Project Looking Glass

Project Looking Glass is an interesting and ultimately tragic dream explorer in the vein of Yume Nikki. But unlike Yume Nikki, PLG tries for a less opaque story, one that weaves government/ scientific overreach, the pain of losing loved ones, and the despair of staying alive. You play Subject 7, given the promise of seeing your dead daughter once more, as she participates in Project Looking Glass, a scientific project intended on seeing beyond the living world. It's a walking simulator where you walk in strange dreamworlds. Some are mundane, some mysterious, some disorienting. Your goal is to collect memories, which also provide additional ways of interacting with the world and opening up new dream worlds. One thing I appreciate about the game is that it provides a map that shows where you are and where dream worlds connect to one another. It eliminates guesswork on how much of an influence you're doing to the world, and even tells you where you ought to be next (without revealing the exact step you need to take). The puzzles aren't particularly hard and the scares are sparse (There's only really one type of jumpscare and stops being scary after the first time it happens). The experience moves from mysterious to heartbreaking as the story unfolds as more people become broken by the project, not just Subject 7. There's one subplot that was never explored (related to the jumpscare) but otherwise, the whole story is tied into a neat bow by the end. Not everything is explained, but the main conflict is more or less resolved by the end. Recommended.

Took me a minute to figure out there's a map lol but once I found that the game really opened up and was fascinating. Love a good weird indie exploration game that doesn't explain a lot. That's my jam!

Wonderfully unique, occasionally spine chilling, compelling.