Dream Cycle

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A stunning game that sadly never got to live to its full potential. You still have a fantastic experience here though. I truly wish that at some point the developer manages to push out an update, fill the right side of the map and wrap this game up. It's doing something really unique and while it feels fundamentally broken in places due to the procedural generation it is very much in the theme of the games nightmarish / dreamlike states so it kind of works.

Unfinished, unrealized. Seems promising at the start but then you do your first mission and then your second and then you realize what's going on here. Stay away.

Development stopped

La [b]peor compra que he hecho jamás[/b] en un videojuego. El lore parecía interesante (al menos a mí, que soy fan de Lovecraft) y las imágenes que había visto tenían buena pinta, pero una vez que empiezas a jugar todo se hunde. Las explicaciones de lo que debes hacer en el juego ni están ni se las espera, si quieres saber de qué va el juego es mejor que te mires un gameplay (que tampoco hay muchos, porque nadie aguanta el juego entero). [b]Y ahora viene lo peor:[/b] los escenarios de las misiones se [b]autogeneran de forma procedural totalmente random[/b], en plan los sistemas solares del No Man's Sky, pero peor hechos. Cuando entras a una misión, nunca sabes si vas a poder completarla o si un error en la construcción del escenario te lo va a impedir, y pierdes un montón de tiempo antes de descubrir que no puedes acabarla porque ha aparecido una pared en un sitio aleatorio (en la última misión que hice antes de mandarlo todo a la m*, había un castillo entero que se había fusionado con una montaña y ni una sola puerta accesible para entrar a los sitios). Y encima soy tonto y seguí intentándolo 5 horas, por darle el beneficio de la duda, y ahora ya no me lo reembolsan. En serio, [b]no le deis ni un céntimo al jeta[/b] que ha diseñado este juego (o que le ha pedido a una IA que se lo diseñe, que visto lo visto no me extrañaría). Ojalá existiera una máquina del tiempo para ir a pegarle una colleja a mi yo de hace dos semanas e impedirle que queme 20 euros en este derroche de cutrez y de vergüenza ajena.

Can;t recommend Dream Cycle. I don't think you cam finish this game at all. Made by a solo developer. Tonnes of bugs. I had issues like the quest marker would be too high up in maps for me to access. I had to quit out a few times and "reset" the tier map and go back on it to try again with a new map. Sometimes quest markers would be in rocks which were impossible to get to, so again I had to exit out and reset the tier map. The idea was to find her missing sister "Erin" in the dreamlands. Levelling up was awful, didnt really get far. I played for ages and ages and never finished the game or close to it. If you check YouTube you will see no one has a finished gameplay of this too. The developer disappeared from the earth and never fixed the bugs or issues. It was like a run game where if you die in the dreamlands (the map) you reset back at the main area with no weapon and have to buy a basic sword which was expensive. Weapons and upgrades were expensive and on the map killing enemeis gave you hardly any momey to buy with. I stopped playing eventually as it got tiring and the Tier maps didnt seem to stop. I remember getting one of the maps to Tier 8 or 10 or something and it still never stopped. A game that cant be finished in my opinion. I liked it when I discovered it but finishing it is impossible as you dont seem to find Erin. Killing bosses at the end of the maps results in spirits being released and Erin asking them one by one if they have seen her missing sister Erin. Cant recomemend this game

[h1]Only if you're a fan, and only on a sale[/h1] The dreamlands are not only the most enthusing part of the lovecraft mythos, with bright heroism that contrasts starkly with the dark helplessness of the other stories, they also provide it with a deeper meaning and they make the whole structure stand together as a whole. If you're a dream cycle fan, you'll want to play this, but wait until it's on a deep sale, don't pay more than $5 for it, that's what it's worth. The game is a procgen 3D roguelite, with a handful of locations designed, great atmosphere. It really feels like you are projected in a fantasy heroic-age kingdom of dreams populated with hordes of impious proto-humans ravagers, cultists, and ghouls. Very nice vistas, ambiant music and soundfonts. But everything inside the levels is randomized. It works for the terrain, but most of the outside buildings are a randomized mish mash of senseless architecture.The first time you see it, it gives that mythos feeling of non-euclidian architecture, but it becomes boring after a while. The enemies are well designed and the combat is okay. You're overpowered but it's not a problem. As a planar traveller, you zoom through the levels with magic abilities, and you should probably not play it if you have vertigo or motion sickness. The combat is good but repetitive. In fact the whole gameplay is repetitive and lacks clear goals. This is why it's difficult to recomend this game, despite the fact it's fully functional, it feels repetitive after a few hours and there are much more rewarding games on Steam, some even free. This is a game you'll keep installed and come back to it from time to time, but it would be very difficult to finish it in one go. In fact most people won't complete the adventure. You should only play it if you want to dive a bit into the dreamlands that you know, and don't get too attached to it, don't try to finish the "campaign", just let it all to the imagination, like a fleeting dream that you can't remember in the morning

