Have you ever had a dream that crashed into reality? I have. I ran into my dad in the hallway while half asleep and it scared the bejeebies out of me. You can stay that I was wide awake after that. In the beautifully designed Dream Chronicles, the story begins with Lilith, the Fairy Queen of Dreams, casting a sleep spell over the entire kingdom.

Yet, somehow Fidget wakes up his wife Faye. But is Faye dreaming or experiencing the adventure? Players assume the role of Faye who searches for Fidget and Lilith who kidnapped Fidget. Faye has two jobs: find all the dream jewels for the dream spells in Dream section of the book that guides you through the game. The book also contains a path, known as chapters, telling you where you need to go next. But before you can get there, solve the puzzles that block your way to the next scene.

The book contains 18 chapters with each chapter, for the most part, representing a scene with a puzzle or puzzles. The hidden objects part of the game comes from finding the hidden jewels and items to use in solving the puzzle. At the end of the game, the number of dream jewels you find will determine your final score. It would’ve been cool if the player could cast a dream spell after finding all the jewels for a dream. But that could make the game more complicated.

Press any key or mouse button twice to quickly skip through the jewel description, which appears upon picking up a jewel. After reading a few descriptions, I lost interest so clicking through helps loads. Clicking twice works for any content appearing on the screen for those impatient like me or don’t want to read the same content again.

The puzzles vary through the game. Some hidden object games tend to repeat a puzzle style, but not Dream Chronicles giving the game a unique twist. As you solve a puzzle, you move to the next chapter and learn more about the story. When you arrive on a new scene, Fidget gives you hints to help you in your current quest. On occasion, something glimmers on the scene to lend a hand. I appreciate those glimmers since they don’t give away much and provide just the right amount of help so I don’t get frustrated with the game.

Any time I want to take a break from the game, I left the game open. When clicking “Quit,” the game tells you that you would restart the current level. The thing is that a level isn’t clear to me. Is a chapter the same thing as a level? Semantics, but I don’t want to lose my hard work.

I figure out most of the puzzles, but a few don’t make sense forcing me to rely on luck. I’d like to know the story behind those tricky puzzles that I couldn’t solve. Though the game ending fell a little short of my expectations, the game weaves a nice story. Dream Chronicles should be a big hit especially for the casual games crowd with its assortment of puzzles, stunning scenes, storyline and low frustration factor.

Download Dream Chronicles for 30 minute trial or buy Dream Chronicles.

System Requirements: Windows

• Windows ME/2000/XP/Vista
• Pentium III 700 MHz or faster processor
• 128MB RAM
• Sound card recommended
• DirectX 7.0 or later
• 25 MB available hard drive space

System Requirements: Mac

• Mac OS X 10.3.9 or newer
• G4 800 MHz or faster, or G5 or Intel processor
• 800 x 600 minimum screen resolution
• 25 MB available hard drive space

Tags: games, meryl k. evans