This post is about Every Day the Same Dream, an indie game about the monotony of cubicle life and one man's attempt to escape it. Or not escape it. Or something. Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, great -- another pretentious artgame.
Well, you're kind of right. But it's a somewhat enjoyable pretentious artgame, nonetheless. If you really wanna know whether or not it's worth your time, I've made the following handy pro/con list:
PROS:
The music and graphics are gorgeous. It's got a bunch of optional pseudo-endings before the last "real" ending. At least one of those options ends with your character standing next to a robed man in a graveyard while wearing only his boxers. As the game consists of basically replaying the same (very brief) day over and over again, the game encourages curiosity and exploration. It's very short.
CONS:
Like Terry Cavanagh's Pathways (and unlike Aisle), the game is less about the player's choices reflecting back on him or herself and more about the player checking out every possible narrative branch out of morbid curiosity and a desire to complete the game. The "office jobs destroy your soul and identity" theme is no longer as fresh or insightful as it was a decade ago, and honestly now feels kind of patronizing. The ending makes very little sense, and not in a satisfying way.
The choice is yours. Play it, or don't.
Contest:
4:00 AM on 12.24.2009
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I don't indent to play it again.
Fuck this "6AM" shit.
Anybody know what I'm missing?
all artgames by nature are going to be called pretentious by some people, and those people would be correct to do so. these games are almost always about deriving deep, personal experiences from simple gameplay, and they are guaranteed to fall short of doing that for some people.
on the game, the idea is pretty cliché, so meh.
It's too bad that I heard of and played this game before this post....Someone else who does indy game reviews picked this a few days ago.
Scott Sharkey gets +1 respect. Sorry Anthony.
After going through and playing up until that "true" ending, I'd say that the game was alright.
SPOILER
Although I do wonder where everyone went in the end. Am I supposed to assume everyone "jumped?"
SPOILER END
I agree. I don't see why people have to call games pretentious just because the games undermine typical video game conventions. The term 'pretentious' is like a stamp that lets people know that a particular game is for 'snobs' and 'intellectuals'. It's just a silly method of segregating 'weird' games from 'regular' games.
The ending actually came off a lot more strongly for me when I though about it for a moment. It seemed to me that everything you play through was actually the character life flashing before his eyes as he was jumping off the building, which would explain why it ends with him seeing himself falling. I think that every scenario you played through was, sadly enough, the most memorable moments of his life.
*Spoilers*
Man, this game really made me sad. Damn you Anthony!
I wondered whether this would bug you here. I think there's a certain amount of truth to the complaint when it comes to flinging yourself off the ledge. However, I think when it comes to all the other narrative branching points this is actually a time where the morbid curiosity and desire to complete the game actually does end up reflecting back on your choices. You spend the entire game trying to reach the end, specifically to become "a new person". Yet each time you deviate from your first day, you have become a new person, but only if you care about those deviations for their own sake. When you have completed all five steps you witness yourself fall off a ledge, you have become a new person but that means that you have exhausted the attachment to what your life was. There is no longer anything to interact with and you're left without any context. At least half of the deviations (leaf, graveyard, suicide) are obviously about death and I think the cow and the nudity are tangentially related.
I think the point is less about how we're all cogs in the wheel and more about the danger in performing an action for a reward not intrinsic in the action itself. This is certainly relevant to your life as an office drone, but if you aren't careful it becomes relevant to your life as a whole. If you get out of your car because you are trying to finish the game you will come to the same place as you will if you get out of the car and go walk to the field because you want to explore that option but if the comments above are any indication you will be left unsatisfied.