Ahead of the Game - Dream Siege is nightmare-busting grid efficiency while you sleep
Don't let the bed bugs bite
- Face your fears and battle foes in your sleep
- Manage your limited slots to survive nightmarish waves
- Unlock more dreamers as you go along
It's all about keeping the nightmares at bay in your sleep in this week's Ahead of the Game series, where we tell you about a new mobile endeavour that's playable in one form or another despite its unofficial launch.
I suppose now that we're slowly heading into Halloween territory, it only makes sense for me to feature horror-themed (or horror-adjacent, since I'm such a scaredy cat) adventures on mobile - and it's Dream Siege that's caught my eye this week.
It is, quite literally, you facing off against nightmares as your character needs to be asleep to fight the things that go bump in the night. At its core, Dream Siege is essentially a backpack management game - a trend I've been seeing a lot of these days, and it's very welcome. In battle, you'll need to outlast hordes of nightmarish foes across multiple waves, with each wave offering you randomised boons to help you upgrade your gear. You'll unlock slots across your grid-based "backpack" as you go along, and with each new slot, you can then deploy more weapons to aid you on your noble quest.
It's nothing that hasn't been done before, really, but I suppose what gives this a fresh twist is its theming - it's all about the cartoonish macabre here, with a distinct visual style that adds a certain Burton-esque feel. You'll also need to strategise whether you'll prioritise dreamers first or go for weapons right off the bat, because without dreamers, your weapons won't be of any use and vice versa.
Outside of combat, you can upgrade your weapons and unlock more characters with different skills - there's even a Monkey King lookalike that I'd honestly love to see dozing off and then fighting nightmares in their sleep.
So, how do you play Dream Siege?
Now in early access on Google Play, the backpack management tower defence roguelike is already playable on Android, albeit in a bit of a rougher form. The only thing I'd warn you about is that there are simply way too many ads right now, as there are not only rewarded ads that are optional when you want extra gear or a handy Revive, but there are also random ads that just pop up in the middle of battle, which can get really annoying really quickly.
I'm hoping this is simply because the developers haven't really fine-tuned the monetisation just yet - I suppose we'll just have to find out once it's officially launched!
