Dreamweb, a dark, cyberpunk adventure by Creative Visions, just might be the most depressing game ever made. As a down-on-his-luck ex-bartender named Ryan, it's your duty to hunt through the bleak streets of the city and murder seven different people. Ryan knows this because he's constantly haunted by visions of the "Dreamweb", a place inhabited by monks who instruct him that these seven souls are going to cause an imbalance and doom the world.
It's a little creepy, this scenario. For all intents and purposes, you are playing as a serial killer.
Overt violence is nothing new in electronic gaming, but never so much as Dreamweb. For as much controversy as Mortal Kombat and Grand Theft Auto caused, they're so cartoonishly silly that they lack any serious impact. Darker games like Manhunt and Hitman are vaguely justified by their scenarios ("kill or be killed" in the former, paid work in the latter), but never has a game put you in a character so dramatically unhinged that they think they're saving the world, when in reality, they're hunting and gunning down people in cold blood.
But are these victims truly innocent? Is the Dreamweb a mere hallucination, a strange rationalization for Ryan to unleash whatever demon lies within? The answer is never fully given, which is part of why the concept is so brilliant. The original release came with a supplementary book called Diary of a Man Man, which includes a variety of insane scribbles, along with some necessary copy protection type stuff. In the game, Ryan never questions his motives, and even if the player does, not murdering means not proceeding. Beyond the seven targets, for which they need to die for their future sins, there is one innocent person - a guard - you need to kill. Not out of self defense - you just pull out your gun, shoot him, and move on. Ryan doesn't even comment on it. Perhaps it's rationalized that this bystander needed to die for the greater good. Perhaps it's more that Ryan has no use or regard for human life to begin with.
