LAG- The Dream Machine (Chapters 1 and 2) Review

LAG -"Point-and-click games seem to always be judged by the magnitude of their stories and less on the actual gameplay involved to explore those stories. Granted, these games often have few choices in gameplay that would still brand them as point-and-click games, but still I can’t help but feel they could always do more to guarantee you’re not simply pointing and clicking your way through the game as the genre name implies. Games like Machninarium have their tricky puzzles to solve while more recent games like the Walking Dead series by Telltale Games attempt to involve the player with unique quick-time events and dialogue options. It’s particularly the dialogue options that Telltale Games explore that I feel more point-and-clicks should try to emulate more often. When I started up the first chapter of Dream Machine I wasn’t met with any of these innovations. I find myself on small lonely island with a small collection of clickable objects around me. This first section plays like any other point-and-click. Pick up this object, use it on this area, etc. It’s only when I dig up a ringing alarm clock and awake from my dream that I start to see the interesting possibilities in this game."