Lucy Dreaming and the Art of Point and Click Adventures

When you think of point and click adventures, what comes to mind? Monkey Island? Grim Fandango? These classic 90’s adventures were some of the most popular games of their time, long before the likes of Fortnite were even just a twinkle in the developer’s eyes. Do you yearn to be transported back and lose yourself in one of these adventures once again? Well, the wonderful minds at Tall Story Games have done just that.

Say hello to Lucy Dreaming, the newest point and click adventure on the block; packed full of that sweet sweet 90’s nostalgia we all love, and backed up with unmatched British wit.

In a nutshell, Lucy Dreaming is what you get if you mix dry, British humour, beautifully stylised pixel art and a big helping of 90’s weirdness. You play as Lucy, a young girl plagued by a recurring nightmare that will have dire consequences if she can’t uncover the truth behind it. You adventure between the real and dream worlds, exploring strange environments, meeting colourful characters and solving unique puzzles, all while learning to control Lucy’s dreams.

What makes this game so charming is a blend of its smooth gameplay loop, along with a fantastic cast of voices and pixel perfect environments. Moving and interacting is as simple as, well, pointing and clicking. You’ll be scouring the environments for useful objects to help you progress, but don’t let the simplicity fool you! You’ll have to think outside of the box if you want to solve the intriguing puzzles laid out for Lucy. For instance, at the beginning of the game Lucy needs to dry her Wet Clothes in order to go outside. There isn’t a radiator or dryer you can use, so what to do? That’s easy - just pop her clothes on the Ceiling Fan and let it spin. Voila! Dry clothes! It’s this lateral thinking element that keeps you so engrossed and really makes the game shine.

On the surface Lucy Dreaming looks like a simple pixel art game, but it’s so much more than that. Just spending five minutes inspecting things in Lucy’s bedroom will have you chuckling - from the assortment of 80’s and 90’s memorabilia on her shelves to her Venus fly trap that loves a good joke, this game is dripping with style and humour. Talking of humour, Lucy’s descriptions of things are utterly brilliant and had me chortling away at some points. She calls a wet towel in the bathroom “manky” and her description of her brother is so unapologetically laced with the dry British humour that you can’t help but crack a smile.

Overall my time with Lucy Dreaming felt like just that - a dream. The love, care and attention to detail that has been poured into it is evident in every aspect of the game and as someone with the attention span of a goldfish, I only stopped playing when I realised the sun was coming up. So if you need a 90’s gaming fix with all the bells and whistles of modern game development, Lucy Dreaming is the title for you. Lucy Dreaming is available on PC, Mac, Android, iOS and Nintendo Switch.

Lucy Dreaming Fact Sheet