If you're a fan of Monkey Island-style adventure games, then the recently released Lucy Dreaming might be next on your list. Following in the footsteps of Return to Monkey Island's overwhelmingly positive reviews for the return of Guybrush Threepwood, developer Tall Story Games is hoping to win over fans of Lucy Dreaming's deliciously British sense of humor and its old school point-and-click puzzles.
Lucy, a young girl who suffers from recurring nightmares, discovers that she can learn to influence and control the very nature of her dreams. This leads to a whirlwind adventure that bounces between the everyday world and the bizarre realms inside her mind. For example, one of the first things you have to do is save poor teddy bear Lucy from the clutches of her maniac brother. Once you restore (and repair) the rather tattered toy, it will come to life in Lucy's dreams and join her on her adventures.
The puzzles themselves will look familiar to fans of point-and-click games, and while the first puzzles we saw all followed a fairly clear logic, it certainly took a bit of digging to find suitable solutions. Luckily, Lucy keeps track of her current goals in her diary, and while the game doesn't have an explicit hint system, there is an option to highlight all the really important objects on the screen, which can be very useful if you get stuck.
When it comes to writing, Lucy Dreaming wastes no time and comes up with a lot of dry, witty lines. Jokes are poured from the very first lines, and they successfully hit the target. It's certainly very classically British, which is further emphasized by the wonderful regional accents of the actors.
Dominic Armato, the voice of Guybrush Threepwood, also appears in the game - he says that "a whimsical love letter to graphic adventures like Lucy Dreaming seemed like the right opportunity to return to the game." Lucy Dreaming clearly wears its inspirations on its sleeve in other places: on Lucy's bedroom wall there's a poster that looks a lot like Mele Island from Secret of Monkey Island, which the game simply calls a "legal gray area."
If you like humorous puzzles, Lucy Dreaming is already out in Steam and definitely worth a look. Otherwise, we have many more of the best indie games on PC for you to check out.
