preface
Dim, depressing gameplay scenes, nerve-wracking soundtracks, and some gameplay demos, "Long Dreams in the Dark Night" was first announced at the Sony China Star Spring Conference in 2019 and attracted the attention of many players. As a member of Sony's "China Star" program, because of the "Shadow Torch City" in front, I naturally have a strong interest in this game work, and now after three years, "Dark Night Long Dream" is finally officially released to meet with players, so has it lived up to our expectations?
A dark fairy tale
"Long Dream of The Dark Night" tells a very depressing story, in childhood encountered family changes and school bullying, making the protagonist's inner world closed, the game's early trailer to see a variety of "cow ghosts and snake gods" and strange game scenes, are from the protagonist's inner world of the true portrayal. All the player has to do is control the protagonist to navigate through these scenes, solve puzzles or defeat the "monsters" in the heart, explore the secrets of the inner world and help him complete self-redemption.
The game divides the scene into several levels according to the experience of the protagonist. Cluttered study rooms, dimly lit classrooms, gloomy streets, and abominable-looking monsters all show the player the trauma of the protagonist's inner world. Based on this setting, not only did it give the production team enough space to play, showing the imagination and creativity of the imagination, but these dark, distorted and absurd and strange settings left a very deep impression on people, creating a dark fairy tale for the player.
The "three-plate axe" in the game
In this fragmented inner world, there are always only three things players need to do: explore, solve puzzles, and hide and seek. The game has a very clear main plot, but there are many important information and elements hidden in all corners of the map, and can even influence the direction of the game's final ending.
Many important props and plots will be narrated in a "memorable" way, but this part of the plot interpretation is only accompanied by a small number of text descriptions. Although it does not affect the player's understanding of the plot, it is not too deep, and the notes and letters hidden in the map levels just make up for this.
Each map level is placed with a large amount of text information, which requires players to explore and discover throughout the entire game flow, and restore and sort out the whole picture of the whole event little by little through the obtained notes and text descriptions in the letters. This leads to one of the most central gameplay in the game, manipulating the "Dream Elves" around you to discover items, elements, and hidden paths hidden in the map levels.
Dream elves' abilities are divided into two types, the yellow one can find some hidden objects and explore the general location of the "monster", which plays a role in early warning to help players evade the monster pursuit. After switching to use the Blue Dream Genie, the player can see hidden footprints, props, and find hidden rooms within a fixed range.
Interestingly, Long Dreams of the Night also designed "energy values" for this purpose, and whichever form of dream elf used would be at the expense of energy consumption. When the dream elf's form energy value is exhausted, the player will not be able to use the dream elf to explore the surrounding area, and will need to replenish the dream elf's energy. As the game progresses, players will rely more and more on dream elves, and will also improve or tap more abilities and gameplay of dream elves in subsequent levels.
In order to control the rhythm of the game and keep the game fresh, in addition to the exploration elements in the game scene, each map level has also been added to the "hide and seek" link, that is, the chase between the player and the monster. In a fixed scene, players will encounter various monster NPCs, and they need to rely on the field factor to get rid of the monster pursuit. However, after getting used to this game, the tension and fear at first sight disappeared, and the use of the "dream light ball" in his hand and the terrain advantage even became a one-sided play.
However, there is a point to complain about, the game itself scene is relatively dim, and during the chase, the effect of blurring and shaking is added, which does highlight the atmosphere of horror and tension, but it is also very easy to produce discomfort in the case of staring at the screen.
In addition, there are several scenes in the game that are tough on the boss, combined with the props in the scene to give monster damage. It only takes one or two familiarizations to master the rhythm and boss action rules correctly to make it easy to pass the level, which is almost no difficulty for players who are already familiar with "peek-a-boo" in the early stage.
In terms of overall game content, although exploration and "peek-a-boo" are counted as the core gameplay, they are not as important as the puzzle solving links in the game. The difficulty of the puzzle part is not too high, it is more friendly to novices, many puzzle elements are very classic design, and there are hints near the scene, as long as the player watches carefully, it is not difficult to find. This has a lot of requirements for the player's ability to observe, understand and logical thinking, and of course, there is a great sense of satisfaction after each puzzle solving. There are many puzzle elements on each map, which roughly occupy half of the content, which is a good flavoring agent and can help players alleviate their depressed mood.
epilogue
Long Dreams of the Night takes players into a dark fairy tale, where the rich puzzle solving and exploration collection elements make the entire game flow full of fun. Solid gameplay and excellent puzzle design are impressive, and fragmented storytelling evokes player curiosity. Overall, the amount of game content is quite rich, but the design of "peek-a-boo" and combat links is somewhat difficult to describe. In the same type of game, "Long Dreams of the Dark Night", although it is not top-notch, it is not crotch-pulling, and it is still worth a try for players who like puzzle games.