Bad Dream: Afterlife Review (PC)

“You can keep the whole city to yourself, but you are not welcome among us.” That was it. That, right there, was when I felt the sudden urge to ask a serious question: Why? Why wasn’t I wanted? What did I do take make the world turn against me? More importantly, was there something I could have done differently to alter the course of their rather drastic action to exile me? I had all of these questions floating around in my mind, volleying back and forth like an automated tennis ball. The only thing I needed, other than a lecture on the importance of being alone in a shallow-minded society, was a breadcrumb—a small fragment of information that would usher me toward the solution. Who was I, and what on earth was I put on the planet to do?

Bad Dream: Afterlife asks plenty of questions, but doesn’t take the initiative to fill in the blanks and help you come to terms with your rather depressing predicament. Rather, the point-and-click game leaves you to fend for yourself, not with a guardian angel to hold your hand as you gradually connect the dots and establish an identity, but with a depressingly vacant world that, for some reason that’s unknown to you, actively bends over backwards to avoid you. There are creatures that run amok, and there are several elderly citizens who have concluded that a world with you in it isn’t half bad — provided that they don’t have to come into contact with you, that is. But other than that, the world is vague, and you have little idea of how it bends and weans.

When You Fall Asleep Tonight

As you can probably guess, the story here is simple: an unlikely protagonist slips into a dream world only to discover that the population has fled, and that the only explanation for their disappearance lies within a collection of scribbles and blunt messages around its world. The etchings, true to their conspirator’s word, state that you are not welcome amongst them, and that the world is yours for the taking, provided that it’s yours and yours alone. With that, you begin your phishing expedition into the oddities that orbit the sketchbook world and its highly interactive biomes.

Bad Dream: Afterlife invites you to step foot into a seemingly barren realm where peculiar happenings circulate and an all-important question hovers over your shoulders. In a true point-and-click fashion, you have the opportunity to flick through rooms, streets, and crucial landmarks, and gather items and other useful pieces of information that connect with the world’s underlying issues and puzzles. Like a point-and-click mystery game — but with sepia undertones and a sketchbook aesthetic. That’s about the brunt of it, at least.

Forever Counting Sheep

At the heart of Bad Dream: Afterlife is a decent tale that, at least through a conduit of puzzles and logical reasoning, manages to keep you invested for all the while you prowl its scribbled pages and interact with its scattered fragments. It raises a lot of questions, and it also touches base on several provoking issues, but it also manages to envelope such issues in a way that feels both welcoming and intriguing all the same. With its subtle yet somewhat palatable subtext and inclusion of some rather daunting concepts, Bad Dream does actually manage to capture something of a solid raft with the materials it fosters.

While the gameplay itself is by the book as far as point-and-click mystery games go, Bad Dream does, in fact, bring some original components to the table—a fitting score from Desert Fox, being one of the most standout of the bunch. The game also features a quality art style that, while still minimalistic in some respects and lacking in intricate detail and what have you, harkens back to Curse of the Obra Dinn, with its sepia tones and pencil-centric sketches laying the general foundation for its surprisingly elegant style and all-round composition.

With all of the above in tow, Bad Dream steps forth to deliver a short yet intriguing tale about isolation, loneliness, and redemption. Again, it doesn’t bring anything particularly special to the point-and-click sphere, though it does make a solid attempt to ignite your curiosity and keep you dangling on tenterhooks with some clever puzzles and a few great encounters with its sketchbook world. It isn’t perfect, though, to give credit where credit is due, it is a sight for sore eyes that ought to be warrant fresh eyes.

Verdict

Bad Dreams: Afterlife generates a captivating story that, although still graphically minimal and lacking in detail, makes a commendable effort to fill its slate with numerous interactive elements, puzzles, and compelling tidbits that make you question your whereabouts and motivations, your purpose in its dreamscape and the reason for your sole existence. It’s still a short game that leave a fair amount to be desired, and it does fall short in its ability to give you clear direction on how to progress deeper into its void, too. But then, these are minor nitpicking issues that don’t necessarily overshadow the core strengths that Bad Dreams: Afterlife brings to the table.

To cut to the chase, Bad Dreams: Afterlife boasts a well-rounded point-and-click experience that has just as many intriguing components as it does interactive storytelling elements. Again, it’s rather short, and it doesn’t do much to keep you wanting to come back to experience more of its tale once the final nail in the coffin has been hammered in. That said, Bad Dreams: Afterlife does a lot of things right, and it makes for a fantastic addition to its chosen genre, despite having the one or two minor flaws harbored in its design. Small things, mind you.

If you enjoy point-and-click mystery games that make an active effort to fill their corridors with cryptic messages and vague questions, contextless puzzles and open-ended exploration, then you will no doubt find enough of a good reason to doze off to Bad Dream: Afterlife for a handful of hours. In spite of all its weaknesses, it’s a clean, engaging, and surprisingly compelling experience that deserves the recognition of its target demographic.