I recently finished the point & click adventure game Lucy Dreaming and thought I’d start a thread with some comments on it.
The game, released last month by small UK-based developer Tall Story Games, is billed as a “splendidly British point & click comedy adventure” where you control a girl named Lucy as she tries to rid herself of the nightmares she continually experiences. This involves exploring locations not only in pseudo real-world Britain but also in the world of her dreams. The dream scenes have some clever (if eventually tedious) dynamics for influencing the environment and characters, along with more abstract/cartoony puzzles compared to those you encounter in the somewhat mundane real-world portions.
- The game includes a lot of authentic British terms and cultural touchpoints, and the slang even factors into one of the puzzle trees. It’s not as extreme as playing a Magnetic Scrolls game back in the day, but it adds some flavor and makes me feel worldly. I for one feel happy that I now know what a bog brush is, and it’s nice to hear about the Women’s Institute in a context other than that one clip of ladies clapping that shows up in every Monty Python episode. Edutainment!
- The overall vibe is amusing if not side-splittingly hilarious. Maybe this is part of the intended Britishness of the game, but despite the underlying humorous and often surreal overtone, the game plays everything completely straight. I especially liked how there is a church devoted to St. Graham, the patron saint of moon logic
- Interface is a kind of streamlined Lucasarts style with all inventory items listed on the main play screen and separate icons for look/talk/get/use commands. There is a button to highlight all of the onscreen hotspots that are actually useful to the player. I haven’t seen this approach to giving hints before, and other than testing it out I didn’t use it so I can’t say how helpful it is. Thankfully you can double-click on exits to leave scenes quickly
- All lines are voiced, mostly competently and with a range of accents. The main character’s voice was a bit jarring though since it sounds too old for a school-aged girl. I was surprised
- Visuals were good, about the same quality as Thimbleweed Park with a lot of interactive scenery and amusing unique comments. Sound and music are nothing memorable
-Not a very difficult game, although you have more objects and locations to deal with than most contemporary adventure games and the dream sequences require a bit more lateral thinking. On average I’d say it’s somewhere between Shardlight and Technobabylon in terms of challenge. I encountered exactly one puzzle with an alternative solution, which is one more than is typical nowadays
- SJW watch: Nothing to get alarmed about. I was prepared for the potential for a lot of “Girl Power” messaging and the MC’s trauma being rooted in The Patriarchy or something similarly evil, but there isn’t any of that. The MC is just about the only normal person in the game, with almost all side characters being some combination of incompetent, weird, and/or obnoxious regardless of being male or female or white or off-white. The game has its racist and sexist moments too…
- No bugs encountered!
- Ending was a bit disappointing and arrived a bit suddenly, but it’s definitely better than Return to MI:
- My playthrough was close to 6 hours according to the save game clock
Comparing this to Unusual Findings which I also played recently and posted about, this is definitely a more polished product and probably a better game overall, although I preferred the actual “going on an adventure” feel of UF more. There aren’t a lot of retro-style adventure games on GOG or Steam let alone decent ones, so I’d say this is worth a try (they have a free demo), although as always I’d recommend waiting for a sale
The game, released last month by small UK-based developer Tall Story Games, is billed as a “splendidly British point & click comedy adventure” where you control a girl named Lucy as she tries to rid herself of the nightmares she continually experiences. This involves exploring locations not only in pseudo real-world Britain but also in the world of her dreams. The dream scenes have some clever (if eventually tedious) dynamics for influencing the environment and characters, along with more abstract/cartoony puzzles compared to those you encounter in the somewhat mundane real-world portions.
- The game includes a lot of authentic British terms and cultural touchpoints, and the slang even factors into one of the puzzle trees. It’s not as extreme as playing a Magnetic Scrolls game back in the day, but it adds some flavor and makes me feel worldly. I for one feel happy that I now know what a bog brush is, and it’s nice to hear about the Women’s Institute in a context other than that one clip of ladies clapping that shows up in every Monty Python episode. Edutainment!
- The overall vibe is amusing if not side-splittingly hilarious. Maybe this is part of the intended Britishness of the game, but despite the underlying humorous and often surreal overtone, the game plays everything completely straight. I especially liked how there is a church devoted to St. Graham, the patron saint of moon logic
- Interface is a kind of streamlined Lucasarts style with all inventory items listed on the main play screen and separate icons for look/talk/get/use commands. There is a button to highlight all of the onscreen hotspots that are actually useful to the player. I haven’t seen this approach to giving hints before, and other than testing it out I didn’t use it so I can’t say how helpful it is. Thankfully you can double-click on exits to leave scenes quickly
- All lines are voiced, mostly competently and with a range of accents. The main character’s voice was a bit jarring though since it sounds too old for a school-aged girl. I was surprised
to hear Dominic Armato voicing a minor character. I guess Return to Monkey Island didn’t pay all the bills for the year, although thankfully he doesn’t make any wink-wink references to Guybrush or pirates or anything like that
- Visuals were good, about the same quality as Thimbleweed Park with a lot of interactive scenery and amusing unique comments. Sound and music are nothing memorable
-Not a very difficult game, although you have more objects and locations to deal with than most contemporary adventure games and the dream sequences require a bit more lateral thinking. On average I’d say it’s somewhere between Shardlight and Technobabylon in terms of challenge. I encountered exactly one puzzle with an alternative solution, which is one more than is typical nowadays
- SJW watch: Nothing to get alarmed about. I was prepared for the potential for a lot of “Girl Power” messaging and the MC’s trauma being rooted in The Patriarchy or something similarly evil, but there isn’t any of that. The MC is just about the only normal person in the game, with almost all side characters being some combination of incompetent, weird, and/or obnoxious regardless of being male or female or white or off-white. The game has its racist and sexist moments too…
- No bugs encountered!
- Ending was a bit disappointing and arrived a bit suddenly, but it’s definitely better than Return to MI:
The MC realizes the cause of the trauma and doesn’t like what she learns, then she blacks out such that she no longer has any memory of it. I’m no psychologist but that doesn’t seem healthy to me, and in fact in the last scene her nightmares start over again. Of course, it could be that this actually is not meant to be a happy ending, although that's a bit dark compared to the rest of the game
- My playthrough was close to 6 hours according to the save game clock
Comparing this to Unusual Findings which I also played recently and posted about, this is definitely a more polished product and probably a better game overall, although I preferred the actual “going on an adventure” feel of UF more. There aren’t a lot of retro-style adventure games on GOG or Steam let alone decent ones, so I’d say this is worth a try (they have a free demo), although as always I’d recommend waiting for a sale
