There’s an old saying that what you think about during the day will become what you dream about at night. At least this was Freud’s line of thinking. The psychoanalyst’s theories may be largely discredited today, but what if he was on to something? The Dreamcatcher aims to answer that question.
Developed by Shanghai-based studio, Huanlin Games, The Dreamcatcher is a creepy, story-driven psychological thriller that explores the interplay between dreams, desire, and reality.
The game tells a personal story, putting you in the role of a young man who’s recently graduated college. Now you live independently and have begun taking your first steps into the adult world. But after waking from a strange dream, it seems that things in your waking life are not what they once were. The boundaries between dreams and reality melt away as your subconscious rebels against you.
You must travel from dream to dream in search of a way to put a stop to this — and if Freud’s assertion that “The dream is the fulfillment of a wish” is true, find out what it is our protagonist wishes for.
Watch Your Dreams Become Nightmares
The Dreamcatcher is a first-person walking simulator where much of the gameplay revolves around exploring your dreams’ many strikingly atmospheric environments. Some are serene natural landscapes, while others are cold, dark, and industrial. You can check out some of these gorgeous environments in the trailer below. The trailer’s creeping tension hints towards some of the darker elements Huanlin tells us we can expect from the story.
The game will have touches of horror, made all the more obvious by the sinister notes you find throughout the world. We can also expect some light puzzle elements and obstacles within the dreams that you’ll need to find solutions for when you wake in order to progress.
A beautiful, mysterious adventure, The Dreamcatcher is intended to make us reflect on ourselves and our subconscious desires. There’s not a ton of information about the intricacies of the game yet, but it’s clear that it will deal with themes of past trauma and long lost desires.
The Dreamcatcher is coming soon (although no concrete date is given yet) to PC. Take a look at the Steam page to find out more about the game.
