REVIEW : Dreamscaper (PC)
Dreamscaper is a new isometric roguelite from indie devs Afterburner Studios. Formerly slated for a release beginning of 2020, but it’s recently hit Steam Early Access with a Nintendo Switch version planned for some point before the end of the year. It follows Cassidy, a growing girl living alone in a new town who, as a plan to cope with her deep depression, spends her evenings fighting through lucid dreams to remember her lost memories, and spends her days and evenings striving to make human relationships with those around her.
If you dropped DONTNOD’s Life is Unusual into a blender with Hades, Dreamscaper is the smoothie you’d end up drinking. It’s a pairing that presumably shouldn’t work, but which Afterburner manipulate deftly. As an isometric roguelite hack and slasher, it’s fast-paced and challenging; but then after each “death” or the failure of the boss, Cassidy will wake up in her room, where she can craft gifts for the townsfolk infused with positive sentiments like motivation and solace, which you accumulate in the dream world.
As you frequent the several hotspots in the town Cassidy will meet and get to know some of the individuals who she can present with gifts or indulge within vain chit chat. As they tell tales, share incidents, give out advice and seek it from Cassidy, her relations with them will develop stronger. These passionate bonds work like metaphorical buffs, allowing Cassidy to equip “Influences” that allow her to face her horrors. As an instance, one of the townsfolk can imbue Cassidy with more comprehensive support, initially improving her armour by 2% in the dream world.
These switches aren’t voiced, but they are well-drafted, and each person has their personality and background, likes and dislikes, flaws and foibles. From storytelling barmaid, Eve, to small-town reporter Carl, they each have things to offer Cassidy in her battle against depression and grief. Even without understanding exactly what occurred in her past, you will take away the signs and sights of her tragedy. Wisps of golden light in the dreamworld reveal Cassidy’s lost thoughts, assisting you to piece together the events that led her to live alone and friendless in this cute little town.
At midnight, when your dialogue options are exhausted and Cassiday starts to long for her bed, you’ll turn to her room and sleep, which dives her into the nightmarish world of her nightmares where she’ll face enormous representations of her obsessions and despair. Taking the form of an isometric dungeon crawler, this realm is broken into separate rooms carrying enemies, puzzles, gear and weaponry, even a store where you can use accumulated sand on upgrades.
As with plays like Dead Cells, the arsenal in Dreamscaper is vast and varied, providing Cassidy with a huge selection of weaponry from swords and daggers to bats, bows and bottle missiles. Adorned with a melee weapon, a ranged weapon, and a shield with which to parry and stagger opponents or reflect projectiles, Cassidy’s playstyles are ever-changing. Everything you open can appear as accidental drops or starting weapons, so a loadout can be a small hit and miss, but the diversity of animations and movements is exciting.
Cassidy moves gracefully, slicing through her dreams with a dancer’s style, and can support her attacks with Lucid techniques that act like destructive spells. These are on cooldown and are usually imbued with fire or electricity, and can be the contrast between fighting on and having to go right back to the start again. Special problems don’t do much to tax you but compensate completion with new items, and you’ll find bombs and keys to open up alternative routes or damage obstacles
A line-up of bosses that express negative factors like Fear and Sorrow stand waiting at the end of every area, which themselves represent significant places from Cassidy’s past like a camping ground and her childhood home. Most of the battles are a case of learning an opponents attack patterns, but if you fail you will return to the very start of the run and need to fight your way back again. Any boss you’ve previously beaten is skippable though, which can speed things along a little.
Dreamscaper is a challenging game, and not always as nuanced as it could be. For instance, if you find yourself trapped in an attack animation when the other enemy hits you, you won’t be ready to dodge away fast enough, and often facing more than one opponent up close is a very dangerous move. It’s usually better to kite opponents around the small arenas, although that often suggests avoiding barriers and traps to do so.
Also, while they’re a nice aside, the majority of puzzles are much easy, aping classics like Minesweeper. But they do break up the action, you get some delightful rewards, and none of them takes very long. My most significant issue is with the forever zoomed-out camera that can make it difficult to spot precisely what’s going on during busy fights.
I love the art style though. It has a nice, soothing quality, even in the waking world, and the faceless characters convey a sense of unease and uncertainty. Magic and weapon effects are bright and stark in contrast with the softened environments, while opponents often exhibit vivid flashes of neon when attacking.
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