Lucy Dreaming. Review and Gameplay

  Lucy Dreaming on Steam

Developer: Tall Story Games Ltd

Release date: October 18, 2022

Genre: Point and Click, Adventure Game, Comedy, Indie Game

Language: English audio, English and German subtitles

Before I comment on this game, I' d like to briefly introduce Tall Story Games. They're a British indie studio that has already released three short games before releasing a long game for the first time. The previous games were free and the creativity and talent of developer Tom Hardwidge was already evident: Hair of the Dog, set in Victorian England; Lockdown, a game about confinement in 2020, made during those days, which I particularly enjoyed as I played it in that hard time; and finally the third and oldest one, Where's my Cloak?, set in the Roman Baths, Bath. Although they're short and the graphics aren't impressive, the script and the puzzles are great, so I recommend you try them out if you're looking for a fast and fun game.

Their fourth game is out now, and the demo came out a year and a half back. This demo is a prequel to the story in this game. We already met Lucy, the main character, who is about 11 or 12 years old and has two huge pigtails (a fact to take into account when looking at things that are beyond her xD). There are still a minority of games with a female main character, so I love  this fact here. The girl is witty and smart, and as we learned in the demo, she has trouble sleeping soundly without nightmares. Now we embark on an adventure that takes us into various dream-like scenarios as we unravel the mystery that surrounds Lucy's family and her town. Thus, the puzzles must be solved in both worlds, each with a different inventory and sometimes even simultaneously. Because, as it turns out as the game progresses, what happens in Lucy's dreams and nightmares is a reflection of her real life, which makes for a lot of fun, but also makes the puzzles more difficult. 

What I like least about the game is the verb system, although it fits well with the retro graphics. The agility of right and left clicking is lost when you have to switch verbs, although fortunately there are only four: look at, pick up, talk to, and use. They can be selected with the cursor or the keyboard arrows, or with the controller, which is compatible in this game. With the keyboard, the fastest way is to use the keys: L, P, T and U. In this type of games with verbs, using one or the other can make the difference between solving the puzzle and getting stuck for hours, so you'll have to look for and use everything that is on each screen, which is not little. Indeed, the level of detail in this game can be overwhelming. Some scenarios are full of jokes and a ton of things to look at. Like this store, which looks like the paradise of any child (or adult) with a penchant for sweets:

Practically everything here is clickable, almost at pixel level, with a matching comment. There are also Easter Eggs in different scenarios, such as characters from other games, an album with "photos" of real people, etc. It's a game that you can play at your leisure and enjoy every detail and dialogue. In this sense, it's worth noting the brilliant work of Emma, the developer's wife, who voices Lucy with a comic vein that fits the character well and makes you forget the fact that it's a woman speaking a little girl, though her tone has been modified to sound more childish. Speaking of voices, it's worth mentioning that among the voice actors is none other than Dominic Armato, that is, the one who voices the famous Guybrush Threepwood from Monkey Island. However, you'll have to sharpen your hearing, because here he changes his tone.

Both the graphics and the humor are the strengths of this game. The humor is very British, of course, including jokes about Brexit and making tea (minor spoiler: Don't forget to empty the mug if you don't get it right the first time). The story also has its share of darkness, as Lucy's nightmares are related to the terrible secret whose discovery is the ultimate goal of the game.  

The puzzles are well integrated into the story. They are coherent and give the player enough hints to solve them without too much of a headache. In some cases, it can be a bit tedious to get in and out of the dreams, because you have to keep repeating certain actions that are the ritual for Lucy to fall asleep without any problems. 

The game can be beaten in about five hours and offers many more hours of fun if you take it easy or get stuck. You can activate hotspots, although not all the puzzles can be solved if you just know which objects are important. And if the game isn't enough for you, there are the badges you collect by completing side quests. Some things are complicated or take time, like beating geese, one of the mini-games along with the one about solving the famous colorful cube (here under a different name to skip copyright issue). Fortunately, there are hints in the Steam achievement list, because some would be impossible to achieve otherwise. 

In short, a highly recommended game that should not be missing from the collection of any point-and-click fan.

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