Lifestream

The Good
I was impressed with this 'Indie' game.

First of all, the story is unlike any I've played before. It revolves around a sort of lateral world, called the Lifestream, where all of your dreams and wishes come true. Once there, though, you can never leave. Unless you make it one of your fondest dreams.

During the various Chapters, you will flip back and forth playing John, the son that no one knows about, and Randolph, the priest who discovers the existence of the Lifestream. Randolph is stuck in the Lifestream, and John's goal is to find him and get him out of there. Naturally there is another person woven into the plot with evil intent, so that adds intrigue and suspense.

This is definitely a puzzle-solvers game, so if you enjoy working puzzles of every kind you'll love Lifestream. You'll find puzzles that involve spelling out words, arithmetic, concentration, a slider, a maze and a few more akin to mini-games like Tic Tac Toe and Peg Jump.

Graphics are a mixed bag. When moving, a blurring effect takes place which can be disorienting at first. Everything comes back to focus when you get control again. Some of the places are beautiful and realistic, while others were obviously designed by a more amateurish hand. The character of Father Holton was wonderful and cut-scenes of conversations showed amazing lip-syncing. Then you'll meet the clerk in the post office whose character is blocky and lip-sync is done terribly. The interiors are all pretty good for the most part, except for the labyrinth-like tunnels and the hellish looking end game portions.

Music is entertaining and mostly in the background. Although there are few sound effects, some of those were realistic and some weren't. More often than not, you won't hear a sound effect when one should be there. Voices were done very well.

I liked the no-nonsense interface with easy to use inventory and save/load/exit feature.

Lastly, the ending finalizes everything .. but still leaves you with questions. So the whole gaming experience may stay with you awhile after you finish.

The Bad
Other than the few things I mentioned above, I can only say that some of the puzzles were silly - and almost seemed intended for children. Inconsistencies were present in graphics, sound and in the quality of the puzzles.

The Bottom Line
Lifestream is a nice game and one that I recommend to anyone who enjoys adventure games, especially those who like puzzles. For an independent developer, Unimatrix Productions shows potential. I look forward to playing their future games and watching how they advance in the construction and design fields.