izigame.me

The Dream Machine has an eerily dark yet childlike quality akin to Fran Bow in its themes and art. While I'm not the biggest fan of this particular style of claymation, The Dream Machine is beautiful and raw in the craft involved in the creation of this game as we are transported into the characters' intricately crafted dreams. We're able to gaze into what each characters' daily slice of life and then, in turn, gaze deeper into their dreams. In doing so, we gaze into our protagonist, Victor Neff's, mind (and all versions of him) as he traverses these dreamscapes, while simultaneously we gaze more deeply at our own reflection in the psychological dreamland abyss and philosophical void while playing. 8.5/10
Chapter 6 & 7: I appreciate the attempt at wrapping up this story as a whole and the amount of time and effort put into just a single chapter. I did prefer a possible ending in Chapter 5 to the Chapter 7 ending, however, exploring Victor more fully in other clone and age-range, alternate reality forms and the philosophical dialogues that went along with talking to himself and re-exploring past dream worlds in a more interconnected way was so fulfilling. I only wish the juxtaposition between what was built up in chapters 1-5 and even 6 of Victor's character, motivations, and connections to other characters matched or had been able to make the leap into that characterization and decision-making in chapter 7. 8/10