Doctor Dreams Simulator Review (PC)

“I have a cream for that,” I whispered, half expecting the entire pharmaceutical waiting room to burst into irreparable rage. “I just don’t think that it’s fully safe, let alone legal.” Without hesitation, I slid an antidote across the counter, hoping that the patient would take it and bolt. But they didn’t. Instead, they asked me to delve a little deeper into their psychological problems, not with an hour-long dose of therapy, but with an actual piece of revolutionary equipment that would allow me to jump into their heads and run a full diagnostic exam on their condition. I didn’t want to. But, given that I was, in spite of all my best efforts to avoid the title, Doctor Dreams, I was hardly in a position to turn them down, either.

It wasn’t the act of examining the patients that made the job difficult; it was the fact that most of them were unable to settle for a small pot of medicine without asking for a second opinion. It was during times like those—in the aftermath of a quick diagnosis, usually—that I’d have to elevate my game and take things one step further. I’d enter dreams, and I’d tackle whatever issues that would miraculously emerge from their deepest, darkest nightmares, even if it meant altering my position as a doctor and onboarding a completely different genre. That, as well as the process of creating questionable elixirs, conquering the black market, and thwarting a rival clinic’s efforts to monopolize the GP system, were enough to send me around the bend. It was a darn good thing that I was a doctor, then.

Trust Me, I’m a Doctor

With hindsight, I guess I enjoyed it — the general hustle and bustle of the trade and all of its medicinal mishaps. Sure, it was a little messy, and I probably wound up accidentally killing more patients than resolving their problems. But that was a small price to pay, weirdly, for the job itself was a lot of fun, despite it being littered with countless ever-shifting duties and secondary responsibilities that stretched way beyond the usual line of questioning.

I can’t bring myself to say that Doctor Dreams Simulator is a belt-and-braces medical simulator. I can’t say that, mainly due to the fact that it isn’t a member of just the one genre. Oh, in this game, you have an enormous array of moving pieces, including sections that require you to battle monolithic bosses, stealthily sneak into restricted areas, hop along odd platforms in a 2D-like fashion, and even create toxins that can, if you allow it, sell on the black market for a bit of extra pocket change. And that’s barely breaking the iceberg, weirdly.

Doctor Dreams Simulator is, first and foremost, a first-person doctor sim. But I suppose that’s about ten percent of what it is; the remaining ninety percent is spread across a multitude of other areas, making it an unruly concoction with one too many ingredients. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily, no. But there’s a lot to digest here, and that’s precisely why we probably need a dose of therapy ourselves after reviewing it. Again, not a bad thing, though a spot of cream isn’t enough to wax these mental scars.

Dream Big

The good news here is that, unlike most modern sims, every shift is different in Doctor Dreams Simulator. With five chapters to shovel through, you have the opportunity to pepper your time over a series of tasks, including analyzing patients, creating remedies, working with the black market, upgrading your clinic with better cosmetics and equipment, and of course, descending into lucid dreams to help decipher the symptoms of your patients’ illnesses. And to echo, there is a lot for you to work with here. But that isn’t a deal breaker; if anything, it makes the price of entry all the more attractive. Who doesn’t love content?

When all’s said and done, I suppose I’m glad that Doctor Dreams isn’t just a run-of-the-mill business sim that come with the usual trappings of a dull and annoyingly repetitive chore core IP. Granted, it doesn’t get everything right, and a lot of the gameplay can be a little sloppy. But if there’s one thing that it has that others simply cannot bear to fathom, it’s diversity. Suffice it to say that it’s a strange game with a tremendous amount of weight on its shoulders. And yet, even in thick of it, it just works. And that goes a heck of a long way, all things considered.

Doctor Dreams is a comedy, if anything, and frankly, that more or less becomes apparent right from the moment you embark on your journey, thanks to the cartoon-ish visuals and nonsensical practices that you summon. But again, it works. And what’s more, it plays surprisingly well, with little to no major bugs there to sully the experience. Is it perfect? No. But it’s thoroughly entertaining — and that’s what I’m taking to the bank.

Verdict

Doctor Dreams Simulator isn’t the remedial therapy that you need, but it is, however, a well-balanced elixir of lunacy that will keep you laughing for hours while you constantly try to replenish your moral compass. I’m not saying that it’s a perfect game, or even that it’s more than capable of holding a candle against a good opponent, but I have to give credit where it’s due and say, for the amount of content that it stuffs into its cauldron, it’s definitely worth checking out. Also, given that it’s currently in its teething phase, it means that there’s still plenty more room for improvement here, too, which is always a welcome change.

Of course, if you’re desperately searching for a weird yet highly entertaining medical sim that has the ability to keep you hooked for a few hours or so, then it’s highly likely that you’ll enjoy donning the gloves and thermometer in Doctor Dreams Simulator. If you’re after something with more of an authentic feel, however, then you might want to take your chances with another GP.