Dark Dreams looks like the kind of place where a horny virgin RPG nerd would go “ok, yeah, this is where I die happy”. You start as this awkward guy finally getting into the city after busting his ass for years, and the world hits you in the face fast. Humans and these almost-human simic girls live together, and right away you feel that thing in the air: everyone’s a little too touchy, a little too curious, like the whole city is permanently on the edge of a wet dream. Simics are in trouble because they barely get male babies anymore, so suddenly your clueless, blue-balled main guy? He’s not just some random dude. He’s basically a walking fuckable resource. The game does a fun job of letting you feel that shift, too. At the start you’re this shy, “sorry, I never even had a proper handjob” type. After a while, it’s like every corner of the city has someone who wants to test how much stamina you actually have, with this weird mix of fantasy lore and “please cum in me for science”.
What I really liked is how the sandbox part doesn’t hold your hand too much. You wander the city, talk to girls, peek through wrong doors like a creep, and suddenly you’re watching someone getting her throat used in an alley, animated and messy, while your guy is hiding in the shadows jerking off, shaking like he might blow just from watching. Some events feel almost accidental, in a good way. I had one scene where I just went back to the same house at the “wrong” time and walked in on a simic girl riding some guy hard, moaning like her life depends on it. Instead of kicking you out, she locks eyes with you, tells the guy to shut up, and starts using her hand on you too, both cocks getting stroked while she keeps grinding, like she’s trying to milk two faucets at once. It’s raunchy as hell, but there’s also this weird emotional layer, because story-wise they are low-key desperate for strong males, and sex is half lust, half survival. Then later, the same girl sits you down and talks about dreams and ancient shit from Phaeton like she didn’t just have your dick in her mouth against the wall earlier. I kinda like that messy tone shift. Or maybe I don’t. Depends on mood.
Once you start making choices, the game leans hard into the “every touch means something” idea. Sleep with one girl and actually finish in her, and the game remembers. Go for masturbating alone in your small room, watching your phone glow while some simic girl sends you half-naked clips from the bath, and the story bends differently. You can go full voyeur mode, spying from staircases and balconies, staying a virgin a bit longer while you watch other people get their holes filled. Or you can just break and go straight for vaginal, anal, oral, whatever you can unlock, turning the hero from this soft boy to a confident bastard who knows exactly how deep to push. Some of the animated scenes are rough in a good way: that sloppy first blowjob where she struggles with the tip, drool all over, your guy trying not to thrust, then completely failing and shoving it down anyway, her gagging but grabbing your hips so you don’t pull out. That one stuck in my brain. And yeah, the whole “healing power of touch” thing is cheesy as fuck sometimes, but you forget about it when a simic girl is riding your cock slow, staring into your eyes, talking about saving her race while she slides down to the base and you’re torn between listening to the lore and just trying not to cum in five seconds. Oh, and the mobile side is surprisingly smooth, I played half of it on my phone in the bathroom with Chrome on, one hand playing and the other very busy, and it still ran better than some “serious” games on PC. The only thing that annoyed me is that tiny UI thing in the corner that I kept tapping by mistake, but whatever, it’s not getting fixed and I kind of hate it. Anyway, the game keeps mixing slow story scenes with explicit moments where you’re elbows-deep in someone, or she’s sitting on your face while jerking you off, and somehow that fits right in with all the talk about destroyed planets and lost civilizations. Weird combo. Works. Mostly.