DreamWeb

The Good
The music is one of the best I've heard in a game in a long time (I recommend you play this game with headphones), the city and characters really give you the feeling of a future, gray, decaying city (fitting the game's cyberpunk orientation). The main character, Ryan, is deep and well developed, something rarely seen in computer games nowadays. He really seems to have a personality of his own and is a sort of "anti-hero" (or reluctant hero).

The Bad
The top-down graphics aren't good for ANY adventure game, this not only leads to many frustrating pixel-hunting, but also detracts from the immersive factor that's predominant in this game. The huge amount of items you can pick up: while this is good because it adds realism to the game, it is a double-edged sword; because makes the puzzle solving much more difficult. The game playing window is, for some unknown reason, very small. And the game's too short (once you know what to do you can finish it in less than 2 hours)

The Bottom Line
Dreamweb is one of those obscure, mostly forgotten (or unknown) games that appeal to the player through a story worthy of one of the best sci-fi / cyberpunk novels, well-developed characters and the addition of a wonderful, immersive soundtrack. It may not have mesmerizing graphics, it may not be remembered as a milestone in the adventure genre. But it's one of those few games that leave you hungry for more after finishing it.

The Good
Ah... the infamous Dreamweb, a dark and gritty cyberpunk adventure game known for it's violent and sexually charged content. The game itself is definetively not as "disturbing" as some may lead you to believe, but it's still pretty powerful and makes for one very entertaining adventure game.

First of all you have the backbone of every adventure game: the story. In Dreamweb you play this lowly bartender Ryan who somehow has this psychic link to a group of guardians of some sort that watch over the Dreamweb. The Dreamweb is, to put it shortly, the thing that keeps us all alive and allows us to continue our putrid cyberpunkish lives, and some individuals have been syphoning it's power in an attempt to evolve into some sort of mystical form. These guys will destroy the Dreamweb if left unchecked so it's your job as appointed by these guardian dudes to go forth and kick ass in the name of the Dreamweb. And this is where the game starts to distances itself from the "average" adventure games, your objective in the game is quite simply to go and kill these guys, and the puzzles for the game all revolve around this sort of things, for instance: you'll have to journey to seedy bars to meet a gundealer and get yourself a gun, break into a penthouse or tv station to carry out a murder, etc... The plot will continue to move forward with each killing and eventually end up with an-all out battle against the head psycho behind everything and ultimately resolve itself with a very surprising (or not so really if you consider the game) ending, but the storyline makes the right decision and doesn't turn the whole affair into some heroic bullshit, instead each one of your actions takes a backseat to the grinding and all-encompassing reality of the gameworld never glorifying you or your quest. Essentially the whole game follows a very "zen" mentallity with every action leading you to the next logical solution, so there are few surprises in store for the storyline, as I mentioned the main attraction for the game is that of seeing the world that revolves around this story. Each subsequent murder will have it's consequences in the "real" world, and as you evade the cops and kiss your girlfriend goodnight you'll get to see the nice gameworld crafted by the guys at Empire much more as an actual character and the true protagonist of Dreamweb than Ryan or any of the other characters that populate it.

Truly these guys understand what Cyberpunk is all about, the game feels very very very close to the idea one gets of the world when reading Gibson novels, you know, that of a world that has attained near technological perfection, but that perfection itself has also corroded the very fabric of human nature and left the land with as much giant skycrapers as well as hollow industrial wastelands and murky gettos. Yeah, you get all that in Dreamweb. From the carefully constructed gameworld that merges giant and antiseptyc corporate structures with the rundown hotels and shady bars left behind in the wake of the information revolution, to the eternal rainy nights that plague the city and it's fusion of blocky gray architecture and neon signs.

Of course, no praise of Dreamweb's world would be complete without a mention to the excellent synthetized music. The collection of moody sounds and eery Vangelis-like cues bring the world alive and almost make you feel like watching Blade Runner all over again, except on Dreamweb somehow it sounds even more apocalyptic and loses that saxophoned "Noir" vibe you got on Blade Runner.

Oh yeah, and you also have some brutal (if pixelated) violence to enhance the "in yo face" attitude and some of the first actual sexual content in a videogame (i´m talking about fornication and actual genitals here, not just some sexy remarks and bouncing boobies) product of that wave of "adult-ness" that surfaced with the multimedia revolution. Sure, for the most part it's just there for shock effect, but it's still another exciting part of the dark world of Dreamweb that paints it as even more decadent and disturbing.

