Trapped in a Dream With Two Steps Back

 Trapped in a Dream With Two Steps Back

by Marcus Estrada

Everyone has dreams. Whether you remember them or not, your unconscious mind weaves together moments of the day, your most recent hopes and fears, and creates stunningly odd stories that fade as you awaken. But what if they didn’t disappear – if you didn’t wake at all? Two Steps Back places its characters in exactly that situation. Therese, an adult-looking woman, and Eldin, a young boy, have somehow found themselves stuck together in a dream. What are the implications of it and why can’t they leave? That’s for the player to discover as they play through the unique visual novel.

In case you’ve not heard of this genre before, visual novels are typically games in which the player’s primary objective is to read, read, and read some more. It might be worth thinking of them as livelier than a standard paperback novel. In Two Steps Back, players are introduced to both characters as they interact with each other. As you read their dialogue, even the character portraits animate and move to show their current emotional state. Backdrops themselves are very sketchy and in dark colors, but this feels very intentional. Such backgrounds further emphasize the feeling that the characters are in a very unnatural, unreal situation.

Because the story is so integral to Two Steps Back, I cannot say much about it. However, the basics of the situation are that both Therese and Eldin are stuck together inside a mansion. They hope to find some way – any way – to wake up. Consider how real life dreams come to an end and you may get a feel for how they try to resolve their predicament. In any case, although the building itself may not be threatening, the prospect of living out their lives within a dream is completely frightening. After all, what might be happening to their real life bodies if they cannot ever wake up again?

Even after being very familiar with a variety of visual novels I found Two Steps Back to have a very intriguing style of exposition. Repetition, confusion, and all that you would expect in the situation are played out perfectly. It was also hard not to become attached to both protagonists as they seem so immediately likable. You root for them and hope for the best, even if the best seems a slim chance. Considering this is a one-person endeavor, it’s also impressive to see that typos and grammatical issues are rare. So many indie visual novels fall prey to simply ignoring spellcheck.

For all these pluses, I do wish the game were longer. I wanted to get to know Eldin and Therese even more than what was shared. It would have been exciting to see them solve even more problems as a team. Maybe that’s due to being spoiled by longer visual novels, but it just seemed there was so much more lurking under the surface that went unsaid. It was also a tad confusing to find parts one and two divided from the main menu. It would have made a bit more sense to have one immediately start playing after the other, but this might not be possible with the Ren’Py game engine.

All in all, Two Steps Back is an exciting visual novel debut. The quality is quite high for something designed by a single person. Honestly, you rarely even see games in the genre that take the time to provide animated sprites! The unique, frightening storyline stands out against its colleagues as well. If this review got you interested then definitely seek out Two Steps Back for yourself and unravel its mysteries. Just make sure you vote for the game on Greenlight if you wish to see it on Steam!

[facebook][tweet][Google][pinterest][follow id=”Cliqist” size=”large” count=”true” ] [author image=”http://cliqist.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/marcus.jpg” ] Marcus is a fellow with a love for video games, horror, and Japanese food. When he’s not writing about games for a multitude of sites, he’s usually still playing one. One day when he became fed up with the way sites would ignore niche titles he decided to start his own site by the name of Pixel Pacas. Writing about video games is something he hopes to continue doing for many years to come. Some of Marcus’s favorite games include Silent Hill 2, Killer7, and The Sims. [/author]