Adventure games have always had a special place in my heart – with Monkey Island and King’s Quest being the first series I really fell in love with. However, whilst Sierra and LucasArts adventures are often held up as the best in the biz, the British adventure game scene also produced some excellent series’; Simon the Sorcerer and Discworld to name a couple. Whilst the Americans could be hilarious, Brit-ventures drew from the strange eccentricity of England and the dry, witty, satirical, sarcastic, surreal and sometimes spiky humour of my homeland – evoking Monty Python, Blackadder, Faulty Towers, Discworld and Red Dwarf. It ran through these games like blood and even led to some famous comedians of 90’s TV and film playing starring roles. Unfortunately, these died as quickly as they appeared – with both fading into obscurity after releasing two amazing 2D-point-and-clicks and a mediocre attempt at 3D.
And so the Brit-venture game died a painful death…
…or so we thought.
Lucy Dreaming was released for PC in October last year to critical acclaim. Developed in Telford, UK, LD is a classic 90’s style pixel-art adventure game, complete with a verb bar and inventory at the bottom of the screen. It follows a young girl named Lucy as she desperately searches for a solution to her recurring nightmares and ends up being drawn into a wider mystery. The plot, without running too far into spoiler territory, takes a bit of a strange turn early on but sticks the landing. I had my expectations subverted time and time again and it was honestly a rollercoaster. You go quickly between very grounded moments – such as visiting a village fete, drying clothes etc – and ridiculous flights of surreal fantasy – such as performing at a carnivorous plant comedy club? It all makes complete sense in context but the surprises came thick and fast.
The dialogue is also phenomenal – delivering laughs and puns aplenty whilst also building the world. I love the colloquialisms in Lucy’s phrasing and how many small jokes, whimsical moments and cynicisms appear out of nowhere. It’s the simple things – like receiving a package from “Stuff Ewe,” her mum’s taxidermist. It’s the dry things, like nonchalantly mentioning how the package contains flesh-eat beetles and not finding that too alarming. It’s the weird things, like talking to a Badger’s head on the wall and addressing it formally. It’s very Monty Python, it’s very Blackadder, but it takes what made those classic shows good and puts it in a modern context. There are also pastiches on British culture and not-so-subtle nods to adventure-game history, again seen through Lucy’s unique perspective – and they’re just superb. The “our lawyers told us not to” joke has been seen before, but even that is delivered in a unique way.
It’s oddly authentic too. Anyone who’s lived in a small English village will know how utterly bizarre they can be, as is evident when you finally leave and then end up back there. Lucy Dreaming does exaggerate some of the common stereotypes – but not to a ridiculous degree. As I walked around the town I kept seeing people I used to know – the doddery, slightly pompous vicar, the oddly-melancholic librarian and the pest-obsessed groundsmen. These are caricatures for sure but done subtly and with enough care that they’re believable and more than a simple stereotype. The same can be said for the dream sequences – sections in which Lucy can interact with her subconscious and affect the outcome of her dreams. They’re absurd, yes, but believably so, and they may complete sense in context. What results is an experience that truly feels like an adventure through a sleepy English village and a young girl’s imagination?
The main gameplay of Lucy Dreaming sends you around solving puzzles, but these are again delivered surprisingly well. There’s minimal adventure-game logic here, and I found the puzzles challenging but never frustrating. The game does an incredibly tight job of reactively pointing you in the right direction through subtle comments and thinking out loud rather. When you get something wrong you’re rewarded with a funny comment. If it’s just not quite right, Lucy will give a subtle clue as to how your aim could be achieved. Tall Story could have resorted to the classic “that doesn’t work” response but instead went the whole hog and made every action feel meaningful. It feels like the best way to avoid the current scourge of the genre – how quickly gamers resort to walkthroughs – and kept me playing.
That doesn’t mean the puzzles are perfect, mind. Some felt like there were a few too many steps which could have been cut to make them more intuitive, but thanks to the aforementioned tips these were never too much of a frustration.
Every visual element has been gorgeously realised in a classic 90’s pixel-art style – just with a modern colour palette – adding to the already bursting sense of nostalgia. The sheer amount of time and detail that’s been put into every element is to be commended – from the use of dithering, shading, light and shadow to the use of contrasting colours to differentiate dreams from reality. The tools available have been used masterfully and the actual art direction which runs through it hits just the right whimsical, yet nostalgic and authentic note.
The music and VA also reflect this clear reverence for the genre’s history. The bevvy of background tracks is lovely to experience, with a wide range of styles on display. There are bouncy melodies and an almost jazz-like sensibility at times, but equally, there are a number of more understated and sinister tunes. There’s even the option to choose the virtual soundcard the midi-written tracks are played through for added nostalgia – Roland MT-32 or AdLib. The VA is the icing on the cake for me, with some incredible accent work and excellent performances all around. There are even some instantly-familiar voices in the cast from other popular adventures.
All in all, Lucy Dreaming is a phenomenal accomplishment in the adventure-game space. Tall Story has delivered an outstanding example of the genre that rivals even 2022’s Return to Monkey Island in terms of puzzle design and presentation. Both modern and nostalgic, it brings the Brit venture to the modern era along with all the wit and dry charm you’d expect. If you’ve been looking for something which truly feels like a lost golden-era point-and-click, Lucy Dreaming will be a dream come true.
Grab your copy here https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/Lucy-Dreaming-2325399.html
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