When I spoke with Baiyon last summer at BitSummit about his upcoming game, Dreams of Another, my takeaway was one of fascination and confusion. While he had explained the concept well – and my hands on with the demo gave me a general idea – the execution of it all seemed abstract, at best. Using guns and grenades to create instead of destroy, to interact with objects and glean their stories just for the sake of hearing, and focusing on your own perspective instead of the game’s narrative was, in a word, odd. Nonetheless, it was a tale I wanted to understand better, so I dove into this almost backwards-feeling shooter with clear eyes and an open mind. The result is a unique experience that, while perhaps not everything you might expect, still certainly has a feeling unto itself.

What are we, some kind of Dreams of Another?

You are in the shoes of The Man In Pajamas, who seems to be tangentially connected with The Wandering Soldier. After a brief introduction in which the Soldier is unable to shoot a hostile combatant, you enter into this dream world as The Man, slowly moving across the landscape and using your trusty assault rifle to shoot the world into clarity. In the process of working your way through this dream, you encounter various triggers and objects that send you deeper into the realm, in a very Inception sort of fashion, where subplots abound as you try and piece things together. At the same time, you also encounter all sorts of inanimate objects that wish to unburden themselves by sharing their truths with you, an action that will leave you contemplative, or at least bewildered, by things to ponder as a result.

Intentionally or otherwise, it’s an interesting choice that our characters are using guns – specifically military style guns – to bring this world into shape instead of destroying it. On the one hand, it speaks to the opposite nature of Baiyon’s thinking process, and poses the unique idea of a weapon being able to bring things into being as opposed to shattering them. On the other, it also seems reflexive of the overall mindset of the growing drive of people across the world to use violence and threats to create order, in lieu of letting it exist as “chaos.” Dreams of Another, depending on your vantage, can either be a surrealist approach to inventing a new way to “craft” in a growing gaming category, or it can be a terrifying indictment on people, specifically white men, unable to see the world clearly and demanding that things make sense through bullets and grenades.

It’s hard to capture a good action shot when a phantom ferris wheel is bearing down on you.

Having dropped that at your feet, the next few beats of the game may also feel different if you are playing as either a curious explorer or a violent conqueror. Dreams of Another does have a throughline where you find triggering elements hidden somewhere in the dreamy haze, and need to shoot them down to activate the next sequence and move onto whatever comes next. As I saw in the demo, one segment involves a manhole cover suddenly rolling around like mad, and you need to specifically target it to bring it to rest and find out what lies beneath. There’s unlimited traditional ammunition for your gun, but the grenades, which can clear large amounts of the screen at once, can only be gotten through The Wandering Soldier, who will trade your found trinkets for additional munitions and upgrades to your character.

The trinkets themselves are part of the charm of Dreams of Another.  You’ll find, over the course of the game, dozens of different objects that have been dropped, left or forgotten across the different dreamscapes. It was always a little bump of joy to find one, as they varied from obvious things (a brooch, a tree branch, a handkerchief), to oddly specific things (a 195mL pet bottle of green tea, a wine glass designed to appear used). It showed a level of detail in design that speaks to the creator’s own enigmatic concepts, and what would appear useful or useless to others, and what either of those terms mean. The Wandering Soldier always has something to say after you give him an object (or let him pick one out himself), so be sure to engage as often as possible.

He’s specifically talking about the ending of Avengers: Endgame.

Gameplay is very straightforward: shoot everything, talk to everything, move on. Unlimited ammunition means not needing to mince shots and just being able to unload as constantly as you want to hold down the trigger, pausing only to reload. The levels are crafted in a seemingly arbitrary fashion, as you bounce from dream to dream, taking in some information while leaving the rest behind. There’s a couple of throughlines that appear (the story of the mole, the piano) but their tales are given to you in a straightforward fashion. Instead, you’ll get a bit from one, poof into another dream, get another, and so on and so forth. The tales aren’t terribly complex, but you still might have moments of confusion when you spawn into a dream and try to remember who Mr. Cricket is and whether his name is important (answer: it is if you want it to be).

The moments of exploration and contemplation of Dreams of Another are interrupted by what I like to think of as boss fights, but they’re more just moments to remind you that you’re playing a game. These times, where you’ll need to shoot moving targets and specific areas, showcase the potential for gunplay and almost seem like a thumb to the nose for other games in the genre. Targeting and dispatching the rolling, flying and jumping “bosses” is well crafted, and gives both WASD and controller players a good sense of action, but there’s no real impetus behind the activity. No matter how long it takes or how you do it, it’ll get done with no penalty or reward for your timing. It’s truly a “I don’t care about this, but let me show you how well I can do it” moment that is honestly impressive.

Ah, the conversations you have with people you don’t know on the bus at five in the morning.

Additionally, as Baiyon has such a background in music design, the soundtrack for Dreams of Another is a magnificent beast unto itself. With incredibly dissonant tracks to evoke the oddity that is the subconscious, you always feel immersed in a dreamlike state, even as you flow from curious ambience to more jovial (if off-putting) circus beats. There are moments of tribal drums and beats that keep you hyper-focused, and then moments of tinny bells and soft electronic thrums that keep you cross-eyed, trying to figure out what will be happening next. I often look at soundtracks for what they inspire, be it writing or running or even gaming. Dreams of Another makes me want to paint, and I can’t paint a damn. But it evokes an artistic drive, calling to something that you might not even realize is there.

And, as promised, the game is full of introspective moments where the player can simply sit with the information. While I do argue you talk to a lower variety of objects than I’d like (a lot more conversations with trees), the points raised and the open-ended nature of the engagements are salient. Ideas about aging and your beauty/usefulness, the effects of being alone versus choosing to be alone, the weight of “things” and how they influence the lives of others are all magnificent to ponder. It’s a fantastic approach to giving contemplative ideas for the player without the obligation to reflect or ponder them in any given amount of time. Unlike some games where the philosophy is the point, Dreams of Another leaves it up to you how much or how little these moments impact you. 

This list of picked up objects is my favorite list in a game, possibly ever.

The only thing I didn’t enjoy was the erratic nature of the game. Perhaps in an effort to emulate the dreamlike nature of it all, there are moments where the transition between scenes will simply throw you back to the main menu, giving you a choice to continue or not. It felt like Dreams of Another was purposely telling me to take a break, or was trying to capture those moments where you abruptly awaken, desperately clinging to the final moments of your subconscious theater. While certainly creative, it disrupted the flow of the game itself, and, instead of amplifying the sensation of what it means to dream, it made me think my computer was failing to render properly, or the game was crashing. As I played it on PC, perhaps that’s the case, but it always happened between moments, never in the heat of gameplay, so it felt intentional.

Dreams of Another is a surreal sensation of mixing creation through destruction and conversation through solitude. You come away with things on your mind, and often forget what your intent was other than to simply “understand.” This has the panache and the flair of a title that will glitter brightly for those who pick it up, and could be enjoyed by people who aren’t traditionally gamers or into shooters specifically. The pacing moves well, the soundtrack is phenomenal, and the dreamlike graphics make it feasible even on older PCs, should you not have a PlayStation 5. If you’re looking for a walking simulator where you can do more than just putz around, this is an incredible choice, and I hope Baiyon is proud of this stellar creation.

Dreams of Another is available now on PlayStation 5, PSVR2, and PC.

Reviewed on PC.

A copy of Dreams of Another was provided by the publisher.