Got this on sale for .59 cents and I pretty much got my money's worth. For the price, I don't really think I can rag on it that much. It is rather short, which I actually liked (and expected).
I did like the voice-overs; I felt they gave a bit more color and personality to the game.

My biggest issue is actually that it reminds me a LOT of a free game I played on Kongregate called "The Company of Myself." The gameplay AND story is almost exactly the same... and the Kongregate game had smoother/tighter controls and a much heavier story/ending.

That said, I was a little disappointed that it didn't seem to have anything fresh or new to add, but for what it was I did enjoy it.

This game is almost an exact copy of the 2009 game "The Company of Myself". The Company of Myself, however, is arguably much better than Broken Dreams, AND is free. Most specifically the soundtrack of The Company of Myself is still one of my favorite game soundtracks.

The artwork in this game is nice, but there is no real animation. Your character seems to just slide from one place to another with no other movement.

The male voice actor for Boken Dreams is alright, but the female voice actor sounds like she has a cold.

The ending also leaves much to be desired. While I won't spoil it for those of you who choose to play the game I will say that it brings no closure to the short story.

Overall, considering I got the game in the bundle at 90% off, I cannot complain too much, but I certainly would not reccomend buying Broken Dreams at the asking price of two dollars (Especially when a better version is available for free). Also consider that the game only takes about one half-hour to complete and decide how much money that is worth to you. While I would not spend extra money here, I do not feel that I wasted my half-hour.

My playtime: I played this game offline but I finished it in around 1h.
Developer Response: No (last response is in 25 Feb, 2016).

Broken Dreams is a short platformer game where you cast shadows that can repeat your actions to reach your goal. The game has 25+5 levels in total.

The first thing that I noticed with this game is that the game is very blurry. Sure, it supports full screen, but the resolution looks like the scaled up version of the normal resolution of the game, which is around 720x480.

Leaving that aside, the graphics look great, especially the backgrounds. The backgrounds make it seem as if the game happens in a dream (which is surprisingly similar to the game name).

The story in this game is told through several texts that are written at each level. There is also a voice-over for the story although I think it ruins the atmosphere; the man's voice sounds like a girl and the girl's voice sounds so exaggerated that I can't stand to keep on listening to it.

To be honest, I don't really understand the story that much. The story is mostly about a man who is obsessed with a girl. I can't really make out the ending because it doesn't have a conclusion but you can interpret both the ending and the story yourself.

As I said before, this is a platformer game. There are 2 different mechanics in this game although the objectives are basically the same: you have to reach a girl or a bench. The game has 25 main levels and 5 bonus levels in total.

You'll control the man at first and you can press space to leave a shadow that will do anything that you did before you pressed that button. You can use the shadow to reach places that you couldn't reach before until you reach your goal. After you finished several levels, you'll meet a girl and the second mechanic will begin.

In the second mechanic, you'll control both the girl and the man at the same time; you can control the man with arrow keys and the girl with WASD. Note that I don't see any option to change the keybinding so you might want to watch out for that. Anyway, you can't cast any shadows in this mechanic and you have to use both characters to help each other to reach the goal. After several levels, the game will use the first mechanic again with more obstacles.

The game has different obstacles in the levels, with the easier one being a crate that you and your shadows can push around to a harder one such as a barrier-like thing that can only be passed either by you or your shadow (depends on the barrier type). This barrier is a tricky one, especially in later levels since you need to time your jump properly to finish the stage. I find one of the obstacles (where you have to walk blindly) to be ridiculous though because I need to finish the stage by guessing the level layout.

Lastly, I got FPS drop in the game especially after I casted a lot of shadows. I ended up having to restart the game because the reload button doesn't seem to work. The game somehow became smoother after that though (even though I cast a lot of shadows) so I'm not sure what went wrong.

Pros:
- 25+5 levels
- 2 different mechanics

Cons:
- Blurry
- FPS drop if you cast too many shadows

This is a platformer game where you can cast shadows that will follow your previous move to reach your goal. The game has 2 mechanics and it can be very slow if you cast too many shadows.

Yes.
This is a decent platformer game if you don't mind the FPS drop which is not happening that often. It's pretty short though. You can buy it if you think the price is worth it for the game's length. Also, make sure to buy it on discount because it's a "you get what you pay for" kind of game.

Follow our curator page Alexander's Club Curations, if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.

5/10 - Middle of the Road Platformer

The game isn't amazing but I enjoyed the first hour I played. The platformer utilizes puzzle based objectives that can only be completed through using 2 characters simultaneously. One character can use his shadow while the other can do an attack, and both characters can perform a double jump.

The game can be completed in about 1.5 hours or less; which makes the price fair for this title. The gameplay and character attributes were pretty fun, graphics were pleasant and voice acting added a nice touch. The story didn't do it for me and the controls are frustrating and clunky at times; these were the only negatives that popped out.

