Parking Lots and Introspection – Is This A Dream or A Nightmare?
Interactive Dreams lives up to the studio name with their March 2025 release. A Dream About Parking Lots is a walking simulator designed to be played in one sitting. In this game, you work through a sequence of dreams with the sole purpose of finding your car. Equipped with only a car key, the search continues as you converse with your therapist to discover the meaning behind these dreams. Interactive Dreams is set to release more interactive short stories this year. Let’s review this first installment and see if it truly is a dream, or more of a nightmare. For the purpose of this review, I will refer to A Dream About Parking Lots as ADAPL.
The menu of the ADAPL introduces us to the overall art style of the game. Graphics are reminiscent of early games, with low-poly objects and finer details blurred or hidden. The entire window is low-quality, appearing grainy and pixelated. This effectively creates a dream-like state, as you wade through an environment that isn’t quite realised but still exists. ADAPL’s soundtrack consists of Erick Satie’s works, most notably The Gymnopédies. Gymnopédie No. 1 plays in the menu, arguably the most recognised piece of the series and known for its reflective tone – a perfect fit for the game’s theme. Otherwise, sound design is extremely minimalistic, restricted to footsteps, the car key click, and the car horn.
Controls are limited to the actions essential to game progression – find car, get in car, progress dialogue. The restriction of actions gives the impression that there is a pre-designed outcome, much like a dream which you have no control over. This is emphasised by the map design, which blocks off certain points of the map to direct you along the destined path. Unfortunately, I noticed this guidance early on and could get to the car fairly fast. This left me standing still and progressing dialogue. There is an option to leave before therapy ‘finishes’, however I am a completionist so could not do this.
Text options (including the menu) are very low contrast, making it very difficult to identify which option you have selected, which was quite frustrating at times. Otherwise, dialogue depicted realistic conversations and allowed the player to interpret the game’s dreams as they wish. Later in the game, this changes as the dreams begin to distort and we question reality. The designers did this subtly but incredibly well, with shifting textures on objects that are only visible from close by. Looking back at these objects they are completely normal, making it seem more of a nightmare or illusion.
Movement in the game is too smooth, like you’re floating, which again contributes to the overall dream-like state of the game. This smoothness is lost when using stairs during one level, with the movement being very jittery and almost comical in comparison to the rest of the game. There is also no standard progression through levels (‘dreams’), going from #1 and #2 to #7, #9, and #26, a great reflection of how dreams are rarely linear.
ADAPL makes excellent use of liminality in their narrative. It creates a sense of ease or discomfort depending on the therapeutic discussion underway. It’s difficult to fully analyse a short game without spoiling, so I am being careful with my wording. As we progress, title cards change from record keeping headers (i.e., Dream #1) to reflective statements such as “I have been here before”. This transition makes us once again question reality and whether we should trust the conversations taking place.
A PS5 review code for A Dream About Parking Lots was provided by Take IT Studio and this review is featured on OpenCritic
