The Dream Machine Review

The Dream Machine is the very definition of a passion project. This six part point-and-click adventure started its life in 2012 as a surreal story that took influence from the likes of Inception and Vanilla Sky, but with an interesting visual twist: it was entirely handmade and animated (à la early stop motion films). However, it then found itself in a protracted five year development cycle due to the sheer amount of work required to create and animate environments, objects, and characters for each chapter.

- Andrew Wowk

To Cockroack Inc.’s credit though, they never let the game sink into the dreaded “development hell” hole, and the final chapter released earlier this year, wrapping up the narrative and making The Dream Machine a complete title that ends up feeling more like Silent Hill and The Shining by its conclusion.

But was it all worth it? Sort of. Like many passion projects, the game was created out of a desire to do something different. For The Dream Machine, that “something different” was the aforementioned entirely handcrafted and animated visual style. It’s not overstating things saying that this game is absolutely stunning, even in its darkest, most twisted moments. The ridiculous level of craftsmanship throughout is truly impressive. Environments that range from the mundane to the bizarre are highly detailed, characters are animated incredibly fluidly, and overall Cockroach Inc. have avoided that “cheap” look that a lot of stop motion media suffers from. The Dream Machine really benefits from its visual style, which adds a human element to contrast the utterly bonkers places the story ends up going and the game’s shift in tone from surreal-but measured to downright uneasy.