Dream Chronicles

2nd Runner-Up Best Puzzle Game of 2007 Welcome to the Dream Chronicles, where the lines between reality and fantasy fade away. Follow subtle clues to help Faye find her missing husband and escape from the mysterious sleeping spell that has taken over the town of Wish! Stay sharp and focused and you just may unravel this intriguing, dreamy mystery!

Surreal clues and puzzles come alive!

Full Review from Gamezebo

       Frequently, descriptions accompanying new games include a good dose of hyperbole, exaggerated promises and more. Phrases like "stunning artwork, enveloping music and prose worthy of the masters" are spun by marketing mavens you'd swear have never even seen the title they're hawking. On occasion, however, the "overstated" is actually true.
       That's the case with Dream Chronicles from KatGames and PlayFirst. In this instance, "gorgeous Art Nouveau artwork, mesmerizing music and a gripping storyline" accurately illustrate the experience that lies ahead.
       So, what is Dream Chronicles? It's best described as a casual cousin to epic, hard-core adventures like Myst and Uru. A mix of fantasy and reality, its hypnotic dreamland engages you in a larger-than-life quest, a mystery that needs to be solved one puzzle at a time as the story unfolds around you.
       Lilith, Fairy Queen of Dreams, has imprisoned the hamlet of Wish under a slumber spell affecting everyone but you, a mortal named Faye. Your task is to locate Fidget, your missing husband, banish the enchantment cast by Lilith and wake your daughter, Lyra, reuniting your family in the process. But, all you have to start with is a diary left by Fidget detailing his secret past and the path to be followed. Why did Lilith cast this spell? What happened to Fidget? What's transpired in years past? These are some of the questions you need to unravel.
       In traditional adventure form, your quest in Dream Chronicles is accomplished location by location. Each scene, 32 in all, incorporates one or more puzzles to be solved, with thorough investigation crucial to advancing. Some objects are quite easy to spot while others are more subtle and require greater scrutiny (important objects "glint" after a while to help in locating them). Doors, drawers, buttons, switches, wall hangings, toys, books, keys, crystals and other items of various shapes and sizes all come into play.
       Interaction is simple. Clicking items place them in your inventory at the bottom of the screen. Once there, you can use them on other objects and combine them to solve the various conundrums encountered. However, unlike most hard-core adventures, you never lug around any unnecessary inventory items here. All objects needed for a puzzle's solution are found and used in the same scene. Solve the poser at hand and you unlock the "door" to the next location.
       What kind of puzzlers can you expect to come across? A good mix, actually. Some require you to arrange objects in a specific order or follow a particular sequence, others involve combining items to achieve a goal and many entail using one object "on" another to effect a change of some sort. Let's consider a few examples.
       In one scene, you need to locate several photos scattered about a room and hang them back on the wall. Once each is hung, a musical tune is played. In traditional Simon fashion, you must reproduce each tune on a piano, note-for-note in the correct order, to solve the puzzle. In a different location, you need water to wash dirt off a key you unearthed before it can be used to open a door. This requires combining the objects necessary to retrieve a pail of water from a well. In still another instance, you must converse with a carnivorous plant and convince it to let you pass so you can continue your adventure.
       You have another task to perform, as well. Besides solving each puzzle, you must also gather a collection of special Dream Pieces hidden in each scene. These sparkling gems, totaling 115, are automatically incorporated into Dream Jewels (settings) contained in your diary. While not required to complete the quest, they do add extra points towards your high score (and generate medals for registered PlayFirst players). For every Dream Piece collected, you earn 1,000 points. A built-in leaderboard lets you know how well you played compared to other adventurers locally (on your computer) and online.
       Dream Chronicles has all the necessary ingredients of an exceptional game, one that lives up to its marketing hype. Art Nouveau graphics are beautifully rendered, an ethereal soundtrack helps bring the world to life, its engaging narrative draws you into the story and diverse puzzles of varying difficulty keep play interesting and challenging.
       The only shortcomings in this grand adventure are the inability to revisit a previous location (in case you missed a Dream Piece or two) and a slightly too-brief encounter. The quest was so enjoyable I wish it would have lasted longer (it took just under four hours my first time through and two the second time). But, depending on your experience with adventure games, mileage will vary. Adding another scene or two, specifically with the conversation puzzle type, would have improved the overall experience and extended play. These deficiencies, however, are minor and don't preclude awarding a perfect score.
       In short, solving Dream Chronicles' mysteries is a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Place it at the top of your list of must-play games for 2007 and hope that a sequel will follow. For most casual gamers, it's a dream come true.

