Some video games put you on sea-faring vessels and make it seem like sailingâs a non-stop party. (Yeah, looking right at you, Assassinâs Creed IV.) And thatâs okay, because it might just be that way sometimes. The Sailorâs Dream is a different sort of take on virtual nautical journeys. Its lonely, bittersweet taleâtold in a wonderfully unique mix of approachesâis the best storytelling Iâve ever played on my iPad.
Youâre presented with a wry, expressive use of gesture control from the very moment you start up Simogoâs new iOS game. Swiping left or right sets you âsailing,â moving the landscape like a little diorama. Its oceans are only a set of small, repeating screens but The Sailorâs Dream still effectively recreates the feeling of being lost at sea. You quickly come across a number of miniature structures on tiny islands and even inside of those, you still feel like you have big, uncharted bodies of memory to glide across.
Only itâs the playerâs own impulses that serve as the waves and winds that send the story to different places. Do you go down to the clouded hatch in the wrecked ship or up the wooden steps? Snatches of long-ago conversations burble up as you move from place to place, mingling with little chiming particles and quaint little trinkets that you can fiddle and play with. People once moved through these empty spaces and, as you explore them, wisps of their lives float into view.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yj942vgIZU
Itâs all very low-stress and induces a very meditative mood. But, chill as The Sailorâs Dream is, there is a gameplay loop living in its waters. Each environment holds a memoryâinvolving the man, woman or little girl whose lives intertwine in the storyâand the player must move the structureâs rooms to find them and release them. Along the way, certain rooms or items will let you slide your finger down to get a chunk of text that offers more insight as to the mysterious past embedded in the game. Youâre given the option to print these entries out and when you do so, The Sailorâs Dream offers up another surprise. What comes out of the paper-centric device isnât words at all; players who print will get black-and-white drawings that show the scenes described in the passages.
Though itâs possible to release all the memories from the gameâs locales very quickly, youâre still left with the sense that thereâs much more that needs to be told. For one thing, the clock on the Transmission Horologe island doesnât appear do anything yet. And the bottles that pop up every day release new songs on different days of the week, giving players even more puzzle fragments for piecing together the entire picture for what seems to be a sad, wistful tale.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tk0bKXOy6FE
The Sailorâs Dream will remind some folks of Myst, with the way that exploration teases out story from beautifully rendered environments. But itâs the way that the game presents its mysteries that makes the mobile creation feel truly special, much like Simogoâs previous games Beat Sneak Bandit, Year Walk, and Device 6 did. In a week where the clumsy attempts of big-deal blockbusters to communicate emotion have become fodder for jokes, itâs noteworthy how effortless The Sailorâs Dream made me feel wistful, amused, and melancholy.
