Dream Alone (2018)

Dream Alone is an Edgar Allen Poe inspired 2-D platformer that constantly punishes the player, but not in a way that is rewarding.

There could have been potential for Dream Alone to be at least a run-of-the-mill adventure platformer. Instead, the developer chose to see how far it could make a game so infuriatingly bad. It plays with the grace of a gorilla's knuckles being smashed in with a metal bat and it always looks like it's being viewed through squinting eyelashes, while a child is switching the lights on and off with great rapidity. Nothing in Dream Alone makes any sense at all; it is a void that sucks everything where no light can escape.

Dream Alone has a tired story, clunky controls, and flawed mechanics, and most of its problems can be traced to the near-fundamental incompatibility of this type of horror with this type of platforming. Its most promising aspect—multiple dimensions—is by far the creepiest part, which is enjoyable, but it seems to sabotage itself with a few key flaws that impact the entire game's playability.

Overall, Dream Alone brims with potential but falls slightly short in multiple areas.

"Nightmare on two-dimensional street."