Dream? 3-2 Was A Nightmare! A Review Of Dream By Lordeldar

Dream is a game created by lordeldar

Dream? 3-2 Was a nightmare!

Hey, guys. It’s Ethan2009 back with my second review! Today, we’ll be taking a look at Lordeldar’s 2018 EGD entry, an arcade called dream! Lordeldar has been known for his quality games, and getting into the hall of fame for some of the most featured games on the entire site! Dream placed top 3, and has not yet been reviewed, so I’m taking the old badge out for a spin.

Analysis

The gameplay in dream was simple, but effective. Lordeldar used new ideas, mixed along with some of the older arcade concepts to keep the game fresh each and every level. Many of these concepts Lordeldar designed himself. Hazards were quite frequent throughout the levels, but there were also puzzles sprinkled in a few of the stages (which I’ll get onto later.) These hazards weren’t only baddies and spikes, but consisted of sequences with wall shooters, and much link-logic to add some connectivity to the game. Moving platforms were used in the greatest ways present in the arcade creator. Lordeldar dropped squinties on the platforms and bombs were planted in thin air, while the player had to maneuver past them to activate the link logic sequences. Not only did Lordeldar take advantage of the squinties ability to initiate caution, but the use of lasers added to the action, too.. Not only was the player to fight the normal enemies, but boss battle sequences were also in Dream. Lordeldar executed these boss fights very well, by limiting - or maybe even prohibiting - the use of all weapons, and the player had to think way outside of the box. For instance, on one of these battles, the spiked boss had to be killed by luring explosives, like the small baddie, to the center of the boss. This was a difficult task, but it definitely covered the creativity part of making games. Another facet of arcades is the maker’s competence to use link logic. I believe that many of the block-breaking tasks showcased Lordeldar’s efficient use of the link logic. So did Lordeldar use block sections in Dream, or did he create even better uses of the blocks? Both; Lordeldar not only used enemies to break the blocks into ruins, but distributed powerups among these ruins. Lordeldar also used link logic so that it was impossible to bypass the enemies used. However, The most fun part in my opinion was the cascade fields. They were interesting to predict, and the jumps were decently spaced so that the parkour’s difficulty didn’t fluctuate too much. The jumps weren’t unforgiving, either. You could get right back up, without falling into a pool of blazing lava. On top of this, EGD 12 was swarming with unlimited lives, and this was a never-before seen concept before this year’s epic game drop, and added a lot of extra thought to the game. This balanced the difficulty out quite a bit, and as long as you’re willing to spend some extra time to beat Dream, it can be done after some practice.

Scenery

Each level’s design subtly progressed the storyline, polishing up the overall feel of each stage. I think he did a fantastic job with adding a tone, theme, and mood to each level, but do I feel the same way about the scenery itself? There’s no short answer. Although I applaud Lordeldar on the futuristic them in the time-traveling tech world, it just feels a little bland. I believe that he should’ve kept the black background, but added props, and background decorations, like the computers and climables used very occasionally. The pinnacle of scenery in Dream was perhaps the cave world levels, and the boss fights in the tech world. Lordeldar balanced the scenery well with the amount of space, by spreading the different segments out. Many of the objects, such as the blocks also offered auxiliary support to the scenery. The mushrooms complimented the grass, the vines helped out with the texture packs in the cave world, and the climbables in the tech world matched with the background, and the cascade fields. I really enjoyed the levels that you could just tell Lordeldar put so much time into.

Placement

First off: block placement. One of the trickier parts in making arcade games is making decent difficulty cascade fields. Although this is true for every game, Lordeldar used a more basic approach, and the patterns weren’t completely unpredictable, which was good, and still took some practice, which was also good. Since we’re talking about block placement, why don’t I actually talk about blocks. Just like in Witch Chaos, on the Matt7772Lordeldar account, blocks were used in cool and creative ways. Link logic from slaying enemies would activate different events, thus leading to some blocks being destroyed, not even all of them. This really freshened up the gameplay, and showed a lot of potential for future arcade users. One other thing I liked about the way Lordeldar uses blocks in Dream was when enemies like the boss in forest world were used to break these down. You had to dodge projectiles in order for the wall to break down, and then you would move on to the next sequence. But anyways, the water was used quite well in this game. The gameplay in water wasn’t too slow and boring, nor too hard to swim past fast moving enemies. It was balanced out so that is was actually fun to play in. Now we’re on about moving platforms, possibly the best aspect of the ENTIRE GAME! This kind of mixes into enemy placement a little bit, but both the platforms and the squinties, lasers, and any other enemies on these blocks were amazingly done, at the arcade’s peak performance. You had to dodge mines (in the air) while hitting switches, and slaughtering squinties, while running back and forth while lasers fried you… sounds like pandemonium, right? Despite this, the blocks were placed well enough so that the player would not lose massive amounts of health too quickly.Vines, on the other hand,mixed in with the boss levels were a very nice addition, fixed onto the already-amazing boss fights. Just to point out one section, I appreciated the part where the forest world boss and baddie were on the ground, partly submerged in water, while you hopped on vines. Enemy and hazard placement:

