izigame.me

There’s so much to say about the experience that this game gave me.
If you love surrealist science fiction, this game is right up your alley. The story and gameplay revolve around entering dreams and solving puzzles, so it reminds me quite a bit of the movie Inception, but the similarities pretty much end there. This game has its own unique twist on the “entering dreams” trope.
Point-and-click games are known for having difficult puzzles that you can only solve if you click on an obscure piece of the screen. This can be frustrating. However, in this game, not only puzzles are not too difficult, but also there are accessibility modifiers that you can turn on that will give you extra hints or highlight clickable objects. I appreciated these options a lot when I got stuck at certain parts.
The claymation animation style is just an absolute treat visually. Like Neverhood, Armikrog, and Harold Halibut, it gives the game such a visually distinct aesthetic that I know that a lot of passion and hard work from the developers was put into this game. I commend them for this.
The character and dialogue writing is some of the best I’ve experienced in media. Even though dialogue in this game is conveyed through simple text on screen, everything that is said feels very real and purposeful, like if these characters existed in real life, I would believe they are real people instead of NPCs. For example, when the main character is conversing with his significant other, they have conversations and responses that a real couple would have. It connected me to the characters in a way I didn’t think was possible in a simple point-and-click game with no voice acting. I’ve played plenty of AAA games with voice acting where the dialogue seems so forced and only existing for plot advancement. Not in this game.
Fair warning that there are some gorey scenes, but they are few and far between. The writing at times is also very heavy, so be prepared.
This game is also really buggy. The game crashed many times and I softlocked myself from progressing a few times, but nothing that reloading the auto save couldn’t fix.
Overall, phenomenal story, satisfying puzzles, and great visuals.
100% Achievement Completion Perspective:
There are a lot of hidden achievements that can only be obtained by doing something specific or picking certain dialogue. You can’t get all achievements on a single playthrough, but you can replay individual chapters easily, though some are longer than others. There is one that if you don’t get in your first playthrough, you’ll have to play through the entire game again. However, going after most achievements nets you some unique dialogue and fun story moments, so it was fun 100%ing this game regardless.