I dunno wtf happened during the development of this game. As such please take into account that right now I am only reviewing the pre release version, which you can access with a very obscure and sketchy looking tool you can use to download older versions of any game you own on steam as all versions of a game are stored on steam's databases. I also have quite a wild imagination so I can sometimes attribute more meaning to weird abstract things than straight forward things by subconsciously painting meaning into it. I never got far into the release version of the game because whilst the mechanics are basically the same across the versions, it is the story/vibe of the characters that really captured me in the pre release version of it. It is far more personal and introspective of an experience in my opinion as the peril is centred around you, not someone you want to save. In the version I am playing you are in the dreamworld because you are dieing and you find out by watching your self die. You have to finish the tutorial in order to find out. The starting tutorial area is very symbolic... As someone who amature-ishly studied occult symbolism in my teen years I knew it was no coincidence that it was an eclipse outside in the first room you start in. I much more appreciated the sumerian vibe of the guardian character. I love the story snippets that he voices through out the world. I love that you are saving your self from the brink of death and you can find these moments where you hear the living world and what is going on around you. Doctors trying to save your life etc. I spent like 2 or three minutes next to the first one of these points of interest to hear what happens at the end of this ever rising sound. The game play is OK. It's not amazing not bad either. And so I think that is where most people will bounce off. Because nowadays mid = bad and rightfully so. We have so many good options on the market. The gameplay is kinda like, some tomb raider creators played dishonored and the wonders of procgen worlds of other games and thought "what if we like brought in our 90s-00s vibe and made a game" And as such you have this kinda half cooked floaty experience. I kinda dont mind the floaty movement, it suits the whole dream vibe. I don't mind the combat most the time but I do feel the enemy attacks are hard to read as far as their range goes, combined with this forced cool down on the dodge and your sense of perspective being completely screwed by the fact the size of things in the dream world is kinda random. Which throws off your sense of scale and on a 2d screen that throws off your sense of perspective. You can get used to it but it feels,, weird and unsettling a bit like a dream that isn't going quite right. The skill ceiling is quite high for combat actually. When I first played the game I was scared to enter combat cuz I could hardly do anything but now I take on multiple enemies and it's chill. It's all centered around aiming for weakspots in the enemy but this is overwhelming at first as you are trying to get used to the controls and the fact you cant parry with your sword and have to kick to parry. Like the controls are very 90s/00s. They don't care about other games other than WASD, space bar to jump and the "novel" concept of using Q as an ability key which is very not 90s 00s. It's C to crouch with CTRL seemingly doing nothing. Combat is easier in 1st person view and platforming is easier in 3rd person (most of the time except in tight areas). Switching between both is cool, though as I got better I stuck more to 1st person. The astral projection mechanic is amazing and the way it feels is actually very inline with what people who claim to be able to do that say. I love how some entities can even see your astral projection and track your movement with their gaze. There is magic attacks in this game too but I rarely use my mana for combat at the moment. I think the ever expansive procedurally generated "over world" map where you select your levels which are basically these proc gen areas surrounded by a deadly mist is very.. overwhelming or confusing at first. Directionless.. and can seem kinda grindy especially if your goal is to just finish the game rather than mess around. I think this is where the marketing of the game fell as I remember it being pushed as this dishonored like game made by people who worked on the legendary tomb raider series etc. Both of which are linear (sure dishonored has choices but it is still linear) games with deliberate and contained map designs as well as clear objectives. Nothing is abstract really. Like maybe some of the borrowed symbology in tomb raider has real life occult references but it's very light. Dream Cycle is based on a frickin lovecraft dream world. That's another marketing failure. Most people think Lovecraft = Cosmic horror cthulu monsters and mindflayer squids. Hardly anyone has actually read Lovecraft. And ironically, this game's vibe (atleast in the prerelease version) reminds me the most of reading Lovecraft than most of the game that reference it. Most of the horror is not "Ooo creepy monster eat brainz" no. it's an existential crisis. It's someone deciding to go into a coma for ever in real life because their dream world was nicer. It's a sailor out at sea finding an ancient monolith that recently errupted out of the ocean with no explanation or conclusion. Just "WTF why?" So yeah if you REALLY like esoteric experiences that leave you feeling like your mind is fuzzy and ghost like. You may like this game especially if you go through the steps needed to download the early access version. Maybe I will play full release later in my life and update this to reflect that and how both compare. It's just sad that this weird and curious world/story got scrapped for something seemingly more generic.

Like Control but without a trace of technical competence or quality. Waste of time and money, no matter how much you pay, even if it's free. Less than ten minutes played. We really should remember that life is too short for this kind of shovelware.

i mean the seeting is in lovecrafts dreamworld i cant not recomend as long as it works. Is it disco elysium? no it is definatley not lol get it on sale