Ahhhh... Dreams of Desire. So much to say and so much to learn from it. Where does one start from?
Heavy spoilers bellow!!!
I'll begin with a tl;dr of the game: It's the best bad adult game in the mystical genre I have played so far. I know, a controversial opinion as a whole - most people love the game. And I do love it. Even if in a critical overview the game is actually not that good. But let's start from the beginning.
Graphical stuff.
I'll be honest, I'm not crazy about graphics in game as a rule. That said - the models are ok. The animations are decent. Most characters look good. All in all - they do the job they are set to do. Mom looks kind of young, but hey, maybe she had Tracy at 15-16.
Characters:
MC. We have quite the expression-control over the MC. While there is little development on his part. He is dumb, tho. Like - dumb on an epic level. The whole story could have been 3 episodes shorter (at least) if he actually followed the clues in the first days and thought about anything else but fucking every living thing around him. It's not that annoying, so we can just assume he is ok.
Marcus (Best friend): He is cool. Way too cliche at points (who knows how to find a gun - well, the black dude, who else?) but felt like a friend and not a plot device.
Mom - as with most mothers in incest games she is not exactly the most interesting or developed character. She does provide the most feedback of how much the spells can mess with people. A lot of early plot points for her seem to have been cut (keep that in mind, you may notice a theme) as the dev moved from "let's have fun" to "people prize the story, I must deliver more!". Her different routes didn't actually provide that much nuance, sadly. Still, does the job.
Alice - cute, sweet and loving Alice. I loved her. I still do, but her actual development seemed kind of rushed. Still, it was really nice going both routes with her. I could even understand her final arc in a way. Still, after I finished the game... is she 12? Like she does behave like she is 12. I can imagine a 12 year old falling in to that idiotic trap. But now I have to deal with the thought of her being 12... ugh... moving on. Biggest problem with her is that we are told how close the MC is to her and yet... he knows nothing about her. It works to explain her behavior if she has the mental capacity of a child (I get it, she is an outcast (somehow) and her closest person actually manages to neglect her to the point he doesn't know she has any friends. Still, there are problems that the game doesn't address in any way.
Tracy. Bitch-big-sister. Well, not so much, as we come to realize. She is the strongest character by far. Considering she is really important for the story - not surprising. Her story arc is good. Her model is sexy. She is good. Sadly she is also the most fucked up by the problems this game has. And I don't mean the big shock of her being shot. But more on that later.
Aunt-whatever. Yeah... aside from MILF-sisters-incest-threesomes she is kind of boring. The only character who actually grows a lot in the last episodes. Still, through most of the game she didn't tick for me at all.
Best friends mom. Um... she is there. Nice MMF threesome as an option with her. She still seems to have suffered from plans getting hacked off. (yup, second character having that problem).
Abby or whatever. Fucktoy extraordinaire. aside from her willing to fuck some guy on her friends request... she is actually a cool character. She is a plot tool, but a plot tool that makes you like her, actually. Again, how exactly the MC missed the fact she is his little sister best friend is a mystery to me. Maybe the MC is just a fucking dick.
Bad-blond-chick. Should be one of the antagonists in the game, but she gets so little screen time, that you can only not like her. Suffers really badly from the same "cut content" syndrome as all the other characters. Still, the funniest way to deal with a boss I've seen in a game. I just can't help but feel there was more to explore about her (there are hints she may not be beyond saving).
British Petroleum Spill Dude. Known as apparatus or something. Man, was I annoyed with him at the start. Him not turning in to the bad guy was actually something I did not expect. Still, that twist was well done and stable.
Main antagonist. I didn't even remember his name. Bland as fuck. Evil for the evilz. Did not work for me. He should have been some sort of a chessmaster, behind-the-scenes guy, but turned out to be a blunt instrument. About as smart as the MC.
As a whole the characters are good (except the bad guy). Even if they felt cut short at places, they do their job. The real problem with them is that you start the game with the feel it will be character driven, when it turns out it's not... at the last quarter. But you will have fun with them and will want to replay the game to everything about them. They are probably the best thing about the game.
The Story.
Man, people will hate me if they read this. Still, I'm always brutally honest as I believe we can learn from critique, even if it's not positive.
Don't get me wrong. 90% of the story is top-notch. Has enough mystery, intrigue and logical twists to be prized. Where it falls is the last 10%. And the last 10% is what wanted me to puke.
No it's not because Tracy got shot. No. Many things are gameplay problems, not story problems... but still, at the last part of the game, the part where an epic story must shine the brightest... it failed miserably.
Where can I start? From Marcus turning from a computer nerd in to a gangster (or whatever, him coming in guns blazing was NOT a good moment) to the fuck machines...
Like really? Fuck machines? I get that it's a porn game, but still... come on...
Oh, or how the fuck does my aunt have the resources to hire security but not the resources to get a small hit squad? Not even a bodyguard? Nah, lets run in to the den of the people who tried/succeeded to kill Tracy whit no backup. I guess all those spells made her totally nuts.
Or the part, where the MC spends a bunch of time wondering what to do, before using his powers to rip a guy in two. Ok, why not use the shards at the very fucking start and rip all of them? The fuck?
Still, aside from those stupid moments, the story is golden. The endings are well done. You won't be disappointed. But good luck remembering it for the drama at the end and not "the fuck machines". God...
Pacing.
The story has problems and the characters have problems. But all is covered very well by the pacing. The pacing in the game is great. Perfect, even. Starts slow enough but picks up the pace and doesn't drop it for a bit. You don't have the time to thing about things. You just want to resolve the shit you stirred up. Because the characters are so well-done in the first parts, when you go in to "story mode" you care about them and want to help them, so the restriction of your actions and so on doesn't bother you.
Gameplay.
Probably the biggest problem of the game. Now, don't get me wrong, until you actually go deep and actually find out how the endings are determinated you won't have problems with it. My biggest problem is the good ending for Tracy, to be honest. You have to do a very specific, very tailored choices with her to save her. And no way of knowing that. It's a big problem with the game - a lot of choices don't really make sense in the end, not because the consequences aren't logical, but because you get pretty much locked in to a path from the first choice you make with a character... while having no way of knowing what the consequences will be. Latisha is a good example - when you make THE choice for her you have no fucking idea how influential it will be. Tracy is the same - you must do the illogical choices to keep her safe. On the second playtrough they are no longer that illogical... but I still think this is not a good way to make a game. Good puzzles follow logic. Playing Dreams of Desire is like putting a puzzle together, while it's upside down. Yeah, you can get the shape, but you have no idea if the picture on the other side is what you aim for.
A little bit more content. A little stronger foreshadowing and a little more choices (no need for perfect plays for good endings) would have made the game a much better game. Currently it's actually not that good of a game. Or an interactive story, honestly.
With that said, playing the game is not a waste of time and you may be satisfied, tho the freakishly hard way to keep Tracy safe may make you mad (use the walktroughs, honestly you will be mad if you don't).
