65
MobyRank
100 point score based on reviews from various critics.
3.9
MobyScore
5 point score based on user ratings.

Description

Ryan, a bartender from a dystopian future can't sleep peacefully for months. His nights are sequences of nightmares and strange dreams, days with frequent black-outs with strange visions, until one night a figure in monk attire appears to him, and tells him the story of the seven evil ones, uniting to destroy to Dreamweb, the only barrier between the world and darkness. The monk makes a proposition: Ryan becomes the deliverer: the one who would keep the Dreamweb safe by killing those who try to destroy it.

Descending into paranoia and just wanting dreams to stop, Ryan accepts the mission, then wakes up in a puddle of cold sweat, next to his beloved girlfriend in her house, and late for work. Again.

DreamWeb is a top-down adventure game set in a gritty futuristic/dystopian city. Each location takes only a small portion of the screen without panning (except an optional small zoom window in the corner that follows the cursor), with the player interacting with objects and people by simply clicking them. Ryan has a limited inventory space, and as a lot of objects can be picked up (many without any use), the player must rationalize what might be useful and just filler. Dialogue is straight forward, with no options, but still required to advance in the game (to find new locations, for instance). In situations where many adventure games often feature an indirect approach to solve a problem, Ryan often faces himself with situations where it's "killed or be killed", which result in deaths (sometimes of innocents).

The story isn't much developed inside the game, but the original release of the game included Diary Of a (Mad?) Man, a 40-page diary telling the descent of Ryan into madness, or his destiny, written by Stephen Marley provides a complete background to the events leading to the start of the game.

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User Reviews

Blood, sex, and point & click Unicorn B. Lynx Bronze Star Contributing Member (62410) 4 Stars4 Stars4 Stars4 Stars4 Stars
What went wrong? You really don't know... Black Wolf (37232) 4.17 Stars4.17 Stars4.17 Stars4.17 Stars4.17 Stars
A cyberpunk highlight in the history of adventure games Apogee IV (2361) 4 Stars4 Stars4 Stars4 Stars4 Stars
Edgy, violent, gritty, confusing, moody... that's Dreamweb for you folks. Zovni (9138) 4.33 Stars4.33 Stars4.33 Stars4.33 Stars4.33 Stars
One of the best atmospheric cyberpunk games ever released Emanuele Ravasi (20) unrated
Ah, the mixed-bag that is edgy software... Vance (97) 3 Stars3 Stars3 Stars3 Stars3 Stars
Everything games are not anymore. Sonic Terminator2 (3) 5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars5 Stars
100 % pure atmosphere n-n (52) 3.6 Stars3.6 Stars3.6 Stars3.6 Stars3.6 Stars

The Press Says

High Score Jan, 1995 4 out of 5 80
Joystick Oct, 1994 80 out of 100 80
PC Games (Germany) Oct, 1994 76 out of 100 76
ntsc-uk Mar, 2006 7 out of 10 70
MikroBitti Dec, 1994 68 out of 100 68
The DOS Spirit Nov 11, 2005 4 out of 6 67
The Good Old Days Jan 15, 2006 4 out of 6 67
Abandonia Dec 17, 2004 3 out of 5 60
Adventure Classic Gaming Dec 11, 2006 2 out of 5 40
Quandary Apr 14, 1995 1 Stars1 Stars1 Stars1 Stars1 Stars 20

Forums

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Trivia

Dreamweb included a manual called "Diary of a Mad? Man" also included a very cool and well written diary with the thoughts and rantings of Ryan, the character you play. The diary also plays an important role in completion of the game since there are vital hints in it...check it out for clues if you get stuck.


This entry was contributed by EboMike Bronze Star Contributing Member (2592) and Soulbreather (18)
 

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