Developer: Morning Shift Studios
Publisher: Morning Shift Studios
Platform: PC, Switch
Tested on: Switch
Lost Dream: Darkness – Review
Throughout the years games have been appealing to a lot of people that aren’t interested in violence or fast-paced action. A lot of players nowadays want a cozy and relaxing experience while they sit under a warm blanket and drink chocolate milk. A lot of indie developers have offered these cozy games and developed gems like Abzu or Spiritfarer. While there are a lot of great games that try to provide you with this relaxing feeling, there is also a lot of trash. Trash like Lost Dream: Darkness for example.
Story
While a lot of walking simulators, something Lost Dream: Darkness definitely is, thrive on telling an intriguing and emotional story, it is as good as absent in this game. You take on the role of a fox, that for some reason has blue lines all over its body, and you run through a forest that gets lighter. That’s it. No extra context is given around the experience aside from a few times that text appears on the screen saying things like “It’s been raining for a long time” or “It can’t be far now”.
There are only two options to explain this story. The first is that the developers tried to deliver a thought-provoking experience about loneliness and escaping from the dark. If this was the developer’s intent then they failed miserably, as there is nothing to think about. The only thought that crossed our mind was: “Why did we waste twenty minutes of our lives on this?” The second option is that the game is a cash grab, aimed at fooling people who are looking for a cheap game to spend a relaxing afternoon with.
Graphics
The game looks ugly, there is nothing more to say about it. The only location the game takes place in is a forest. There is nothing to see there aside from the same rock, bush, and tree copy-pasted all over the place. The only difference between the sections of the game is that each part looks a bit less dark, and water is visible in the last location. The only part of the game that looks a bit decent is the fox itself, the blue lines giving it a bit of a unique touch.
Sound
Lost Dream: Darkness features a total of two sounds: the chirping of birds and the falling of rain. The rain sound is only featured in the early parts of the game and makes place for the birds when the forest gets a bit lighter. While the rain is a basic stock sound, the chirping of the birds is of surprisingly good quality considering the rest of the game. It might be one of the best parts of the experience.
A total lack of music is a bit of a sad thing. While the game definitely doesn’t need an upbeat energetic soundtrack, it would have been nice to have a relaxing song to dampen the boringness of the experience. This would have fitted nicely towards the end of the game when it tries to deliver a warm and happy ending.
Gameplay
Lost Dream: Darkness is best described as a walking simulator since that’s the only thing you can do in the game. Well, that isn’t entirely true, the game features two other buttons you can use. The first is a jump button that you will use a total of three times at the beginning of the game, which is then never used again. You only have to use it three times in theory, but the reaction time is so awful you’ll probably have to try the jumps a few times before officially saying goodbye to the mechanic. The second button is an attack button, and when you use this, the fox jumps ahead with its claws or teeth to strike an enemy. The only problem is that there are no enemies or obstacles in the game, rendering the button useless. There is not a single point in the experience where you have to attack, aside from using it to break up the monotonous walking.
Now that we’ve established that the only thing you do is walk, you might ask yourself if there is a clear objective to run to, and there is. You’ll traverse through all locations in a fairly straight line and then at a certain point the screen goes black and you continue running in a less dark part of the forest that looks pretty much the same. Later on, the locations get a bit wider but there is no reason to stray from the path because there is nothing to explore. We feel as if this was a tech demo from a novice developer, which would make sense as this title is only twenty minutes long.
Conclusion
Lost Dream: Darkness is a game that has no reason to exist. It is a bland walking simulator that offers no story, looks horrible, and has no retributing features. It is a shameless cash grab that should be avoided. People who are looking for a quick, cheap, or relaxing experience have dozens of better options elsewhere.
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