A good balance of choice and challenge make Shape of Dreams a co-op roguelike worth coming back to again and again.
What if we were all trapped in a dream world and we had to battle to get out? Well, now you can give that a try for yourself in Shape of Dreams, a co-op roguelite action game by 4-person newcomer Lizard Smoothie.
An engaging yet rather simple premise provides the backdrop to an exciting action game, playing similarly to games like Diablo and Risk of Rain 2 with its own gorgeous visual style.
The art team did a spectacular job with the backgrounds and character design, with a lot of attention to detail going towards the menu and pre-run set-up. This is a welcome addition for a player who enjoys plotting out and planning a run.
There are eight characters to choose from, all equipped with two unique traveler memories you can select before a run as well as a unique identity memory which serves like a passive ability, likely familiar to those of you fellow MOBA enjoyers interested in the game.
Completing multiple runs allows you to unlock new travelers and identity memories you can equip in future runs, but you will need to overcome a few challenges of varying difficulties to do so. This expands the game offering new choices, and my friends and I elected to go for a ranged healer, Nachia, a melee fighter, Mist, and a ranged mage, Yubar.
Ths also allowed for experimentation. We found that the sustainability and attack speed of Mist worked well with the ranged damage of Yubar, and the in-built summons of Nachia. Nachia also provided summons that could tank additional damage and her passive allows for a dash to create a barrier for her, her summons, and her teammates.
Runs can vary in time, but you'll need to complet a minimum of four dream worlds per run to attempt the final boss. A good run will see you get to the final boss of the game (and perhaps further), whereas a bad run may mean you are unable to even escape the first dream.
Lizard Smoothie describes the gameplay as MOBA style battles, with almost every new ‘room’ presenting like a massive team fight. To the point where sometimes the rooms even feature mini-bosses who, once defeated, reward boons to character stats and memories.
If customization of builds is your thing, Shape of Dreams boasts over 150 unique potential memories to change how you approach things, with all except your identity memory being replaceable at any point during a run.
Like many similar games, Shape of Dreams adopts a ‘play-to-win’ scaffold, with more abilities and bonuses unlocked as you complete runs in the game. This system proved quite rewarding. I found myself always eagerly looking for some time to squeeze in another run so I could unlock another character or ability to make future runs more fun.
Unique essences and memories are unlocked through achievements in the game which can also add to the replayability of this action-packed adventure. The simple yet compelling design of the enemies and node mapping only adds to the experience.
The co-op experience of the game is a nice touch, as the characters you select can work in tandem together to make an even more potent combination. The difficulty is scaled up based on how many players and how deep in a run you get, but that makes the challenge all the more rewarding.
Overall Shape of Dreams performs well on my hardware, but frame rates can get choppy during intense moments. This was mostly limited to later runs with extra enemies unlocked, even your high end PC can become a rather jittery slideshow because there is just so much going on.
Another frustration was the lack of specificity in some aspects of the game. You can equip, enhance and change your essences and abilities, but it is difficult to analyse specific impacts in detail, with the end of game screen just displaying stats for throughout the entire run rather than the impact of a certain ability.
Overall, Shape of dreams is an ambitious and pretty well executed roguelite hack n slash with great replayability and customization of game play. Each run is different which keeps it fresh and the progression system is challenging but rewarding.
