Dream Cycle

About

Dream Cycle is a single player action adventure game. It was developed by Cathuria Games and was released on August 9, 2022. It received neutral reviews from critics and mostly positive reviews from players.

"Dream Cycle" is a first-person action-adventure game set in the mystical world of Cathuria. As a skilled dreamer, you'll journey through surreal landscapes, solving puzzles, battling supernatural foes, and uncovering lost secrets. With a focus on exploration and discovery, this game delivers a rich and immersive experience in a beautifully realized dreamworld.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

62%

Audience ScoreBased on 364 reviews

story30 positive mentions

stability14 negative mentions

The game features a unique and intriguing story set in Lovecraft's Dreamlands, with interesting gameplay mechanics that allow for dynamic exploration and combat.
The customization options for perks, weapons, and abilities are varied, providing players with a sense of agency in how they approach challenges.
The art style and atmosphere are visually appealing, creating an immersive experience with original and strange landscapes.

The game is plagued by numerous bugs, including NPCs getting stuck, objectives not being marked, and issues with procedural generation leading to unplayable levels.
Gameplay can become repetitive and lacks clear goals, making the experience feel grindy and frustrating over time.
The story feels incomplete and lacks a sense of progression, with many players expressing disappointment in the overall narrative and character development.

story
206 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15%
82%
3%
The story in the game has been criticized for its lack of depth and coherence, with many players noting that it feels incomplete and disjointed. While there are intriguing elements and potential within the narrative, the execution is often described as repetitive and lacking meaningful progression, culminating in a brief and unsatisfying conclusion. Overall, players express disappointment in the storytelling, hoping for future updates to enhance the narrative experience.
- “The concept and story are truly intriguing, and the mechanics presented are parts of a whole that could be fun.”
- “A huge amount of procedurally generated levels to enjoy, awesome freeform exploration and movement mechanics, loads of different weapons and spells and (for me at least) most importantly tons of lore and the excellent opening chapters of what will hopefully grow into a great story.”
- “Dream cycle offers a very unique story, and a different experience.”
- “No real story, information or feeling of progression during the whole game and the end is just a 2-minute dialogue which ends abruptly!”
- “You are given a premise for a story in the beginning and the next time anything of significance happens is at the end, which is also disappointing and lame.”
- “The story is barely there, I'm not really even sure what I'm supposed to be doing.”
gameplay
120 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
30%
62%
8%
The gameplay is characterized by a dynamic yet repetitive core loop, where players engage in a cycle of exploring procedurally generated maps to complete similar objectives. While the mechanics and movement options are praised for their potential and fluidity, many reviewers note that the lack of variety and clear goals can lead to a dull experience over extended playtime. Overall, the game shows promise with its engaging concepts and mechanics, but it requires further refinement to enhance the overall experience.
- “The gameplay is very interesting and dynamic; you get a taste for it pretty quickly.”
- “The exploration is enhanced by how free the movement is, with generous mantling, a slow fall, air dash, and a mechanic where if you touch the edge of some ledges, your character will get a little boost and leap into the air.”
- “The dash, the movement abilities and perks, and the combat mechanics of dodging or interrupting an attack, and accurately hitting the critical area of an enemy to do severe damage makes this game addicting and rewarding to play.”
- “In fact, the whole gameplay is repetitive and lacks clear goals.”
- “Sadly, despite somewhat decent core mechanics, the game is absurdly repetitive, forcing you to replay the same general levels (with randomization - sure, but nowhere enough of it to make it feel like it's anything original and worthwhile) over and over again.”
- “The gameplay itself feels jank and kind of unpleasant.”
graphics
78 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
36%
56%
8%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some players praising the art style and impressive visuals, particularly at higher settings, while others criticize the overall quality as outdated or glitchy. Many appreciate the creative use of environments and ambient sound, but note that lower graphical settings significantly detract from the experience. Overall, while the aesthetic has its fans, there are calls for further polishing and improvements to enhance visual consistency and detail.
- “The updates always bring fun improvements, and the graphics are impressive.”
- “The visuals are flashy and the landscapes are dreamlike.”
- “Amazing graphics and art style, although with borrowed assets, a great premise for a game.”
- “The graphics inconsistency, world clipping, and constant updates that might or might not erase all your progress make the game painfully unrecommended.”
- “Boring, repetitive, awful combat, bad graphics (not talking about the line on edges, it is the textures, detail, lighting, and the fog is a mess).”
- “Sadly will be refunding; the world's idea just doesn't work for this game and the cel-shaded graphics are really badly used.”
music
22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
14%
72%
14%
The music in the game is characterized by a minimalistic approach, with ambient sounds dominating the experience and a sparse soundtrack that often fades into the background. While some players appreciate the atmospheric qualities and unique mood created by the sound design, others criticize the inconsistency in volume levels, which can overshadow dialogue. Overall, the music and sound contribute to a Lovecraftian ambiance, enhancing the game's immersive environments and encounters.
