will be the only game you play for the rest of your life.
Itch says it’s two jumps and done. If you go to the itch.io page and scroll down for more information, the average session is “A few seconds.”
I personally have logged about 12 hours into DreamWorld, and every time I played, I saw announcements that “New Player 000000546” had just entered the game. Just the tutorial can take about an hour, so I don’t think itch.io is counting correctly.
Final time verdict: this game intends to be a 100-hour game, but you know what they say about good intentions. I see myself logging another 10ish hours before I wander away, especially if there aren’t any massive updates to the combat/quest aspect of the game.
But then, I’ve always been scared of commitment.
My Dream World
Okay, I know I said at the top that I would only be talking about what was and not what wasn’t, but I can’t end this preview without a wishlist for the future.
My main wish is for more diversity.
I want a jungle biome. I want an under-the-sea biome that I can get to after building a special breathing apparatus. I want a grassy savannah. I want earth that’s been broken by a fault line, where geysers explode next to boiling bubbling clay pots.
I want tiny manticores and lots of penguins. What about a white wolf I can ride on?
Yes, I know this is a lot to put on a game developer, but hey, this is all supposed to be a DreamWorld, right?
Oh, I thought of one more thing I want!
I hope that there will be some more tutorial videos available soon!
I cannot tell you how long it took me to build a pickaxe. The recipe called for “Any Type of Stone,” but apparently, Flint is not considered Stone in the game. Whenever I tried to harvest Stone, the veins would only give a “You need a pickaxe for this” message, which led to me grumbling, “That’s what I’m trying to do!” at the screen. I eventually figured out I could hack at boulders around lake edges. These produce “Calcified Coral,” which I wouldn’t think is a “Stone,” but the Crafting bench accepted. This multi-hour frustration could have been avoided if there were a few “Tips and Tricks” videos out there on the internet.
(1. There are a few videos on YouTube, but they didn’t give me the info I needed, and players won’t find them searching DreamWorld. You have to search PLAYDreamWorld.
- I also could have @ chatted with the developers in the game or Discord. They spend a lot of time in the game and seem to go out of their way to talk to new players, inviting them to go on adventures and answer questions. But I’m incredibly awkward, and my social anxiety precludes me from reaching out for help. I prefer to sculk and observe in the background.)
Conclusion
Developers Garrison Bellack and Zachary Kaplan are currently offering a 90-minute Free Trial for anyone interested in testing the game’s Early Access release. Players can also purchase the game for only $19.99 (though the price will go up to $24.99).
And I mean what I said right there, “only $19.99.” That price point feels like a fair exchange for what players will get in Dreamworld.
Is the game perfect? No.
But I’ve spent more money at Taco Bell, and that Doritos Cheesy Gordita Crunch didn’t keep me full for 12 hours, and that feels like value for my money.
For more information, visit www.playdreamworld.com.
Related: Reviews by Michelle Jones
I'm a completionist gamer who just needs to find that one last object and clear that final dungeon. I love all video games, from open world sandboxes on a console to a mindless match three on my phone. In addition to gaming and writing, I am a graduate student working on a thesis about the ancient Icelandic Sagas. Feel free to ask me anything about Vikings.
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