Dreams of Pain

[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/9686972/]Follow "[b]First Person Exploration and Puzzle Games[/b]" for more games like this![/url][/quote] This is a tough one to review. I really enjoyed my time playing this game. At the same time, I think most people will hate it. This is an ARG puzzle game. ARGs, or "Alternate Reality Games", are puzzle games with extremely difficult (and often ambiguous) puzzles, which are meant to be solved by groups or entire communities, rather than individuals. The puzzles often require doing things outside the game itself, like analyzing audio files, visiting webpages, or going to physical locations [i](there are no physical locations in this one, AFAIK)[/i]. The game works like this: each day you wake up in a small town with 8-10 buildings you can enter. Each building has one room, usually with 0-2 people you can talk to (who each say 1-2 things) and sometimes a few items you can interact with. It's your job to complete some task (which might not be obvious) and then go back to bed to advance to the next day. Some days have secret tasks which are necessary for the better endings. The game has 10 days total. The puzzles in this game are fairly difficult, but still easier than most ARGs, so it's at least [i]possible[/i] for a single person to complete every day and get the basic ending without cheating. However the more difficult endings are hard enough that I think a larger group is required. Notice I said "without cheating". This is a Unity game, which are notoriously easy to reverse engineer. If you are someone who enjoys reverse engineering (like me), then "hacking" this game gives it an extra layer of challenge and intrigue, while also giving you a way forward when you're stuck, since the game has no hint system. Through a combination of legitmate puzzle solving and reverse-engineering, I was able to solve every puzzle and get the true ending. I also figured out the "correct" way of solving [i]most[/i] of the puzzles, [strike]but there are still 2 or 3 that elude me.[/strike] [i](Edit: Working with another community member, we managed to figure out the correct way of solving every puzzle. Every one that I was missing involved things outside the game, but they were all fair. It's completely reasonable that a small group of ARG players could beat this game without cheating)[/i] There are a few poorly designed, extremely annoying elements in the game. In particular, • On day 5, there is a monster who runs around the streets in town. If it touches you, you die. There's no way to fight or disable it, you just need to avoid it. It serves no purpose other than to be frustrating. • On day 10, the puzzle requires you to prove you understand the trick. However, then it keeps going.. and going.. and going.. far beyond what should be necessary to prove you've figured it out. If you screw up even once, you have to start over from the beginning. It's extremely tedious and unfun. • There is one seemingly important side-puzzle which, as far as I can tell from looking at the code, has no solution and is apparently just a red herring. Why!? For the amount of content in this game (not the time it takes to beat, but the actual amount of [i]stuff[/i] there is to do), I was expecting this game to cost $5-8. $15 seems like a steep asking price. In short, if you enjoy reverse engineering or want to learn how, this is a fun game to practice on. If you enjoy ARGs or competitions like the MIT Puzzle Hunt, where you and a small Discord of other people need to break down difficult lateral-thinking puzzles, you should get some decent enjoyment from this one too. However anyone looking for the next "The Witness" or "Baba is you" should look elsewhere.