Worth the $1; but usually on sale for next to nothing!

It's the typical Indie Title where you wait for a huge Sale and get your Discount on or spend your last few cents on Games like this.
The purchase for this was worth it, even if i thought like: "Meeh whatever".

Suprisingly well made for what it is. It's a 2d Platforming Indie Title, which is not bad at all.

And it got Cards :)

*RECOMMENDED*

This heart-touching platformer involves the story of a man who is trying to reach his lover. I still found the story quite flat, though, and find it fitted to the “Quest for love” category of games. But, I did enjoy the way the game had this goal fashioned in a way that connected both in the atmosphere, and as a novel. In each level, you are introduced with a new set of dialogue that connects to the latter. The dialogues itself explains in more detail of our character, their motives and the situation. Then there are the bits of tutorial for how to play and the key controls.

The basic “AWSD” key bindings are what you use, and the space key will re-wind time to where you will see yourself and a shadow of your past self-repeating the same actions that you did before resetting. These controls are simple and easy to follow, so kudos for that.

The environment definitely gets the most compliments. The background was rich with nature and visuals of the sky, but never to the point where we couldn’t focus on the platform and characters. It gave off a relaxing vibe. That, blended with the piano piece as the background music made it all the more atmospheric. There were also small effects: fireflies that would shimmer in the levels where it is night, and snow falling on the winter maps.

I’ve already included my comment on the audio, but as for the voice acting … it was all right. Jack’s voice was done, but the female voice actor sounded too aggressive and loud to fit in with the nature of the game. Upon hearing her first dialogue, it sounded like the voice actor was shouting in their microphone!

That being said, I still enjoyed the game nonetheless. It reminded me of a similar game, titled ‘The Company of Myself’ which was also a great game. I recommend playing Broken Dreams.

Not worth the dollar. Not sure why this has such rave reviews. Its flash game quality and the core gameplay is using mimics of your past gameplay to climb to new hights. This mechanic has been done by several flash games already and this game doesnt do it very well. The shadow replays dont always follow the same patterns and sometimes you get different outcomes of what they do from the same action This is pretty bad, and makes some of the later puzzles near impossible.
Levels where you have to platform through a maze of invisible walls and platforms also make sme appearances and I dont see how they could be fun for anyone. Though this game is marked as multiplayer, most of the game only has 1 character and the 2 player puzzles are all babyishly easy. DONT BUY THIS FOR MULTIPLAYER!
Calming music was ok. Other than that this game was a completely bad experience. You can also probablly clear the game in less than an hour. I gave up after half an hour at which point I had 3 levels left to do. Any time I have logged past that was probablly idling for trading cards. YAY IDLING FOR TRADING CARDS 10/10! :-D

TL;DR - For me, this game was not entertaining or fun to play. Uninstalled.
0/10 stars

Broken Dreams is a platformer with a unique mechanic of "shadow friends" to help you reach new heights, and a story about unrequited love. While this sounded really interesting in a description, during game play I found it just feel flat for me.

PRO
The voice acting was well done

CON
The in-game tutorial does not explain shadow friends aspect of game very well & I found the shadow friends both hard to control/direct during game play, and disturbing during the story.
Characters weren't likeable - Jack came across as a creepy stalker and Michelle came across as manipulative and heartless.
I felt the levels didn't progress in difficulty well. Some levels felt stupidly hard (10 & 17), other levels not so much.

VALUE FOR THE MONEY
Broken Dreams didn't provide me with entertainment or fun, and playing the game wasn't an enjoyable experience. There's so many inexpensive or Free-to-Play games on Steam that offer much better gameplay and provide fun and entertaining gameplay, this really falls short by comparison. Even purchased at a discount during a sale, I feel it wasn't a good purchase and I cannot recommend this game.

+Great Soundtrack
+Great Narrator
+Awesome Gameplay
+Card
+Cheap

-graphic
-no Achievements

score 89/100

EDIT:

Ending Suck !!

Final Score 78/100

Sadly I can't recommend this game. It's super short (completed it in about 30 minutes, extra time is time spent for cards), and while tries to deal with the idea of obsession and maybe game tropes a bit, it's just scratching the surface. The Company of Myself on Kongregate deals way better with it, having a more interesting (and longer!) game, with better narrative and controls. It's more emphasized, more twisted, has depth to be darker. If you would like to have a simple platformer with a cute love (?) story, then play the " I saw her" games also on Kongregate. They have a cute story, nice controls and really interesting ideas about how to control your character, and indirectly another person.
So, yeah. If you want a food-for-thought game, play the free one on Kongregate instead of this one. If you want a feel-good / cute, original take on the simple-platformer genre, play the other free games on Kongregate. And if it boils down to supporting indies, support those developers. They made better games - in case of The Company of Myself EIGHT years before this game with same mechanics, but way better.