Review: Dreams is one of the most innovative games you'll ever play

Dreams has been in the works for a very, very long time. Announced at the beginning of the PlayStation 4’s lifecycle and only arriving at its very end, Dreams is developed by Media Molecule. You might remember these developers from the good ol' days of playing LittleBigPlanet, back when they were still developing it. Looking back on this game’s long and somewhat mysterious development cycle, it’s not actually hard to imagine why this game took so long to make. 

Make no mistake, Dreams will go down as Media Molecule’s magnum opus. This is a game that makes games. It is also a game that allows you to play other people’s games. It is a limitless stream of imagination, offering everyone game creation tools that are simultaneously simple to pick up and fun to master. 

This is an extremely unique videogame, so it’s important to really pick apart what Dreams is before you decide whether it’s for you. Before I do that however, I really want to stress that there’s something for every kind of player here. This is one of the very few games that might actually live forever - and it will get better every single day it’s out there, growing and changing with the support of its players. 

Let’s talk about what Dreams is

The selling point of Dreams is very simple: this is a game that makes games. It has two primary modes of play; Dream Shaping and Dream Surfing. Dream Shaping is what players are introduced to first. You are taught through a series of tutorials (that can be as long or short as you like) exactly how a game is made in Dreams. Using a simple PlayStation 4 controller and even without a keyboard, you can breathe life into entire worlds. How’s that for a videogame?

Dreams gives you access to a game creation engine, and teaches you every step of the way how to create anything you’d like to make - even if it isn't an actual game! You could compose music, try photography or even direct entire movies using the assets you create via Dreams, or borrow from other players. Of course, you could go so far as to combine all of the above to create a fully-fledged game with your own music, gameplay, environments, character models, voicelines, cutscenes and more. The potential here really is limitless. 

Let’s talk about Dream Shaping

Creating your own dreams, as mentioned before, can get complicated depending on what you’re going for. You would think the easiest thing to shoot for is a Super Mario Bros-like 2D platformer with simple enemies and an easily achievable goal - and that does make for a good starting point, but there’s still a lot to think about. What does your character look like? What is the level's theme? How would you design it? What’s the music going to be? How will the enemies behave?

Thankfully, Media Molecule saw all these panic attacks coming, and they painstakingly installed an extensive list of tutorials for you to hop into and take part in with ease. These tutorials are really easy to follow, and once finished will teach you everything there is to know about Dream Shaping. They can be really long however, and the last thing anyone wants to do when booting up a game is spend the next few days playing through tutorials.

The developers also saw that particular hangup coming, and thus installed a compromise. When players publish their games in Dreams, their game assets become publicly available to everyone else. If you’re trying to create a level and require a red-overalled Italian plumber with a bushy moustache for some reason, you don’t actually have to spend so much time learning how to create a character model. All you have to do is search through Dreams’ nigh-infinite assets, and chances are that another player has already created the item you need. 

Both of these mechanics make Dreams an exceptionally well-balanced game creation tool for novices and veterans alike. You can easily master Dreams with the right amount of interest and conviction, creating complex and interesting levels just by using the tutorials. You can also start small, using the assets that are already available to you to create something truly wonderful. The actual process of level creation is very simple to grasp, but addictively hard to master - and that will keep you coming back for more.

Not your cup of tea? Try Dream Surfing

As fun as Dream Shaping is, it’s not going to be to everyone’s taste. I can see more than a few players checking in, taking one good look at the jaw-dropping amount of tutorials and then checking back out. That’s completely valid too, because Dream Shaping is just one half of the experience that Dreams offers.

Every game players create can be published, becoming instantly playable to everyone else in the Dream Surfing menu. Here, you can explore the staggering variety of games, movies, photos and music others have created. These Dreams range anywhere from kooky experimental videos to fantastically detailed games, and all of them load in practically no time at all. Games themselves come in many different genres - platformers, first-person shooters, racing games, stealth games and hilarious knockoffs.

Media Molecule themselves have created a couple of playable games as well, of course. Chief among these is Art’s Dream, a movie-length game that takes players through three different game genres as they follow the story of a mopey musician. It shows off everything Dreams can be in a pretty cool way, and players can snag unique game assets as collectibles, too. It’s not as interesting as the developers’ many other smaller Dreams, but it’s there as a default story mode. 

Dream Surfing makes Dreams feel like a 150-in-one game, with an absolutely mind-boggling wealth of content to play through at any given time. I’ve fought in the Australian war against emus (based on a true story), flown planes, driven cars, unravelled a Silent Hill conspiracy and wrecked cities as an adorable Kaiju. That’s not even including all the fun knockoffs you’ll find - with multiple recreations of Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros., Legend of Zelda, Metal Gear Solid, Star Wars and Overcooked games available to play. 

While some of these knockoffs are just cheap imitations of the real thing, most are incredibly amusing to play through at least once. The rest take on different perspectives that are actually pretty interesting to see. They’re all made by fans after all, so it’s a lot of fun to play through their unique vision of the games they love. 

Let’s talk about negatives

While Dreams dazzles at just about everything it tries to do, it does have its shortcomings - which are mostly dependent on what kind of player you are. If you’re a creator, you’ll have to put in the work to create something truly impressive. Dreams has tutorials and other systems in place to make your creative process as simple and worry-free as possible, but it’ll still be a daunting experience for any new player. 

On Dream Surfing, the basic quality of textures in Dreams have an - appropriately so - painterly quality to them. They’re distinctly fuzzy, which often doesn’t translate well to full levels. The things players create range from photorealistic to downright awful, depending on how much time they spent learning how to create. That can translate to a wildly inconsistent gameplay experience for Dream Surfers. Personally, I loved all the kooky, messy projects as much as I loved playing the fleshed-out, visually impressive ones. 

Verdict

I can’t imagine the challenges Media Molecule had to overcome to get a game as mechanically complex as this to be even slightly user-friendly, but I can imagine why it took them seven years to do so. Every aspect of this game is so fleshed out and perfectly crafted, to the point players can make the most professional-looking setpieces with the simplest tools available.

Even if you don’t own it, Dreams is going to be a game you’ll hear about years down the line. Media Molecule has promised to add online multiplayer and PlayStation VR support soon - so it’s only going to grow in potential. Players are already creating spectacular things all the time, which is just exemplary of the level of power this game has to offer. 

Dreams is a machine powered by its community’s colourful imagination, built upon the most accessible game creation tools I have ever had my hands on. It delivers on its name and then some, offering you the ability to create the game of your dreams with little to no limitations - besides your own imagination and time. 

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