If there is a lesson it teaches us Dreams, a new video game from Media Molecule, is that few things in the world are comparable to creativity of users in the world of video games, capable of reaching incredible heights of originality and awareness in their works, in a very balanced mixture of ideas weighed with weight and applied where the developers could not (or wanted) to reach. Daring in the unexplored comes to produce new canons and unthinkable standards, with hands on hands that shape and refine those mods that in recent years we have learned to love and treat with a special eye, in conjunction with the explosion of the teeming universe of indies, capable of producing masterpieces capable of engulfing interest of the public, sometimes unexpectedly reaching the Olympus reserved for the greatest masterpieces of the videogame industry.
Dreams is above all this: a passionate praise to the creativity of the players, which is fed and elevated to the nth degree thanks to development tools that provide the tools - for those who have time, patience and a great desire to learn - to get to create your own personal video game; Dreams it is the digital transfiguration of what so many of us have always wanted, until as children we looked at the protagonists of our favorite digital adventures with wide open eyes and deep admiration and - pad in hand - dreamed of creating our story in adulthood, becoming an active part of that medium that had involved us so much and excited us beyond belief. Today we have the opportunity to partially realize the dream hidden in the heart of every video game enthusiast, becoming amateur creators thanks to the title of Media Molecule, entered in Early Access and currently available exclusively for PlayStation 4 on the Sony console store.
The exorbitant creative power it provides Dreams goes hand in hand with the need to fully learn the depth of the game editor, a task not left to chance and entrusted to the numerous tutorials that take the player by the hand and teach him the creative basics of game design according to Media Molecule. The same initial tutorial is of an out-of-scale artistic sensibility, capable of transmitting - in its simplicity - genuine emotions and introducing the revolution that will constitute Sogniverso, a place where you can explore the Dreams - or rather the creations - of other users, immersing themselves in a combination of small pearls to discover, appreciate, and from which perhaps to draw inspiration for future personal works. Unfortunately, the tutorials fail to explain every mechanic of the development tool and, once finished, it will be the concern of the player himself learn new concepts and techniques by self-taught, although the arrival of further video guides in the near future cannot be ruled out.
From the gaming hub we will have access to the two main modes of Dreams, which will allow us to browse the dreams developed by other users of go and create our very personal dream work ourselves. The number of creations in the PlayStation 4 title database is exciting and you can already admire the first interesting experiments and curious hazards: there are those who have recreated the Kokiri Forest of the famous Ocarina of Time, those who have re-proposed a version of the first level of Super Mario Bros., who even revisited Cuphead by creating a nice level in which you can fight some standard enemies and collect coins. Nothing deep or complete in any aspect, yet certain works give proof of what the powerful game editor can churn out, assisted by the incessant work of creatives. There is also no shortage of completely original Dreams ranging from Platform to FPS, with a splash of RPG in the middle.
The amazing thing about Dreams is that a lot of work creates a database of mammoth proportions and countless possibilities: a key feature is that the game allows you to take both hands from common material, perhaps going to import the model of a particularly elaborate character within his creations, exponentially speeding up production times and providing the possibility of tapping into a rapidly growing number of assets.
Such a powerful editor obviously has to compromise with what the Dualshock 4, going to take advantage of all the keys available, providing combinations not always very comfortable (don't worry, you will not have to remember them by heart, passing over an object with the cursor a handy list will appear with the various actions that can be performed and the appropriate combinations): above all, the use of the gyroscope to move our "pointer" on the screen is a bit artificial and, at least in the early stages, not exactly exceptional. The use of PlayStation Move instead returns a completely different feedback, with the controllers that seem made for Dreams: PlayStation VR support will arrive in the future with the full version, but we are confident that the combination of Move and VR will be able to give satisfactions by helping to give further depth to the title.
The possibilities offered by Dreams are numerous and potentially infinite are the results and surprises that the new work of Media Molecule could reserve. After LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway, the English development studio seems to have hit the mark again, notwithstanding the future success of Dreams depends on support and community, which in any case seems to have given important signals by venturing into ambitious projects that have left us pleasantly impressed. A story mode will also be added to the final title, which tickles our curiosity but is not present in this Early Access.
Announced in the now distant E3 2015, Dreams has finally reached its Early Access version, a prelude to the future complete product. During all these years of development, Media Molecule has prepared a precious envelope that will have to be filled by users, called to give vent to their creativity in a development editor as simple in its basic functions as it is complete - and balanced complex - for those who want to delve into mostly in the maze of Dreams game design. In short, keep an eye on the Sogniverso, because in the coming months we will see some good ones.
► Dreams is a Sandbox type game developed by Media Molecule and published by Sony for the PlayStation 4, the video game was released on 14/02/2020
Dreams is a beautiful game that cannot be missing from your collection: we have decided to evaluate it with a 90%, if you are interested in learning more you can read the Dreams Review
