INTO A DREAM Review for Steam

Into A Dream is a game intent on giving the player an emotional experience. It drives to tell a deep and profound story of overcoming grief and living with mental illness. Filipe F. Thomaz and the team he brought together show an incredible level of ambition in this project; however, many elements of the game do not mesh together and leave much to be desired.

You play as John, a man tasked with exploring the minds of Luke Williams and uncovering the reasons for his depression. I find this premise a fantastic method for storytelling. It allows for logic and reason to go out of the window and follow dream logic. It’s like if Inception wasn’t a heist movie (Or just the movie Paprika). I wish the game delved more into the morality of seeing into a person’s thoughts, but that is not the game’s focus. The gameplay follows the conventions of 2D sidescrolling adventure games in the vein of Limbo. Puzzles are never too complicated, but you have to listen to conversations and pay attention to figure out what you need to solve them. The game never gives you something too tricky since it does want you to see where the story leads. One puzzle towards the end was confusing. I eventually solved it after about 10 minutes, so it was not a massive time sin.

Into A Dream’s presentation is stunning. The silhouettes really emphasize that the emotional weight is what drives this story, rather than specific details. The layer shadow puppet presentation does an excellent job putting the player in a magical dream-like state. Later game visuals were a bit corny for me; they felt very tonally discordant with the game’s rest. I cannot talk about them without spoilers, but anyone who has played the game will know what I’m referring to. The music is easily the most substantial aspect of the game. It’s Debussy inspired, which is perfect for a story about dreams. The gentle piano and occasional violin makes the game so serene and makes the visuals even more magical. I would genuinely buy the soundtrack if there were a physical copy, it’s that good. Some of the sound design was a little rough. Occasionally sound effects were of lower quality than the rest. It was very jarring. For the small faults, the presentation soars above most games.

The writing and story of Into A Dream was the biggest rough spot for me. The game’s premise is so good that the developers put themselves in a difficult situation of living up to the player’s expectations. The game lived up to these expectations in many ways, but the game’s story never lived up to its ambition more often than not. Much of the dialog felt stilted, characters moving in and out of talking realistically and awkwardly. To illustrate, say a character is unsure about something they need to do. You could have them say, “Um okay….” or “Are you sure?” not Tolstoy but gets the job done quickly. In this game, a character would say, “Are you sure that’s what I need to do? I’m not sure that’s a good idea…. I will do it if I have too.” You feel this because each time someone speaks, they pause before each sentence to load the text. The dialog had few false starts or stutters that make characters seem human every aspect seemed exactly what they wanted to say. It has the stageplay issue of scripted interruptions where a role doesn’t have more words to say before being cut off. Again, the piecemeal delivery of the dialog made it very obvious. While the story came from a good place, it felt like it was pulling its emotional punches. The game almost felt afraid to make you tackle hard moral questions about grief, practically always resolving for the better. That’s not to say usually a bad thing, but it’s tough to digest difficult topics in such a simple way. Without spoilers, a lot of the drama felt very soap-opera-esque, both in their concept and delivery. The tension is straightforward familial and friendship-based drama, with not much in the way of subversion outside of the premises. I wouldn’t be so harsh about the story when clearly its what the game markets itself on. It heavily detracted from the presentation’s value when the story couldn’t keep up with its beauty.

While flawed, a lot of Into A Dream stands out from other story-driven games. The love and passion for this game show in the final product. A lot of the experience is profoundly beautiful from its gorgeous art direction and music. I wish this game could have lived up to its premise because the writing does deeply detracts from everything else that works. It makes for a very uneven experience. I do want to revisit this game just to see some of its visuals again. I would love to see this team try something like this again; it shows massive potential. I would recommend this game if you just want some pretty art and music, and you’re able to get past the plot issues. For me, it wasn’t enough just to have a beautiful game.

Check Out the Into A Dream Steam Trailer:

Into A Dream is available for Windows PC, Mac, and Linux for $13.99 via Steam.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.