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[Balthasar]

Last night God came to me and told me to murder people. He was dressed as Santa Claus and wore dark glasses. Maybe it was an April Fools’ joke. Perhaps God has a black humour. You tell me. It was only a dream, I tell myself...

(Excerpt from the Diary of a Mad Man)

The future: gloomy sky’s, environmental pollution and acid rain. People who know the film “Blade Runner” can imagine the atmosphere of this game very well. In fact, there are some elements in the opening screen which are copied from it.


Miscellaneous:

In 1992 Dreamweb was developed by Creative Reality and distributed by Empire Interactive Entertainment. Even though I don’t know the sales figures of this game, I’m pretty sure that it wasn’t a bestseller, not at least because it was only sold to people over 18 years (in Germany that was the case, so please don’t blame me, if that was different in other countries..).

The perspective view of this game was a bit uncommon for the PC/Amiga-Adventures of this period because the player had a top view on his character and the whole ambience. You had to get used to it but in the end one could adjust to it quickly. Also the game environment in general (a little window within static elements, like the side profile of the character or the game menu) was a bit unfamiliar but at least somehow ok.


The Story:

The protagonist, a guy named Ryan, who works in a pub to earn one’s living, is more and more haunted by nightmares. In his dreams strange figures appear, who tell him curious things. In the opening scene you become an idea in which dark situation Ryan is stucked. The player learns, that the so called “Dreamweb”, some kind of a Pool of Thoughts of human kind, which in general affects the future, is in danger. Evil forces want to take control over it and only Ryan (who else Oo) can take care of them. In one of his visions he sees the horrible future which comes true if he can’t stop the evil forces. (This scene somehow reminded me of the game Burnout ).



His mission now is to find and kill the seven people, who each represent one part of the evil force.

The game begins in the flat of his girl-friend named Eden. First the player checks all of the things, which are lying somewhere or are stored in the lockers, while Eden is still sleeping. Pretty soon you find some useful utilities beside all the crap things you will never need and the game can go on. The experienced player will, of course, include the microwave in his Round-House-Click-Orgy and there he finds the golden key; one of the few really important things in Dreamweb.

Once everything is checked you will soon find yourself down on the street, after taking the elevator. Here you have the choice to go elsewhere to places you know of. In the beginning that’s only your own apartment and Sparky’s Bar, where Ryan works.



In Ryan’s apartment you have access to on of the computer terminals. You can read the news, your emails or little flash-cards, which will be found within the game. The Terminal reminds of some kind of C64 or Amiga style computer. Pretty nice idea but with time it sucks somehow.



While reading the news Ryan becomes aware of his first victim. A famous rock-star named Craig. Now the hunt can begin…

After Ryan killed a person he always returns to the Dreamweb. With his golden key he then opens a new door to warp back to reality. Then he has to search the next victim and so on…

The story itself didn’t really blow me away but it’s well thought out and personally I didn’t get bored while playing the game. What I liked was the role of the tragical hero (Ryan) who, in the end faces his own death as the prize for saving mankind.


Gameplay

After you got familiar with the perspective view and the use of the Terminal there is nothing what stands between you and your mission (except the puzzles of course ). The musical background is ok but with time you will catch yourself trying to mute it. The graphic is ok too but there could have been some more passion for detail in it.



One of the things which make this game interesting is the solemn mood of the game itself. In contrast to most of the other Adventures, the protagonist can die and the game then will be over. Furthermore there is no real humor in it. Personally I like adventures with a good portion of humor but in this case it wouldn’t fit much to the game. Another thing is the simple fact that Ryan has to be a true Killer and the player has to imagine, how he can get close enough to his victims and how to kill them finally.

There is a huge amount of violence shown in the game but in my opinion it’s not exaggerated and also fits the story and the circumstances under which the evil people die.

The puzzles are not too easy but in the end there are also no real competitions for experienced adventure gamers. If you think logically there should be no real problem to play the game till the very end.

Apropos ending …it is good but it comes really quick, a bit too quick in my opinion . If I had to guess I would say you can get to the end in about 2 or 3 hours of game time, maybe less. Also there are some weird bugs in the game, which could have been eliminated before it was sold. For example you can again and again kill the 3rd victim (the one who lived in the house at the beach). You just have to go back to this area after you returned from the Dreamweb.



The Diary of a Mad Man

A special gimmick of this game is the so called Diary of a Mad Man. It’s not only some kind of copy protection. It’s also a good resource of information about the background of the story and in it you will find useful hints about the game and about Ryan himself. It is well written and you learn much about the personality of the main character. For a additional game book it is quite long and I think Creative Reality has paid some professional ghost writer to write this diary. I like such special goodies because they let you step deeper into the hole game, even if the game itself isn’t really that good.




Summary

All in all, Dreamweb has everything a good adventure must have. A good story, some difficult puzzles and an ambience which matches the idea behind it. But there are also some things which can be criticised. The graphic could be more colourful and detailed, the sound isn’t really remarkable, the game could be longer and last but not least there are some major bugs in it.

It was fun to play it, though and if would have to rate it I would give Dreamweb about

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