Adventure Gamers - Forums

I CALLED IT!!
I FREAKIN CALLED IT!!!
We HAD to enter the dreams of our unborn child after all!!!

So far, this chapter is the trippiest of all. I like it, as well as the philosophy and actual worldbuilding and rules regarding dreams and the Dreamscape.

However:
There are 2 kinds of puzzles I hate with a passion. Old-fashioned safes and labyrinths. Took me a good amount of 2 hours to find God within my fridge, after randomly walking through the white void. Certainly the game’s lower point up to now IMHO, unless there was some kind of hint to navigate which I missed.

Legion to the rescue!! Is it part of our subconsciouslness that understands that all is a dream and has a way to get us out/control it? I am still no sure.

It is rare for a chapter to have both a game’s lowest point and its highest. And since I talked about the fridge labyrith, I will say that it is very hard for a game to make me enthusiastic, but this one did exactly that when I rang Eddie’s doorbell and she answered and then met her in her appartment once more!!! Was overjoyed to see her again, literally bouncing on my chair like a jack-in-the-box.     

This is where I have stopped for now. I dont know how much I have for the chapter to end, but up to this point, I must say, this is a very memorable game to play.

EDIT: The “?” crashes returned in this chapter. Not only that, but, at the begining in our room, many comments that Victor should have from interactions were reduces to “undefined”. Thankfully, that last one was present only in this particular section of the game and did not continue further in the chapter.

With all respect @Sefir, the odds for that were not really that high imo. Some remarks in the landlord’s notebook and the notes on the board in the room with the screens in the basement made it pretty likely that we would end up there.

In any event, I finished the game last night. This last part was indeed very very trippy. The first part of chapter 6 was pretty tedious and felt loooong. Together with even more frequent crashes I came close to quitting and watching the rest of the game on Youtube. But after putting the helmet on for the last time i enjoyed the rest of the game a lot and the crashes pretty much stopped happening too. Great setting and puzzles. Not easy, but a bit more straightforward compared to the puzzles in the previous two chapters.

As for the story I’m really confused. Maybe it’s not too farfetched to think of the whole thing as metaphor for Victor (most men?) being really scared of becoming a father, only to without hesitation give up his own existence for the child once he meets it. Does the dream machine represent fears/doubts that Victor needs to face before being ready for fatherhood? If so, did he ultimately fail when he gave up his earthly existence and ended up where he did? Was the “contemporary Victor” in the unborn child’s dream the child’s view of him as a quitter? The middle aged version was clearly a Victor who had skipped responsibilies altogether and chose a lonely life with alcohol and TV. But what did the other Victor’s represent for the unborn child? Were the different “Victors” simply a mataphor for different men’s way of handling the pressures/fears of fatherhood?

Or is the story just what it seems? We’re supposed to save the world from a man-created monster that feeds on peoples dreams and tries to enter the real world by taking on a human form?

I honestly don’t know and it ultimately doesn’t matter. I enjoyed the game very much and I will with interest read other’s take on the story and the meaning of it all. Thanks for leading the playthrough Lady K!

Hello all,

We finished Sunday morning. Bit of a sad finish, tbh. We both weren’t really sure whether what Victor did was right, because the dream machine/tentacle had shown it was ruthless. Indeed, it called out Victor for being ruthless too - so it seems there was a pretty dangerous combination. Did we forget that the dream machine was trying to build its own body? To explore the dreamscape within which all life is connected? Seems like a very dangerous creature that has shown no remorse. I wish we could have seen a sympathetic or naive aspect of it to soften the finale. The ending left us feeling that the ‘bad guy’ wins - why didn’t we just let it built its own body to explore in Willard’s dream? If Victor was so determined to avoid or ambivalent towards fatherhood, is it realistic that he would make this leap? Throughout, he just kind of seemed selfish. I also doubt the tentacle would be content sitting on a desert island for all eternity! It clearly is motivated to explore the dreamscape, yes? Also, what was its motivation?!

The art was strong throughout! Fun to pick out what materials were used for each of the details. The final chapter, however, was very same-y and quite dark. A lot of use of UV lights!

Did not love revisiting all the locations again. A lot of blink-and-you’ll miss it inventory item spots, too.

The penultimate chapter (6) had a lot of existentialism and dialog. The lack of voice acting was not really a problem for us until this section - a lot of reading of cryptic or open-ended statements. In the end, it ended up creating a lot more questions and confusion than it solved. Fine if it was setting up a sequel or big reveal, but that didn’t really happen (nor did it seem to be on the dockets).

The puzzles in this final section were just fine. Perhaps a bit sparse relative to its length.

I perhaps should have saved the first paragraph until here. I think, overall, a lot of thought-provoking ideas that maybe could have been edited down and focused. We do not want to give the impression we did not enjoy it, we really liked the majority of it. Hopefully evident in the fact that we played it very close to the start of each community week.

