Dreams of Pain
WHAT IS DREAMS OF PAIN?
Dreams of Pain is a highly experimental first-person mystery horror game with elements of horror in its atmosphere. The structure of the game is mostly linear. The game incorporates ARG-like elements into its storytelling. The game’s art style was inspired by retro games from the late ’90s. It doesn’t hold your hand and there are no traditional tutorials for the player. Some of the puzzles in the game are types of puzzles not seen in any game before.
INTERACTION & PUZZLES
Interacting with characters and objects in Dreams of Pain is vital to solving the puzzles. Though there may not be many things to interact with, make sure you treat the ones that do with curiosity. The people in Pain may not always tell you exactly what you need to do but they are there to help you.
EXPLORATION AND STORY
Exploring the changing town of Pain is important for the player. Try to look for unnatural patterns and oddities in the world. The player should be extraordinarily perceptive. Listen carefully and inspect everything. The story of Dreams of Pain will be told in a very unconventional way.
SOLO DEVELOPER DISCLAIMER!
This disclaimer’s purpose is to set the expectation of the player accordingly. The vast majority of the game has been developed by just one person. All of the game’s core design, ARG elements, and nearly all of the game’s 3D art assets, music, and sound effects have been made by one person.
There won’t be 20 hours of gameplay. If the player is really quick to solve all the puzzles, then finishing the core game will approximately take 3-5 hours to finish. With the lack of resources, there has been very limited testing in this regard.
DIFFICULTY DISCLAIMER!
Dreams of Pain contains very odd puzzles that have not been tried in games before. The puzzles are difficult and might require extreme patience. It is recommended to play Dreams of Pain in short bursts as it might become increasingly frustrating due to the difficulty. There are no difficulty options! There is a core gameplay loop in Dreams of Pain but it might be hard to figure out at first. It is the player’s job to figure out what to do in the game.
ACCESSIBILITY DISCLAIMER!
Due to the experimental puzzles Dreams of Pain may be impossible to playthrough
if the player is relatively insensitive to differences in musical pitch or has hearing loss or is deaf.
Game Discussion
Steam User 23
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This is a tough one to review. I really enjoyed my time playing this game. At the same time, I think most people will hate it.
This is an ARG puzzle game. ARGs, or "Alternate Reality Games", are puzzle games with extremely difficult (and often ambiguous) puzzles, which are meant to be solved by groups or entire communities, rather than individuals. The puzzles often require doing things outside the game itself, like analyzing audio files, visiting webpages, or going to physical locations (there are no physical locations in this one, AFAIK).
The game works like this: each day you wake up in a small town with 8-10 buildings you can enter. Each building has one room, usually with 0-2 people you can talk to (who each say 1-2 things) and sometimes a few items you can interact with. It's your job to complete some task (which might not be obvious) and then go back to bed to advance to the next day. Some days have secret tasks which are necessary for the better endings. The game has 10 days total.
The puzzles in this game are fairly difficult, but still easier than most ARGs, so it's at least possible for a single person to complete every day and get the basic ending without cheating. However the more difficult endings are hard enough that I think a larger group is required.
Notice I said "without cheating". This is a Unity game, which are notoriously easy to reverse engineer. If you are someone who enjoys reverse engineering (like me), then "hacking" this game gives it an extra layer of challenge and intrigue, while also giving you a way forward when you're stuck, since the game has no hint system.
Through a combination of legitmate puzzle solving and reverse-engineering, I was able to solve every puzzle and get the true ending. I also figured out the "correct" way of solving most of the puzzles, but there are still 2 or 3 that elude me.
(Edit: Working with another community member, we managed to figure out the correct way of solving every puzzle. Every one that I was missing involved things outside the game, but they were all fair. It's completely reasonable that a small group of ARG players could beat this game without cheating)
There are a few poorly designed, extremely annoying elements in the game. In particular,
• On day 5, there is a monster who runs around the streets in town. If it touches you, you die. There's no way to fight or disable it, you just need to avoid it. It serves no purpose other than to be frustrating.
• On day 10, the puzzle requires you to prove you understand the trick. However, then it keeps going.. and going.. and going.. far beyond what should be necessary to prove you've figured it out. If you screw up even once, you have to start over from the beginning. It's extremely tedious and unfun.
• There is one seemingly important side-puzzle which, as far as I can tell from looking at the code, has no solution and is apparently just a red herring. Why!?
For the amount of content in this game (not the time it takes to beat, but the actual amount of stuff there is to do), I was expecting this game to cost $5-8. $15 seems like a steep asking price.
In short, if you enjoy reverse engineering or want to learn how, this is a fun game to practice on. If you enjoy ARGs or competitions like the MIT Puzzle Hunt, where you and a small Discord of other people need to break down difficult lateral-thinking puzzles, you should get some decent enjoyment from this one too. However anyone looking for the next "The Witness" or "Baba is you" should look elsewhere.
Steam User 4
This is my new favourite puzzle game. The style is really strange and cool but the puzzles are quite hard.
It took me nearly 6 hours to complete the first day, but that included working out the substitution cipher and trying to reverse lines of dialogue.
I highly recommend this game, it's very hard though.
Steam User 7
Haven't finished the game yet, but it has a very "Twin peaks" -feel to it. If you're into digging deep into the world of the game, you'll be positively surprised. The game has a very slow pace and is a fresh change to the modern and hectic gaming scene. If you're into simple and casual games, it might not be a game for you.
Steam User 3
This would slap so hard if more people played it so there could be a community to talk about what everything is, how it works and what it means.
Steam User 4
Quite mysterious experience. It has Silent Hill and Twin Peaks vibes. I like the overall feeling of wandering around.
If you want to chill out for an odd journey of unknown, try this.