
Artifex Mundi teamed up with their frequent collaborator, The House of Fables for another epic hidden object adventure! Dreamwalker: Never Fall Asleep takes you, a renowned psychiatrist, to Drowsey Valley in the midst of the Austrian Alps. The mayor’s daughter has fallen into a coma – do you dare to enter her subconscious mind and face a mind-bending journey?
For some reason, Big Fish Games released this wonderful gem as a Standard Edition and allowed lazy releases like Redemption Cemetery: The Cursed Mark and Chimeras: Heavenfall Secrets to pass through as Collector’s Editions. Dreamwalker: Never Fall Asleep takes on a familiar psychological thriller theme, but gives it a fresh spin. Through a likable protagonist and an effective focus on backstory, this game was able to captivate me all throughout its runtime.
Part of what makes Dreamwalker: Never Fall Asleep so exciting is its fantastic sights and sounds. On the visual side, the game benefits from creative and twisty location designs, a consistent, but never boring color palette, and stunning animations. As for the audio, the suspenseful soundtracks are perfect for the mood of the game and the voice-overs are all in all very solid.
Dreamwalker: Never Fall Asleep might pass as a typical cookie-cutter HOPA when it comes to the gameplay, but it is actually surprisingly challenging. Artifex Mundi and The House of Fables incorporated some imaginative uses of inventory items and interesting tasks into an otherwise predictable gameplay. The hidden object scenes and the puzzles are fairly standard, but are still very entertaining.
This thrilling game reminds me of a game from Shaman Games from a few years ago called Dreamscapes: Nightmare’s Heir as well as the excellent Nightmare Realm series from Lesta. Dreamwalker: Never Fall Asleep is definitely a must-play if you enjoyed the games mentioned and I am sure that your four hours will not be wasted.