By Jade Entien

Imagine this; you’re stressed out, tired with deadlines approaching and the world seems to be coming down around you. You need an escape, but the Grand Canyon is booked up, the Caribbean’s too far, and Disneyworld is out of your budget … what to do before you pull that last hair out? 

Dreamcore is a new, liminal space “horror” game by Montraluz, an affordable escape from reality that isn’t as scary as it seems to be. Similar to the Backrooms, the spaces in Dreamcore provide players with multiple levels of deceptive emptiness they can really get lost in – with a twist. As stated on its Steam page, the game provides an experience “without monsters or jumpscares, (building) tension through the eerie beauty and unsettling stillness of its liminal spaces.” Thus, players can find a comfortable Backrooms-type experience, sans weird and creepy entities chasing them down. (I did witness a dark, skinny monster, twitching in a corner, and that initially terrified me. But once I approached the silly little guy, it ran off, allowing me to enjoy my scenic playthrough.)

Dreamcore’s first level, the Dreampools, though enchanting and seemingly boundless, was a bit underwhelming. I’m not the biggest fan of running around aimlessly in a maze, and that’s all the first level was. At first, I was in awe of the environment; the Dreampools were breathtaking. There was much to see as I searched for an escape route: the pools, so blue and clear that I wanted to drink from them; the crystalline tile walls; and the massive yellow smiling balls that looked smooth as glass. Dreamcore’s bodycam style of gameplay, in which you play through a found footage lens, draws you in. But you’re not exactly you – it’s almost as if you’re watching someone else play, which I found really cool. 

The second level, Eternal Suburbia, was also a sight to behold, offering more to explore but still not much to do. The houses in this seemingly endless suburb had attractive interiors, spacious but mostly empty. The goal here was to reach the water tower, blocked by fences, at the center of the level.  The only way to get to the tower is by trial and error, multiple attempts to pass through the houses that can teleport you closer to – or farther away from – your goal. This level might not appeal to players who aren’t fans of repetition, but I enjoyed it. I’ve always liked imagining what other people’s houses look like inside, so this fulfilled that need in me. Though I wasn’t able to make time to reach the end, I am eager to return to that ethereal place.

I learned that there are multiple endings to each level, depending on how you choose to escape and whether you complete the puzzles. On my first try, I received the bad ending upon escaping, a black screen with the words “Bad Ending” written over it, probably because I left something behind in the level. But I wasn’t too shaken up about it as the game has replayability. You can go back and try again.

And overall, I couldn’t believe how high-quality Dreamcore is. It was developed in Unreal Engine 5, the free tool available for game developers to create crazy impressive graphics with dynamic lighting, visual scripting, and geometry management. I’m glad (and a little surprised) that my three-year-old laptop could run it! 

Some levels of Dreamcore are still in development, so the game feels somewhat unfinished. But its $8 price tag seems worth it because of the strength of the first two levels. And there is the promise of more when the game is complete. For now, although I think the game might not quite be ready to leave early access, players will find thought-provoking puzzles and an ambience that varies from calming hair-raising. 

Dreamcore is impressively gorgeous for a debut game, and though I tend to believe that the liminal space genre is overused, Dreamcore proved to be a nice break from the genre’s usual “run from monsters” gameplay. Though some parts in Dreamcore were occasionally anxiety inducing, nothing is chasing you. So if you’re looking for a Backrooms experience, minus the scares, Dreamcore is for you.

Jade Entien is an NYVGCC senior intern, a Junior at SUNY Cortland with a major in Communication studies and passion for Theatre as a minor.

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