Archived from groups: rec.games.int-fiction (More info?)
So this is what Zarf's been doing for the last couple of years. Did
you know? I didn't.
The object is to explore a large house; the house belongs to a wizard;
there is a treasure hunt for seven items of a certain type: The
Dreamhold is apparently deliberately going for tired formulas. The
Tutorial Voice says, "Amnesia. Yes, it's a cliché, but it'll do for a
tutorial." But you won't buy the idea that the game pretends to be
nothing more than a tutorial if you've seen the author's announcement
on RGIF:
"I've tried to create a game which rewards many species of adventurer:
the inexperienced newcomer, the puzzle-hurdler, the casual tourist,
the meticulous explorer, the wild experimenter, the seeker after
nuances and implications."
So what's this deliberate cliché-collecting in aid of? I don't know.
This being Zarf, it's probably a meta-commentary on the nature of
meta-commentary or something along those lines.
I find the setting dull, but there's a lot to mitigate it. As you
piece together the details of the wizard's biography, it becomes clear
that he isn't just a wizard, which is fun – albeit tantalisingly off
to one side. And then anything by Zarf is going to be evocative. He
has a way of putting together a sentence that takes you by surprise:
"The mural is stylized but finely detailed. You wonder once again at
its origin... it was here when you built the room. Such things are
inevitable in a house such as yours. But you still wonder."
That "here when you built the room" was a double-take for me. It
sounds ordinary at first, because it's like "here when you bought the
house".
I'm the meticulous explorer mentioned above, and he has rewarded me.
It's not so much that you can examine absolutely everything (he seems
to have taken a decision not to implement entrances, for example; and
many other games separate more of an object's individual parts), but
that the descriptions which are there feel like they truly fill you
in, so that the more time you spend somewhere, the better you feel you
know it. This is true both for complicated machines like the orrery
and for mood-oriented places like the garden.
What I love about the game is all the voices (I would). There's the
main narrative voice, the tutorial voice (which really does seem to be
peering over your shoulder at times), the PC's own mental critique
(which is comically similar to the Tutorial in its more nagging
moments), and the voices of the wizard's friends, family, teachers and
so on. These last are prompted by the rooms of the house, often the
second or third time you move through them. This is haunting, and
fits in with the idea that develops of what the house is doing there.
This review is limited because I probably haven't seen half the game.
Zarf mentioned in his announcement that "There are also many optional
bits to explore beyond the main storyline", and it was an
understatement. I've found three endings so far (well, four if you
count death), but there are still two blocked doors, a load of objects
(and whole rooms, actually) that have intriguing properties but no
discernable use yet, and one object that I can't work out how to
reach.
Now go and play it.
"You do not find yourself afraid. A dreamhold is more than merely
dangerous."
So this is what Zarf's been doing for the last couple of years. Did
you know? I didn't.
The object is to explore a large house; the house belongs to a wizard;
there is a treasure hunt for seven items of a certain type: The
Dreamhold is apparently deliberately going for tired formulas. The
Tutorial Voice says, "Amnesia. Yes, it's a cliché, but it'll do for a
tutorial." But you won't buy the idea that the game pretends to be
nothing more than a tutorial if you've seen the author's announcement
on RGIF:
"I've tried to create a game which rewards many species of adventurer:
the inexperienced newcomer, the puzzle-hurdler, the casual tourist,
the meticulous explorer, the wild experimenter, the seeker after
nuances and implications."
So what's this deliberate cliché-collecting in aid of? I don't know.
This being Zarf, it's probably a meta-commentary on the nature of
meta-commentary or something along those lines.
I find the setting dull, but there's a lot to mitigate it. As you
piece together the details of the wizard's biography, it becomes clear
that he isn't just a wizard, which is fun – albeit tantalisingly off
to one side. And then anything by Zarf is going to be evocative. He
has a way of putting together a sentence that takes you by surprise:
"The mural is stylized but finely detailed. You wonder once again at
its origin... it was here when you built the room. Such things are
inevitable in a house such as yours. But you still wonder."
That "here when you built the room" was a double-take for me. It
sounds ordinary at first, because it's like "here when you bought the
house".
I'm the meticulous explorer mentioned above, and he has rewarded me.
It's not so much that you can examine absolutely everything (he seems
to have taken a decision not to implement entrances, for example; and
many other games separate more of an object's individual parts), but
that the descriptions which are there feel like they truly fill you
in, so that the more time you spend somewhere, the better you feel you
know it. This is true both for complicated machines like the orrery
and for mood-oriented places like the garden.
What I love about the game is all the voices (I would). There's the
main narrative voice, the tutorial voice (which really does seem to be
peering over your shoulder at times), the PC's own mental critique
(which is comically similar to the Tutorial in its more nagging
moments), and the voices of the wizard's friends, family, teachers and
so on. These last are prompted by the rooms of the house, often the
second or third time you move through them. This is haunting, and
fits in with the idea that develops of what the house is doing there.
This review is limited because I probably haven't seen half the game.
Zarf mentioned in his announcement that "There are also many optional
bits to explore beyond the main storyline", and it was an
understatement. I've found three endings so far (well, four if you
count death), but there are still two blocked doors, a load of objects
(and whole rooms, actually) that have intriguing properties but no
discernable use yet, and one object that I can't work out how to
reach.
Now go and play it.
"You do not find yourself afraid. A dreamhold is more than merely
dangerous."
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