The enemy and hazard placement in dream was nearly superb. The use of birds, bosses, helmuts, and pointies were only a few of the things that stood out to me. I enjoyed the creative way Lordeldar used the pointies to make the player take damage from hopping onto the jumpies, unless very careful, and the way helmuts could be used to not take damage from the pricklies on the ground. Birds were used in many great occasions, too. In one of Lordeldar’s other arcades, Epico Saves the World, Lordeldar also proved his skill with birds, but in Dream, brought it out even fuller than before. Other times, bosses were used to break down walls, or used as a kind of wall shooter, or even placed in water, and partial shots were lost in the shallows of liquids. This was a creative addition to an already creative game. Lasers were used very well, whether in water levels, or moving platform stages, you could always count on lasers to kill yo… erm, I mean to impress you, in dream. Lava was used well in parkours, and when a link logic switch was activated, the lava would rise from the ground. I really appreciated the work put into the spawners, too. You could have the water rise, or subside and bees would either drown, or deal some chip damage to you. This way, you could run back and forth, dodging a swarm of bees, and then killing them with the water. Enemies by the vines were a good idea, because you could dodge and shoot, and have some fun too. What I didn’t like was on level one stage five, how on the yellow platform, the boss shot you while you had low mobility, but the idea wasn’t too bad. However, the execution could have been a tiny bit better. The dysons were also a great part of dream. While you jumped to and from multiple platforms, they fired at you, and once dead left the bombs on the platform, so you had to take advantage of the extra bounce you got when jumping on an enemy’s head. When added alongside lasers, these dysons overachieved. I know I don’t have to explain every enemy, so let me wrap it up a little but the the gary, the default tech world enemy. Gary was used well to keep the player holding back a bit so the player did not get the “gary shock”. This could be used on moving platforms, as well as beneath vines for a good touch. I feel that lordeldar expanded on these ideas in his own ways, and had the Gary blossom in dream.

Pros:

Gameplay

Health

Infinite lives

Enemy placement

Creativity

Story

Water usage

Decent scenery

Parkour

Lasers

Bosses

Cons:

Can be tedious

Ratings:

Scenery: ****/5

Overall: ********.5/********** (8.5/10)

Some areas required too much practice.

Summary:

Many of the areas in dream were creative and fun, however, many places required a lot of practice, and felt drawn out. The bosses were some of the best arcade bosses on the sight, and required for the player to think in creative ways to rid of them, like drawing droids to them, or climbing vines, and dropping down to spam magic powers (I may have exaggerated a little bit on that last one). The story was one of the best parts, keeping the player spellbound and completely enthralled, and was way divergent from the normal spectrum of sploder stories, making this one even more entertaining than it normally would have been. The infinite lives were nearly vital to the game, and allowed the player casual practice, and as many tries as needed. The parkour was fun, and captivating because of all of the newer elements that it contained; like the lasers around it, and the enemies shooting at you and setting bombs off (yes, this website is child appropriate). The scenery was well-planned, and although could be bland, really shone.

Afterthoughts:

I felt that Dream was easily fit to win the arcade and algorithm crew category, and a very exemplary feature that set the standards for arcades to come. I also believe that Dream is good enough to undergo EGL voting, and possibly even incredible enough to make the EGL and stand there in the Sploder hall of glory. This is why Dream soars high above the expectations I set while playing this game, and I think that this accomplished more than any other game Lordeldar has ever made. I feel that this may have been one of the best arcades ever made because of a few main elements: the theme, the game’s support for the theme, and the mood set in this game; all three of those categories are ones that even the best game makers usually struggle with. However, Lordeldar did a great job with all three of these items, and this topped off a wonderful game, and brought the ultimate goal of any game: satisfaction and fun, and knowing it was worth you playing time. I hope you read and liked the review, and prepare for me to write many more reviews in the future, and I hope you have a wonderful day!