The Bad
The ambience in Dreamweb is also enhaced by the fact that there's lots of stuff you can interact with, from your computer to the lightswitch in the hotel room, and you can pick up everything from that rusty pipe over there to that bible or soda can in the floor. Cool isn't it? Well unfortunately this doesn't work in the context of an adventure game, because the end result is that you have a gazillion red herrings that have absolutely no use whatsoever. Furthermore the puzzles themselves are not always clear (you'll be surprised how often the "solution" to a puzzle is just shooting someone's ass) and if you mix both factors you get a rather confusing game that isn't really hard or long, but is... confusing!

Besides why the waste of time and space in drawing all those soda cans if they have no use in the game?? tsk, tsk...

Anyway, save for that there's the fact that the graphics aren't that nice really. You have a top-down perspective which I believe works for the game since it places the spotlight in the gameworld instead of the characters (and we know which one of the two is the star here), but the play area is horribly small, and the addition of a "zoom" window is just a sorry excuse to cover the fact that the play area is horribly small and pixellated. Furthermore the proportions for the characters don't always match up and they can end up feeling rather amateurish and cartoony, just look at the screenshot of the pool in the penthouse suite to see what I mean.

The Bottom Line
Despite some graphical problems and some confusing adventure design this is one hell of an experience. Truly one of those oddball "experimental" adventure games like Loom or Bad Mojo that just has to be played for the sole purpose of soaking in on all of it's vibes.

The Good
DreamWeb is a game I only recently discovered while watching an episode of Pushinguproses (great Youtuber, definitely check her out, especially if you dig adventure games). Having found out this game was freeware, I was more than willing to give it a try. And I am very glad I did.

In DreamWeb, you play as Ryan, a regular Joe with little money, little ambition in life and overall, there is nothing special about him. Except for the fact that he suffers from nightmares wherein he finds himself in the DreamWeb. A mystical temple where a sinister, red hooded priest tells him that he has to kill seven people from various walks of life who are planning to destroy the world. In an attempt to stop these endless dreams, Ryan decides to hunt these people down and kill them all.

Storywise, this game is one of the morally ambiguous and disturbing I have ever played. The game really juggles with the question whether or not Ryan is really saving the world or if he is just an insane mass murderer. He only kills (or better said, murders) because his dreams compel him to and he does it without any sign of hesitation or remorse. I really like such kinds of ambiguous stories and this game's story had me hooked from the very beginning.

I also really enjoyed DreamWeb's atmosphere and overall visual style. It has a dark, cyberpunk style theme similar to the Matrix (hell, Ryan even looks similar to Keanu Reeves and also wears sunglasses and a long leather jacket all the time). Many shades of black and grey spiced up with neon lights give everything a film noir feel. The city itself is very industrial, polluted and overall just depressing. The music adds a ton to the atmosphere. It uses industrial music and synthesizer. Some tracks are very tense and threatening while other are brooding and strangely relaxing.

DreamWeb is very violent, not because of how many people die (about ten, I believe) but by the way how they die. You kill using guns, explosives and even a high speed subway train. And every death in the game is realistic and very graphic. When you get to shoot a naked guy (genitalia included) in the head and watch his brain matter spray everywhere and see the gaping hole of what used to be his face, you know that this is game is not for kids or the squeamish.

Finally, there is Dreamweb's unusual perspective. While typical adventure games use a 2D sidescrolling perspective, DreamWeb has a top-down view. Artistically, I really like this original design. It is like you are peeking through a box, watching the gruesome events that happen in the game. And there is also a unusual high amount of interactivity, every object you find can be either picked up, interacted with or both. And every person you meet can be talked to. While a lot of people you meet and objects you can pick up have no real purpose, it does add to the game's immersion.

The Bad
While I said that I found DreamWeb's top-down perspective very nice from an artistic level, it certainly is not handy gameplay-wise. It is sometimes very hard to see objects you need to interact with and I found it overall pretty clumsy to use.

The game is also very short. It took me about two or three hours to get through the game the first time. This is mainly due to the puzzles being a bit too easy for my taste because it is very obvious which item you have to use on what object to continue.

The Bottom Line
Overall, DreamWeb is a very enjoyable and memorable game particularly because of its film noir style, engaging story and its dark, adult-oriented content. The game is like a great book that you want to keep on reading just to see what will happen next.

The game is freely available online so certainly try this one out if you have the stomach for it.