Dreams can be explored if you let yourself accept them. In Trauma, a point-and-click experience, you will do just that. Recovering from a terrible car accident, a young woman describes her dreams to a psychologist while in the hospital. These dreams are meant to be delved into by the player who must help the woman realize her identity and help her understand how she deals with events in her life, like the loss of her parents. The essentially point of the game is to figure out what all of this means.
Trauma is not really a game, at least in the traditional sense. The design is very artfully done, and the entrance sequence as well as all other “movie” sequences are particularly compelling. The problem with the game is that, with the way it is presented, you will be hoping for a more interactive experience. Instead, everything is a lot more simple that it could have been. You spend your time exploring several different aspects of an environment as the scenario is represented by pictures taken at several different angles. Exploring every angle of the environment “unlocks” dialogue as well as photos.
The photos that you discover are riddled with strange symbols, which you can draw on screen using your mouse. Correctly drawing these symbols in the right circumstances help to progress the game and unveil more of the plot. Trying to draw these symbols can be frustrating at times, however, as you will often draw the wrong one prematurely when it is supposed to be drawn later. Luckily, drawing the wrong one at the wrong time will not produce any response from the woman and doesn’t negatively affect the player.
The unfortunate thing about this game is that it is pretty much a huge tease. It is extremely simple and is much more of a curiosity piece than anything else. I found trying to examine every single angle to be a little annoying as the PC controls feel a bit glitchy. Trauma feels more like someone’s attempt at an art piece rather than an actual game, experimental nature aside. However, I do think it is worth playing because of the intense visuals in the game. Environments use clever photo tricks like capturing moving light (such as from a moving train) at several different angles to make you feel like you are in a surreal, slowed down version of life. There is definitely something here to enjoy, particularly for those who enjoy photography and art. Some folks may just plain not get it though, because everything is very vague. We must remember that dreams themselves are also very vague, so that is really an obvious criticism.
Trauma is available on it’s official site for free, although that version is a far cry from the paid version of the game. Paying for a downloadable version gives you less wait time while the level is loading and crisper images as well. Also, paying for this game may lead to more interesting projects like this, hopefully like more of an interactive experience. This game is also available on Steam for $6.99.
TRAUMA Trailer from Krystian Majewski on Vimeo.
[Images via Krystian Majewski]
