Dreams a triumph in content and breadth of vision
If Dreams were any amount less of a masterpiece, the fact that what is possibly the greatest and most ambitious work of interactive entertainment of the past decade has flown in neatly below the general public’s radar would be a damning indictment of Sony’s marketing department. As it stands, Dreams is indeed a triumph of ingenuity and will likely need about as much marketing as organised religion.
Dreams is grand, both in depth of content and impossible breadth of vision. It is so many things simultaneously without ever becoming a Jack of all trades and master of none. Imagine a game development sandbox that serves as a more than competent introduction to the world of game design, while also serving as a catalogue for a theoretically endless amount of immeasaurably diverse community-generated video games - this is Dreams.
After diving into Dreams for the first time, you’d be forgiven for not knowing where to start. After a series of short but vitally important tutorials, perhaps the first port of call should be Art’s Dream - a fascinating two-to-three hour storyline created by the developers - Media Molecule - entirely within Dreams itself. The story follows Art, a down-and-out jazz musician who has recently abandoned his position as a double bass player in a jazz troupe. It is a surprisingly poignant and beautiful adventure that touches on a number of serious subjects and is a much more adult point of view than we are used to in Media Molecule games. Art’s dream also does a stellar job at showcasing the power of Dreams’ creation tools, with the mini-game requiring you to traverse the gamut of genres before achieving completion.
When you look at what players have achieved with the creation tools in now-lesser games, one can’t help but shudder to think at what the console community will envision and create with the sheer power of Dreams at their disposal. The creation suite is powerful enough that you certainly won’t want to jump in blindly, but after a series of short tutorials you should be getting more to grips with the intuitive but deep controls.
Media Molecule has done an absolutely outstanding job in the conception and execution of this game. Dreams is easily the most ambitious game released in the past ten years and potentially one of the most important games released in a generation. Time will tell if the gaming world will be receptive to such unbridled ambition but for now we can simply enjoy the already huge amount of community generated content within Dreams.