[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/6142328/][b] With 1,300+ reviews, make sure to follow The Cpt Froggy Club Curator Page for plenty more![/b][/url][/quote]
Dream Sketcher is an investigation game where you play as an investigator for the agency Dreamland Security. You can play as a single player, or you can play as part of a team with up to three other players. The Mad Dream Crisis has swept humanity where people get lost within their dreams and need help from exiting their dreams otherwise, they’ll be stuck within their weird dreams. Your job is to enter these dreams, investigate, solve puzzles and ultimately save the person stuck within their own head.
There are six different stories currently, the first story, Into The Dreamland, is a small story which is a single player story and a tutorial as it will take you over the basics of the game. There are four stories which can be played with one to four players and the last story takes three to four players.
Once you have decided which story you will have to create a Room. You do this by clicking on the story and then you can set a few options for the room. You can name the Room, add a Password, choose the Difficulty, number of Players, Act order and Operating Time Limit. Once decided selecting the Create Room button will start the game for you.
An investigator will then be assigned for you to play as but you can choose to play as a different investigator. There are six different investigators, each will have different Attributes (Health, Strength, Wisdom, Sanity, Agility and Will), Abilities and Resources. There is also a web chart which shows you how good or not they are in Combat, Difficulty, Investigation, Survive and Support. You can also check out each of the investigators from the main game screen which shows them under Investigator on the left side of the screen. Also, there is where you find Story, Lobby, Cards and Collections.
In the lobby you can search for games already underway or looking for players to join them and where others can find any game you wish to host. Cards will show your default deck and you can edit and create your own deck. There are one hundred and fifty cards in which to create your custom deck from so you can build your perfect deck depending on your investigator.
Once in the game, there are points of interest which are indicated by different icons such as a Door, Exclamation Mark or an Eye. The game area is also divided into a number of areas which are not clear to begin with, but they will be shown if you move from one area to another by a green lined area. Moving from one area to another will cost you one action point although there are times when you can move without the cost of using an action point.
Action points are also used when you investigate the icons around a location. You have four action points per turn and once all have been used you must end your turn although you can end your turn at any point of your turn if you don’t want to make another move etcetera. Investigating an exclamation mark will reveal some details about it and possibly unlock some clues for you in your investigation or allow you to perform another action which can help you in some way.
You will gain cards to your hand, and you will use these cards to perform actions such as attack, increase your health and sanity. Some investigations require an investigation check to move forward, there are also combat checks when you come across an enemy. This involves your attribute valve and the checks difficulty and a D20 dice which when thrown you hope to have at least the same value as the checks difficulty for you to be successful. You can add some cards to increase your attribute score and will increase your success rate percentage. However, the dice has more than just positive numbers, but it also has negative numbers and other icons which can either give you a boost or totally wipe your attributes to zero which will be an instant loss and failure for the check.
In combat you will use cards, some cards you can equip such as guns, axes and hammers although you may not be able to hold all at once and weight comes into play. Using the equipped cards means you selecting the card and then having it point towards your enemy. Defeating an enemy will require you to reduce their health to zero.
As you investigate you will unlock clues to your investigation, these are stored so that you can go over them when you wish and so that they can help you come to a decision on what you have discovered.
There are plenty of things to investigate, however, you don’t have all the time in the world to do your investigations. With each turn Doom will come after you and if you don’t complete the mission objectives within the number of turns indicated then it will be game over. There are no game saves so you will have to restart the story from the start although the new game will be slightly different in where characters etcetera are found in the new playthrough. There are multiple endings for each of the stories which depend on the choices you make throughout the story.
The graphics are nice, and the game has run smoothly however, after the last update the game has broken to the point where it is now unplayable. The characters and enemies you interact with are no longer viewable on screen. They don’t even attack you either and you must defeat them so that you can move forward in the game. If I move from one location to another and an enemy or character is there then you enter a combat or other check.
I entered one of the locations on the North Pole story and the building I entered had four rooms in it and each time I exited one of the rooms I would go into combat check with a Polar Bear which followed me around but I was unable to defeat it because I couldn’t attack it like I would normally do before the latest update. So, because you cannot see where the enemy is the game is unplayable. I have left a message on the forums, but I am still waiting for a reply. I hope they sort this problem out quickly because I would recommend the game, but I cannot while it is unplayable.
[quote]UPDATE: The problem with the characters and enemy has now been fixed so the game is now playable and I can gladly recommend the game now that it is playable again [/quote]
In the settings you will find options for Video - Resolution and Full Screen. Screen - Picture Quality (Low, Medium and High), FPS (30 or 60), Ambient Occlusion, Halo, Weather, V-Sync, Texture Quality (Low, Medium and High), Reflection, Antialiasing (Off, 2X, 4X and 8X), Shadow Quality (Off, Low, Medium and High). Brightness Slider.
Game - Camera Speed, Camera Movement Mode, Camera Edge Detection, Camera Angle and Reconfirmation of Movement. Audio - Music and Sound Effects Volume Sliders.
Positives
+ Nice graphics
+ Multiple stories
+ Multiple endings
+ Has achievements
Negatives
- No cards currently
It is your job as a Dream Security agent to enter dreams and help those inflicted with mad dreams which has inflicted humanity.
7/10
[quote]Key provided by developer/publisher for review purposes via THE CPT FROGGY CLUB!
Any opinions expressed are entirely my own! [/quote]
