Exploring A Peculiar World | Dreaming Sarah
0If only I could lucid dream like this lmao.
REVIEW
--------------------------------------------------
It's not very often you get games where you're not told much in the form of what to do, where to go and why things are as they are. Some games like to be metaphysical and philosophical, often trying to convey stories not with words but through visualization. For Dreaming Sarah, this is very much the case.
Gameplay does not demand much as the visuals and sounds paint a more broader picture than human interaction. Having to move left and right, up and down, collecting items and occasionally talking to NPCs is as basic as it gets.
The story is very simple as it's simplicity provides justification for the surrealism that surrounds Sarah in her uncanny world. She is in a coma due to an car crash and as such, the player must guide her in a filler world in an attempt to wake her up.
I really do like the quaint embellishment of this game. The visuals being peaceful or surreal, the audio being laid-back (if not eerie at times) and the unconsciousness argument making an excuse for how weird the brain makes things allows for some truly bizarre areas being formed. This alone allows for nontraditional elements like no prologue or build-up, no infodump, no monologuing; just Sarah being free to roam her sleeping imagination.
The game being built around a nonlinear adventurous theme is very liberating to players but poses some unfortunate setbacks. Not knowing where to go and what to do risks confusing the player, especially to a point where they might need a guide like I did. This rings even more true for certain puzzles I encountered like the door combo puzzle in the mansion where you solve it purely by happenstance and trial and error. Games where the developers opt not to assist the players too much (if at all) is a risky move to pull. Perhaps the emphasis of exploration and trial and error excuses this potential qualm but in the grand scheme of things, it never hurts to throw the player a bone at times as to not sidetrack their enjoyment with frustration and make them feel dumb.
Despite gameplay grievances, I very much enjoyed what Dreaming Sarah went for. Almost flawless liberation with interaction and progression makes for an enticing experience of the unusual yet mainly calm world spawned in the unconscious mind of Sarah. It doesn't put on more than necessary and doesn't overly complicate things, it's a nice balance of chill and weird.
Other Videos By andynomical
Other Statistics
Dreaming Sarah Statistics For andynomical
At this time, andynomical has 21 views for Dreaming Sarah spread across 1 video. His channel currently has around 1 hour worth of content for Dreaming Sarah, making up less than 0.60% of the total overall content on andynomical's YouTube channel.