Dreamcore: The Review

Dreamcore: The Review

Score: 5.5 out of 10

Overview: "Dreamcore is an atmospheric yet simple exploration of some of the internet's most recent horror tropes. Both levels we played in the review period, felt under-cooked and uninspired making us wanting to spend our time playing other recreations of these famous horror tales."

The Experience

Dreamcore shows a lot of promise with its concept, exploring these horror worlds in a different perspective. We'll be taking a look at both levels separately as they features individual positives and negatives:

• Level 1 (Dreampools) - Dreampools is another take on the "backrooms" formula, one that unfortunately, doesn't shine in this new iteration. The puzzle that takes place during the first half of the level is probably the highlight of the entire game by creating a scenario where the player has to be in a constant "focus" mode to solve it. It shows that the developers do know how to make these worlds shine with clever puzzles, so it ends up being a bit disappointing that this is really the only puzzle of its kind during these two initial levels. The rest of the level just feels... overly basic by not including more challenges like the one shown at the start of the level and by making the player just "slowly" walk onto the end;

• Level 2 (Eternal Suburbia) - Eternal Suburbia does feature a setting that for us had more potential to shine, however, the lack of puzzles in this level just make this a long walk to the finish line. The first part of the level features a maze set in a massive suburban neighborhood where you have to find your way onto a water tower you can see from anywhere at the map. This part of the level really is just pure luck as you keep on entering and leaving houses hoping to be a tiny bit closer to the tower. The second part of the level does introduce a cool little wrinkle as players will face one of two challenges depending on where they headed after reaching the water tower. This creates replay value for this level which is always a plus. However, this second part of the level is yet another maze with yet another randomness effect that could make you finish a level in a couple minutes or in an hour. It just lacks some thought to us.

We will cover the remaining levels as they drop, in about 6 month periods. This review will be updated as they drop with the review score potentially changing up or downwards.