James Patton, Clockwork Bird

Published: 21 April, 2021

Genres: Choices Matter, Investigation, Sci-fi, Detective, Cyberpunk

Estimated Game Length: 5 hours

The game

Silicon Dreams is a game that I would consider to be a hidden gem within the gaming community.

At times, I wonder how I ever discovered this Sci-fi interrogation game on the internet. And yet, not once have I regretted it. Rather, I find myself thankful for the small experience that the game offers and hopeful that it will reach a larger audience. This game mixes the two themes of Detroit Become Human and Blade Runner into a beautifully crafted game, one that I couldn't stop playing.

In the cyberpunk dystopian 2065, you find yourself woken up in an interrogation room, sitting in front of a desk with only your device to turn to. When you load this device, you see an android on the screen who tells you that you were born five minutes ago and you were designed to interrogate her. She is the first of many androids you must face with the decision to release or destroy.

The Positives

The visuals. The UI of the interrogation device is simple and effective. The smallest details of the elapsed time, the android's file, and the cameras in the interrogation room were not necessary but incredible for player immersion in the interrogator role. Even the reference to Blade Runner through the eye tracker was a fantastic decision that I am glad the developer took.

The lore. I will say that the story is a little limiting, but for the limited playtime it has, I like to believe Silicon Dreams covered an interesting set of topics within the cases. As someone who has studied aged care, I loved the focus of the medical industry, as well as other industries that have impacted androids and humans alike.

The choice branches. Though I wished that the choices could further impact the direction of the story, I was satisfied with the decent amount of choices given to the player. The choices of Silicon Dreams primarily impacted the current case, not the storyline of the game. As an interrogator, your company gives the cases to you, meaning a 'good' or 'bad' case wouldn't impact the next case given to you. Putting this information aside, I do like the multiple ways to either help or harm the android, whether you act kind to them then destroy them or act rudely to them and free them. The relation between choice branches and emotions was a fun feature that also helped make the androids less one-dimensional.

The Negatives

The Interrogation Functions. Though I can praise this game for all it has to offer, two of the game's mechanics seem to be useless. Through high ranking, you are rewarded with the ability to control android's emotions with music. However, this reward becomes useless once you realise you don't need it in your gameplay. For the times I attempted to use it, the function didn't work as intended. In addition, you can restrain and unrestraint the android without the character being bothered by it, which breaks the player's immersion.

Possibly rushed. Comparing the beginning of the game to the end, I question if the developer was forced into rushing the game's release. I enjoyed the game's beginning where you can explore the lives of Kronos androids and the moral challenges surrounding them. However, amid the game, the story begins to lean towards the android revolution as the other themes fade out. I am aware that there are plenty of players who are happy with this, some even preferring if the story focused more on the deviant androids. But as someone who enjoyed the casual cases, the story shift felt forced. This issue could be resolved if the android revolution was only unlocked if you chose the route. That way, more routes can be added surrounding the other topics that the game lightly went across.

Overall

It is a shame to see low ratings for Silicon Dreams when there was clearly a lot of work put into the game's creation. While I can see the downsides, I can also see the goodness of the game and appreciate it for what it is. Since it is a short game, I recommend buying it when it's on sale. I believe the game's demo possibly impacted the player's expectations for the game due to the cases. But, I can promise that if you love delving into the possible androids' impact on industries, then you will love this game. I like to think Silicon Dreams has a little bit of everything, a game that I wish was expanded upon.