For sure, a big thank you to LK for guiding us through the playthrough. And to you all for sharing your thoughts on it. Looking forward to the rest of your posts!

It’s apparent that I will have to finish this on my own time. 

I’ve made some progress in Chapter 5 after getting into Selma’s dream, but now have accumulated a whole host of items and have no idea what they’re used for.  I did manage to bury the knight and become king of the pumpkin patch
(wow, a management sim mini-game, joy…)

So I went back to Martin’s dream and was able to elevate the second cube but I can’t figure out what to do further before the ceiling squashes me. 

Alas, I just don’t have the hours to put into this at the moment, but after reading some of the non-spoiled reactions from the last chapter I’m ominously intrigued to see it through (eventually).

Aside from the little gory bits along the way, so far the most disturbing thing about this game is the blood-curdling scream when you enter someone’s dream…that’s getting on the nerves!

Thanks for all the tips along the way.

Just finished the game.

Last chapter was quite trippy and surreal as people said. At the start i was kinda scared i would have problem with the puzzles as there are many inventory items and many locations to explore. But in the end everything went smooth, just a lot of exploration and talking. Finding the right way to arrange the maps felt very satisfying when i realized what i had to do. I liked the ending a lot. Its a fitting ending to this kind of game even if it feels a little sad when Alicia wakes up and finds you unconscious. Also did i really have to shove a coat hanger through the ear canal of a fetus? Seriously.

Game gets 4 out of 5 stars from me. I enjoyed it a lot even if the graphics weren’t of my taste, but they do add character to the game.

Thanks Lady Kestrel for leading the playthrough.

walas74 - 04 May 2024 10:15 AM

And about the chapter’s ending… Really? Shrinking to enter through “there”? And after that, we must kill our fetus and even choose the method using the hanger? Too disturbing in my opinion.

Hey!! I didnt know you could do that!! Instead I just tied the fetus with the yarn, got out of the womb, and basically pulled the fetus out, like we did with the Acorn in chapter 5. All the while we were shouting to our mother to push. Fetus Victor was very alive after birth, even telling me “What did you do??? Put me back immediately!!!” afterwards!! Even then, it was by far the part that disturbed my pregnant wife and she chose to not be present in this particular scene of the game.

I finished the game. Certainly not what I expected. Even the menu screen changed, from Victor sleeping to his apartment, to Victor sleeping in a coma in a hospital.

100% the most surreal world, but that was to be expected from the premise. I liked the puzzle with the multiple victors and how we obtained the maps from each one of them. The quick travel option was welcome too.

Funny thing, I entered in all 3 ratholes in the ship and I met the 3 rat brothers. I LOLed when they mentioned their father, the rat king, who I have met earlier in the magic dreamworld (in the vampire’s room). I spoke with him again and he gave me a crown (a bottle cup really, but whatever) to choose the next ruler of the land. I chose the rat I thought was the smartest and less selfish of the 3, the one in deck 2. He wasnt interested in ruling or obtaining riches, was smart enough to recognise me as the one who put the rat poison in the first place and actually cared about his brothers to mention that I might have harmed them!! It was a fun little side-quest that I enjoyed.

Once again, I understand the machine’s position. It is a live being that wants to survive, without actively harming anyone in the real world. Trying to basically possess the baby was really his last option to live. I do not consider the ending that bleak. Victor might be in a coma, but he does not suffer and actually lives peacefully through his dreams, the machine lives through the dreamworld, seems to be chill with Victor, albeit will probably die when Victor’s physical body dies and we managed to save the rest of the tennants. These are all victories in my books considering.

As final thoughts, I find the game extremely unique. The graphics I found amazing, the claymation gave a lot of character with its creepiness.
The characters were very distinct in personality and some of them really memorable. Mr. Morton, the rude Mover, Ellie, etc. Most of all the protagonist, Victor, who you can see his character development, his fears for the future, but also his care for his family.
But the most distinct characteristic of the game was the worldbuilding. The rulings regarding the dreamscape, the void, traveling between dreams, the subconsciousness, wishing things into existance, even the existance of Legion.

There is easily potential for a sequel here. Although I know how hard claymation is, so I am not that optimistic.

A great game in general and I was extremely happy to play with you all, read your thoughts and experiences through it.

A big thank you to Lady K, who managed to successfully lead us through the game with ease.

Cya all around!!!

Lady Kestrel - 05 May 2024 02:10 PM

Also, the game ended with Victor on the island, not in the hospital.  Maybe it was because I didn’t remove his helmet at the end?  I plan a replay of the game in the near future, just to see if there’s anything else I missed.

No, you are right that this is where the game ends. But the menu screen changes after you finish the game. From Victor sleeping to his bed in his appartment, to Victor in a hospital bed, obviously in a coma, with a heart monitor next to him.