www.gamezebo.com

Game Review from Gamemile

       Dream Chronicles - A Puzzle Epic
       I even had a hard time while settling with the genre of this game. Though for the last year we've been witnessing the extreme popularity of hidden object games, this one seems to relate to a new genre that I would call Hidden Logics. This is the most bizzare game I've seen!
       Well, seriously, when you see the intro movie with all these supernatural elfin visuals and scenes, and read the mysterious story, you think you've run into some role-playing game. But as you play further, it becomes clear you're tackling an epic puzzle, hunting for the hidden objects and placing them where they belong just like in Mortimer Beckett and the Mystery of the Spooky Manor.
       The visuals and music of this game are state-of-art. And the puzzles you are to solve are of state-of-art difficulty.
       When you totally surrender to the magic spell of the visuals and music, you're introduced to the mysterious and eerie story of the game. First of all, in the magic world of Dream Chronicles you're to accept the role of mortal Faye who has a noble mission of fighting with dark spells and reuniting her family.
       Lilith, a Fairy of Dreams has taken your husband Fidget and cast a sleeping spell over him and your daughter Lyra.
       You will be guided by the voice of your husband throughout the game. He will show you the way out of any puzzle and tip you in many tricky situations.
       So, here's how the gameplay looks: you find yourself in a bizarre house, every corner and wall of which breathes with magic and sorcery. But unlike all other magic-based games sort of Abra Academy, and Magician's Handbook: The Cursed Vallley, this game has no sinister message. It is full of light and white magic like the good old tales about kind fairies and elves you were told as a child.
       So, you find yourself in a locked room of your own house. But... despite of the warm weather outside, the door of the room is covered with ice. So, the point here is to find a match and put it on the chimney to make a fire. Once you do that, the fire burning in the chimney will help you melt the ice on the door and it will open.
       So, this is how the game looks like: you're solving puzzles in many locations of your own house, by picking up mysterious objects and applying them correctly.
       This might seem like a simple hidden object game, where you are to hunt for the certain objects. But don't you underestimate the difficulty of Dream Chronicles: at times you will be uncertain of the things to search and do.
       This is why I would call Dream Chronicles the first casual game that appeals to player's intuition.
       If you are left somewhere without a clue, take your time and explore the location carefully. There's something you can do with the smallest objects(stones, jewels, keys)...
       In case you feel stuck, consult your husband's diary and look for the solution there.
       Anyway, Dream Chronicles grant much more freedom to the player's actions than other games. That's why those who got used to base their actions upon clear instructions, hints and lists of the objects to find will feel themselves at a loss at first time(and frankly so did I). But once you play far enough to feel yourself confident in this eerie world of fairies and spells, this game really grabs you. So try and see how far you can get in Dream Chronicles.

Game Review from Meryl

       Have you ever had a dream that crashed into reality? I have. I ran into my dad in the hallway while half asleep and it scared the bejeebies out of me. You can stay that I was wide awake after that. In the beautifully designed Dream Chronicles, the story begins with Lilith, the Fairy Queen of Dreams, casting a sleep spell over the entire kingdom.
       Yet, somehow Fidget wakes up his wife Faye. But is Faye dreaming or experiencing the adventure? Players assume the role of Faye who searches for Fidget and Lilith who kidnapped Fidget. Faye has two jobs: find all the dream jewels for the dream spells in Dream section of the book that guides you through the game. The book also contains a path, known as chapters, telling you where you need to go next. But before you can get there, solve the puzzles that block your way to the next scene.
       The book contains 18 chapters with each chapter, for the most part, representing a scene with a puzzle or puzzles. The hidden objects part of the game comes from finding the hidden jewels and items to use in solving the puzzle. At the end of the game, the number of dream jewels you find will determine your final score. It would've been cool if the player could cast a dream spell after finding all the jewels for a dream. But that could make the game more complicated.
       Press any key or mouse button twice to quickly skip through the jewel description, which appears upon picking up a jewel. After reading a few descriptions, I lost interest so clicking through helps loads. Clicking twice works for any content appearing on the screen for those impatient like me or don’t want to read the same content again.
       The puzzles vary through the game. Some hidden object games tend to repeat a puzzle style, but not Dream Chronicles giving the game a unique twist. As you solve a puzzle, you move to the next chapter and learn more about the story. When you arrive on a new scene, Fidget gives you hints to help you in your current quest. On occasion, something glimmers on the scene to lend a hand. I appreciate those glimmers since they don't give away much and provide just the right amount of help so I don't get frustrated with the game.
       Any time I want to take a break from the game, I left the game open. When clicking "Quit", the game tells you that you would restart the current level. The thing is that a level isn't clear to me. Is a chapter the same thing as a level? Semantics, but I don't want to lose my hard work.
       I figure out most of the puzzles, but a few don't make sense forcing me to rely on luck. I'd like to know the story behind those tricky puzzles that I couldn't solve. Though the game ending fell a little short of my expectations, the game weaves a nice story. Dream Chronicles should be a big hit especially for the casual games crowd with its assortment of puzzles, stunning scenes, storyline and low frustration factor.