Dream Cycle

An exhilarating, fluid, incredibly broken mage-'em-up set in tortured procedural worlds.

Dream Cycle is doing a lot. And it does a lot of it well. But the parts that fall flat, bouncing off the strangeness of the game's own design, make it hard to recommend.

When I previewed Dream Cycle nearly a year ago, I connected with the game’s premise and still-in-development combat mechanics and movement. Those promising elements remain, but in the full game, they’re obscured by some technical issues and the need for a lot more polish and refinement. A third-person, Lovecraft-inspired action game is a great idea. Dream Cycle comes close to making it happen. It’s not quite a nightmare, but not the sweet dream I hoped it would be.

Ultimately, Dream Cycle is an interesting and creative take on Lovecraft's world and one that should have been so much better. While it's hard to recommend Dream Cycle in its current state, some may feel that these issues are miniscule compared to what the game is trying to do and that's enough reason to give it a go.

An expansive dream world with lots of mechanics, but little control over them.

Dream Cycle is a diamond in the rough with big ambitions, but so far it has unfortunately fallen short in several ways. The unpolished combat system, bugs, flimsy controls, and over-lit and repetitive scenes, for example, are the game's biggest hurdles at this stage. The title is still in early access, so the developers can listen carefully to the community's comments and create a unique game thanks to them.