For the unfamiliar, Dreamweb is a adventure game where you control a dude named Ryan. Through a series of recurring dreams, he is informed by a group of monks that seven evils are in the city he lives in and whose continued presence will eventually bring about a global calamity. Thus, Ryan is assigned to hunt them all down and kill them, in the name of restoring the balance and saving the world.
Sounds familiar? Not this time: You see whilst the game itself may run through a tried and tested gaming plot formula, it soon becomes clear that something about this game just doesn't sit well. A quick peek into the manual reveals a diary kept by Ryan which reveals a lot about his mindset: He has problems with his girlfriend, he's been lacking sleep and he is showing signs of paranoia. Ultimately, Ryan is losing his marbles.
Thus whilst the game is a standard kill-dudes-to-save-world-scenario, the manual, and hints throughout the game, tell a different story: Is Ryan deluded? Is he a serial killer? Is he using the rationale of the Dreamweb as an excuse to gun down people in cold blood? Ryan is not all bothered by motives - and if the player questions them, progress through the game is stalled.
At first, Ryan is in a kill-or-be-killed scenario. That changes, in the second mission where Ryan has to gun down an innocent person, a security guard no less, simply because they are in the way. This unfortunate adds more to the questionable morality of the game, simply through having no function beyond being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Yet there a few clues that suggest that the DreamWeb is real and Ryan more not be deluded. Indeed, by the end of the game, the player has to arrive at a conclusion about Ryan and the state of his character.
Dreamweb as a game inspires many questions - all of which are never resolved by the game's end. That it does so, is a masterstroke - adding further to the punch this game provides. Indeed, the strength in this game is in it's story-telling and the way it challenges it's audiences. So much so, it makes me wonder why no one else has tried to replicate this scenario (maybe they're too scared of subtleties. Or too busy trying to match Halo's thunderous success). It's been sixteen years - we could do with some more ways of telling the story, addressing key themes and, indeed, something to point to to verify a maturity in gaming.
You know, to hell with Prince of Persia: They should a game-based movie out of this!
References:
http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/dreamweb/dreamweb.htm
http://www.ntsc-uk.com/review.php?platform=ipc&game=Dreamweb
No comments:
Post a Comment