''Dreamkiller'' is a dark fantasy

first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...

where the player takes on the role of Alice Drake, a psychologist with the ability to enter the minds of her patients to fight the monsters appearing in their dreams. The game is developed by Mindware Studios and published by

Aspyr Aspyr Media, Inc. (pronounced " aspire") is an American video game developer and publisher founded by Michael Rogers and Ted Staloch in Austin, Texas. Originally founded to port gaming titles to macOS, the company, since 2005, has become a publi ...

for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

Gameplay

The gameplay is heavily based on ''

Painkiller An analgesic drug, also called simply an analgesic, antalgic, pain reliever, or painkiller, is any member of the group of drugs used for pain management. Analgesics are conceptually distinct from anesthetics, which temporarily reduce, and in s ...

''. The player progresses through various levels, battling hordes of monsters. There are different weapons for the player to use, from a fire spell to a minigun. The action takes place in dreams, so locations are all based on a person's personal phobia: a zoo infested with spiders, an arctic area full of sunken ships, a factory-like place filled with living machinery, a hospital, a twisted forest, and more. Each level is preceded by a comic-like cutscene, and is usually culminated with a battle against a boss, which is an enforced version of an enemy previously encountered. The game has its own achievement system.

Plot

Alice Drake is a very special psychologist, who enters her patients' dreams and battles their fears, which take forms of insane monsters. As the game progresses, she is confused by the fact that the number of her patients suddenly increases, and their fears becomes more and more insane, usually manifesting and creating phobia suddenly, without a proper medical history. As she clears the minds of her patients, she learns of an evil entity, the Dream Devourer, that feeds on human dreams, corrupting them and bringing insanity. Eventually, she is forced to battle in her own mind, where she finds a way to locate the entity. In order to put an end to insanity it brought to the real world, she enters the Dream Devourer's domain and slays it.

Reception

''Dreamkiller'' received an aggregated rating of 47 on

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, indicating a "generally unfavorable" response with the highest rating being 70/100.

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady, and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

gave the game a 5/10, praising its level and enemy design but criticizing the gameplay for not being engaging.

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

gave the game a lower score of 4.2/10, criticizing it for being "tedious and repetitive".

References

2009 video games Aspyr games Cancelled Xbox 360 games Dark fantasy video games First-person shooters Mindware Studios games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games about dreams Video games about mental health Video games developed in the Czech Republic Video games featuring female protagonists Windows games Windows-only games {{fps-videogame-stub