Played through this game after seeing itch.io spotlight it. It's a strangely compelling little twenty-minute shooter about getting ingredients. For soup. Actually soup is one of the ingredients but let's not split hairs here.
'Dreamlike' is one of those words that gets thrown around a lot in relation to video games with surreal imagery, but this game in particular feels like it was constructed in the same way that the mind constructs a dream—shaped partially by the ordinary things that it sees every day, and partially by the rare things that affect it most deeply. The core premise of performing a mundane errand in a desolate, unfamiliar landscape rings particularly dreamlike, especially when nobody acknowledges the discrepancy. It's the sort of thing you'd wake up from with a pounding heart, wondering why your dream-self was so calm and unperturbed. Was that a nightmare? Can I call it a nightmare if I wasn't afraid? Why wouldn't anyone in the store help me?
It's also dreamlike in its use of imagery; once again, playing with sights that feel like a kaleidoscope of someone's fears, projected back onto the mind's canvas. A crucifixion, an unblinking eye in the sky, a scene from a Beksinski painting. There's a biblically-accurate angel hovering over the road and I have to take a detour. None of them are really threats, they're just there.
The exploration is fine. The shooting is fine, insofar as it serves to introduce adversity to your journey. I'm mostly just here for the vibes, though—and the vibes are good.