The hidden object genre isn't something that just made its first appearance on app stores yesterday. In fact, they've been around for some time now. The genre has a tendency of providing mobile gamers with the same experience over and over again. Dream: Hidden Adventure, does just the opposite. By combining an immersive story with impressive visuals, the developer has created a hidden object game that allows the player to not only lose themselves in the game for a period of time, but really feel like they are investing in a great story.
Dream picks up as you, the player, fall asleep. It's here in your dreams where the adventure begins. You are guided through a journey by a cast of mysterious characters who all need your help finding various items within different dreams to keep their world from crumbling. As the player, each dream that you visit is littered with countless items for you to sift through. You will be given a list of items to extract from each scene in order to complete any particular quest in the game. But like any other hidden object game, a timer is present and finding the items in a timely matter will not only ensure that you complete the dream before you wake up, but can also lead to rewarding multipliers for your score.
To progress through the game players must stock up on what is referred to as drowsiness. Each different dream or level requires a certain amount of drowsiness to gain access to. On top of that, players will also have to level up in order to access different areas of the game, so don't expect to rush to the end of this game, because it's going to take a little bit of time to get there. Luckily that’s okay, the story is great and the game even provides an expansive store and inventory system to help you collect the tools you'll need on your journey.
On top of solid game play, another element that stood out to me about Dream was just how beautiful the game is. Dream provides scenes that are not only fun to scavenge through, but are gorgeous and pleasing to look at. To me this element is crucial when it comes to hidden object games, and the developer nailed it when coming up with fun environments to play in.
But even within such a beautiful game I did find one small ugly blemish, which is the sheer amount of text and dialogue the player must read through. You will find yourself skimming over paragraphs of dialogue and information from different characters, each meant to teach you how to play the game and explain the different story arcs. I feel that the developer could have used something more than just blocks of text to explain the different elements of the game, especially when you consider how much effort obviously went into the stunning visuals and story concepts. That’s like giving a kid a really cool Christmas present, but telling them they can only play with it after they read the entire one hundred page manual.
The Wrap-up:
The Good: Dream: Hidden Adventure combines beautiful visuals and smooth graphics with an immersive storyline to keep the hidden object genre fresh.
The Bad: Although I don't mind reading, what feels like pages and pages of text get in the way of an otherwise very pleasing experience.
The Verdict: Dream: Hidden Adventure is definitely worth the download if you're a fan of hidden object games. While I found the amount of reading and dialogue to be Dream's worst quality, it won't be enough to keep you from playing this otherwise polished game. The story, characters, and fun environments make this a game worth checking out. Dream: Hidden Adventure is now available for both the iPad and iPhone, and is a free download from the Apple App Store.
NOTE: This app review is provided as part of PhoneDog's sponsored app review program. More information can be found at http://www.phonedogmedia.com
