After Dream Surfing player creations for many hours within Dreams, I found a video presentation called ‘What Dreams Means to Me’ created by a group of collaborators. The short presentation was created entirely within Dreams, with all the collaborators appearing in puppet form throughout the video. This group has members from around the world with each specialising in a different aspect of creation, and together they have been able to collaborate with one another to bring their dreams to life. This incredible story of a group of friends working together from around the world could not exist without Dreams, and there are potentially thousands more of these stories out there.
Dreams might be an incredibly detailed creation tool, but the most important aspect of Dreams as an experience, is its ability to connect and form relationships. That is something truly special. Dreams is a collaborative community, where you can specialise in what you want, work with who you want, enjoy other creations, or make your own dreams a reality.
Dreams does contain its own story-based campaign, known as Art’s Dream. This experience can be completed within a few hours, but it contains a brilliant narrative that never outstays its welcome. Players will follow the story of a musician named Art, who after falling out with members of his band, must face his inner demons to better himself for the future. Throughout the story you will control Art in reality, but also venture deep into his sub-conscious, as he attempts to cope with the stress and pressures of being a musician. Due to Art’s profession as a musician, the entirety of Art’s Dream contains a brilliant jazz-styled soundtrack. These tracks are fantastic, and different genres of music are also scattered throughout, including a few outrageously comical music scenes.
The main way players will interact with Dreams will be with their personal Imp, which allows players to possess puppets, create levels and much more. Your Imp is your cursor to explore Dreams, but can also be customised using skins unlocked by completing Imp Quests. These minor quests help encourage players to test out a variety of creation modes, tutorials, and interact with the community. Moving your Imp throughout the world can be done using the analog sticks, motion controls within the DualShock 4, or utilising PlayStation Move controllers. I found the DualShock 4 motion control option to be most useful, as it allowed great freedom when exploring levels, and moving objects. The motion controls are responsive, but I found my Imp would lose its central position frequently. Your Imp’s position can be re-calibrated by holding down the Options button, but the constant need to realign my Imp within Dreams became frustrating very quickly.
Throughout my time playing Dreams, I’ve been able to explore a life-size replica of Hogwarts, swing through the city as Spider-Man, play through a Crash Bandicoot inspired creation, and even play a ‘what if’ full version of the cancelled Silent Hills game. There are also a huge array of creations available in Dreams, from an array of creative platformers, unique mini-games, animated video, and even pieces of music. While many of these experiences are short, the potential for substantial creations in the future is high; as there are already several in-depth creations from the beta version of Dreams available.
There are also many intriguing and expansive experiences on the way, from a photo-realistic survival game, Resident Evil-inspired horror game, an arcade kart racer, and much more. All these ‘work in progress’ creations can be uploaded and experienced by other players, with the ability to offer important feedback to the creator to ensure the finished product is playable and polished. Unlike most AAA experiences that require expansions or paid DLC to expand the base product, Dreams will continue to expand at an incredible pace due to the community output, and all these creations will be available to everyone who owns Dreams, without an additional purchase..
There are also Masterclass tutorials, which feature extensively in-depth step by step instructions regarding a variety of development factors, all of which are hosted by Media Molecule developers. While these are geared towards the experienced Dreams creator, they provide solid advice and tips to players wanting to create their own masterpiece from scratch.
Instead of creating a level from scratch, players can utilise the search functions to find level elements, audio files, and entire worlds which have been created by others. Players can utilise these community created items to build something truly unique, without ever having to learn the intricate properties of level creation. Not only that, but other players can upload their creations with a Remix option, which means they have allowed other players to enter their creation, alter the level and re-publish it for themselves. This feature allows the entire community to come together, in order to help each other create something memorable.
The Verdict
It’s easy to say Dreams has the ‘potential for greatness’, but this potential has already been realised by a number of extremely talented community members. As this creative knowledge continues to spread throughout the community, and more talented collaborative projects are created, Dreams will continue to evolve into something truly special.
Art’s Dream is a fantastic appetiser to the content available in Dreams, forming a solid highlight reel of the potential gameplay options available to players. The story mode can be completed within a few hours, but still offers a memorable adventure from start to finish.
Dreams is an experience like no other, offering players an incredible tool-set and allowing them to create whatever they desire. Players can still have a fantastic time with Dreams, without ever learning how to build a level, or even considering content creation. However, if you’re playing a level and creativity strikes, players have the option to Remix other Dreams in a unique collaborative effort to build something special.
Dreams will continue to evolve through the collaborative effort of the community, and I’m excited to see what the future holds for Media Molecule’s latest creation.
The Score: 9.0
PlayStation 4 review code was provided by publisher.
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