Have you ever played an early Legend of Zelda game an wondered what it would be like if Link was a drunken alpaca that swears and throws up rainbows? Well, if you have, then Valkyrie Initiative and Game Dynasty may just have the game for you with Dreamout.

“Explore a surreal world with a cute alpaca! Solve puzzles, fish out the most unusual items from rivers, fight watermelon thugs, and uncover all the secrets of this world!”

Dreamout is an interesting little title, as the blurb says, it’s surreal. The basic story is that you have to reunite a decapitated skull with its body… don’t ask. Along the way, you’ll meet a myriad of NPCs that seem to get more bizarre as you progress. You’ll be given tasks to complete that rarely make any sense, like murder a family of sentient talking carrots to make some soup. Despite it’s cute-looking art style and aesthetics, this is far from being a kids’ game.

There’s bloody violence, swearing and plenty of alcohol use. Sounds like a Friday night at my local pub. The gameplay of Dreamout is pretty simple and while I alluded to the early Legend of Zelda games in the intro, they’re only similar on a bare basic level. You wonder around the map, hit things with your sword, find coins, talk to NPCs and do a variety of quests. However, Dreamout isn’t as deep as a classic Zelda title. There’s some brilliant humour that had me laughing… a lot. The quests that you are given are bizarre and entertaining. The puzzle elements are done well and never feel awkwardly annoying. The core concept and world are both fantastic, but there is a lack of gameplay.

I really enjoyed my time with Dreamout but it, it’s very, very short. My playtime says I got to the end credits in 1 hour and 45 minutes, that’s on a first playthrough and with finding my way around. Now, I’m not expecting a 40 hour epic, but under 2 hours? The idea is brilliant, but the gameplay lacks. For instance, even though you collect coins, you never really use them for anything. There are various hats that you can find, some you have to buy. This is the only thing the coins are used for. Even so, I had around 700+ coins at the end of the game even though I had bought all the hats I could. Why are there so many easy to find coins in the game if there is nothing to spend them on?

The various hats in the game are purely cosmetic, they offer no stat increases, no skills, nothing. But that’s because there are no stats or skills in the game. Tell a lie, you learn one new skill. This is where the game is lacking. There’s not much more to it than talking to NPCs and doing wonderfully bizarre quests as you try to reunite a decapitated skull with its body. Dreamout is more a collection of interesting sub-quests than a full game. I have very little to say about Dreamout because there’s very little to it. What is here is great, it just needed more depth of gameplay, more to do, more everything. I hope to see these devs grow in the future because, there is clear passion and talent. This is a good effort and I can envision them getting better and better. A nice little curiosity that has some genuinely great ideas, but lacks any real gameplay depth. Dreamout is available now for PC and all the consoles and it comes with a decent budget price.