Let’s face it, we’ve all dreamed about getting that winning lottery ticket and becoming instant millionaires. Of course, that’s not likely to happen, which is why the concept behind Day Dream is so appealing. Unfortunately, the reality of the game is far from what one would hope, with most of the play feeling superfluous and un-gratifying. You may be able to buy the cars, homes, and vacations of your dreams, but it’s just not that much fun when the spending isn’t real.
Let’s face it, we’ve all dreamed about getting that winning lottery ticket and becoming instant millionaires. Of course, that’s not likely to happen, which is why the concept behind Day Dream is so appealing. Unfortunately, the reality of the game is far from what one would hope, with most of the play feeling superfluous and un-gratifying. You may be able to buy the cars, homes, and vacations of your dreams, but it’s just not that much fun when the spending isn’t real.
You take on the role of a man in a dead end job. Lo and behold, you have purchased a $300 million winning lotto ticket and it’s time to start a brand new life. The catch is that you don’t receive it all at once, but rather installments of it based on your general prowess of the game. These include things like the number of friends that play with you, risk, status, and revenue generation.
Day Dream is a rather bloated game with a number of features that it doesn’t really take a whole lot effort to explain. After an intro movie, the game expects players to read over a dozen wordy slides of text explaining, often vaguely, the several nuances of the game. Thankfully, the basics aren’t that hard to figure out when you inevitably skip the tutorial.
Basically, you have to try and generate a continual income with your new found winnings. For anyone that has played older, text-based role-playing games like Mafia Wars, the concept will be familiar. It involves browsing through static menus and investing in businesses. Upon purchase, these businesses payout a set amount of revenue every few hours. Along the same line, you can also purchase real estate and rent it out for periodic income as well; returning to the game in order to collect it before it is lost. Following the same design thread a third time are investments, which allow you to choose how much money to put in an arbitrary investment and receive a payout several hours later an a certain interest rate.
Stocks are the only money making scheme in Day Dream that appears to have any form of inherent risk. Like investments, you get to pick how much to spend, and the game suggests that it adjusts stock prices based on real world numbers. As expected, this can be risky and can result in lost funds.
As you perform various actions, you gain experience towards new levels that unlock new business ventures and vanity items. The former is pretty much more of the same, while the latter increases your “status” meter, which in turn increases the money earned from lottery winnings. Sadly, such is not terribly gratifying as the items are nothing more than a static image that says you own them. This was acceptable a few years ago, but not nowadays.
On the social front, things are a bit basic as well. You’re able to invite your friends to become “business partners,” which increases your “entourage” rating, but other than gifting and receiving updates, there’s not much going on here. You can throw virtual parties or vacations with each other, which does increase status, but since it is all nothing more than a bunch of text, it’s not too exciting. About the only interesting social concept is the “my places” feature that allows you to upload pictures of locations, then categorize them in order boost your Day Dream meters.
While Day Dream has a great concept, it’s just not that gratifying to play. Its text-based design is archaic compared to more modern social games, and so buying theoretically amazing items like cars and houses is far from rewarding. The game is also bloated with features that all roughly do the same thing, with little challenge or risk to make things more interesting.