- “Music and ambient noise helps broaden the feel of each map.”
- “Birds, footsteps, and instantly changing music help to give this game its unique mood.”
- “I love the art style, the music, the voice overs, the overall tone of the game.”
- “The soundtrack is basically nonexistent; when you are put inside a level, you will mostly hear 'ambient noise' from the forest or the water, etc. The same 'jingle' will play when you discover a lever or a dungeon door.”
- “The sound is all over the place; the music is so loud in certain segments that it drowns out all dialogue.”
- “The combat soundtrack plays when you are engaged with enemies and fades after the combat is resolved.”
atmosphere
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
56%
19%
The game's atmosphere is praised for its original and strange landscapes, effectively immersing players in a Lovecraftian world. However, the random level generation often disrupts this atmosphere by creating chaotic and nonsensical environments, detracting from the overall experience. Despite these issues, many players find the atmosphere compelling and promising, highlighting the potential for a more polished experience.
- “You will find in the game a lot of different maps to explore with quite original and strange landscapes at the same time, which immerses you even more in the atmosphere of the game.”
- “It sure needs a lot more polish, but the weird atmosphere is amazing, and moving around and exploring the levels feels so good.”
- “Lovecraft, the eldritch atmosphere that makes his writing so alluring.”
- “Excellent in concept and combat, but completely let down by the random level generation which barely works correctly, often creating a chaotic mess with furniture, item, and enemy placement that makes zero sense, killing the atmosphere of what would have been one of the most visually striking Lovecraftian-themed games I've ever played.”
- “This game has got the atmosphere down pretty well, but other than that, there's not much here currently.”
- “Bugs are present of course, but looks promising and I really like the atmosphere.”
stability
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
88%
The game's stability is a mixed bag, with many players noting significant bugs and glitches that contribute to an overall janky experience, reminiscent of early access titles. However, some users report sessions free of issues, suggesting that while the game has potential and can be enjoyable, it remains unpolished and in need of further refinement.
- “My last few sessions have been completely bug-free.”
- “This game is a buggy, broken, janky mess and you should play it.”
- “Game as it is, is unpolished and kind of buggy; the AI acts really weird.”
- “There are bugs and glitches to be sure, and the combat and AI needs some tweaking.”
grinding
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
20%
80%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and monotonous, often feeling unclear about their goals and frustrated by the lack of variety in objectives. The early game is particularly criticized for its repetitiveness, leading to a preference for speed-farming over exploration, as both methods yield similar rewards. Overall, the grinding experience is seen as a significant drawback that detracts from the enjoyment of the game.
- “Basically feels like I'm grinding for unclear goals.”
- “Once again it's not bad, but I really wish there was more variety, maybe different objectives or something because it does feel grindy after a while and you kind of end up asking yourself why you are going through those levels that basically always end up with the same outcome.”
- “Early game feels tedious and monotonous.”
optimization
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
30%
30%
The optimization of Dream Cycle has received mixed reviews, with some players experiencing significant performance issues, requiring them to lower settings for a playable framerate, even on high-end systems. Conversely, others report smooth performance and no crashes, indicating that optimization may vary widely depending on individual hardware configurations. Overall, the game appears to struggle with consistent optimization across different setups.
- “Performance is smooth, frame rates perfect.”
- “I haven't had the crashes some folks are having, and in general the performance is great on my aging 1070.”
- “Dream Cycle is a low-budget rogue-lite experience with frustrating gameplay and poor optimization.”
- “My PC was crying; it's a very unoptimized game.”
- “Performance is abysmal. I had to lower everything to medium to achieve a playable framerate on an i7, RTX 2060, and (I kid you not) 64GB RAM.”
humor
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is highlighted by the absurdity of using firearms against skeleton warriors, creating a comedic contrast that players find entertaining. Additionally, the inclusion of a powerful kick mechanic adds to the game's playful and explosive humor, reminiscent of titles like "Dark Messiah." Overall, the game successfully blends dark themes with lighthearted, humorous moments.
- “But you can also find stuff like military bunkers, in which I found an SMG that I've been using (which, let me tell you, using a gun to mow down skeleton warriors is hilarious).”
- “That and it has a very good kick button, very Dark Messiah but with a bit more explosive force behind it, and always very funny :)”
monetization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization of the game is heavily criticized, with users noting that it appears to be a cash grab by the developers, who have since abandoned the project.
- “This game has been abandoned by the dev, who only made it as a cash grab.”
replayability
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game offers endless replayability, contingent on the player's enjoyment of the gameplay loop. Players can return to the game repeatedly, finding new experiences as long as they remain engaged with the core mechanics.
- “Endless replayability, as long as you enjoy the gameplay loop.”