For a long time I thought of Grim Fandango as the ‘LucasArts game with the skeletons’, whose appeal was a total mystery to me. Maybe it was because back then, when the game was released, I had been somewhat over-saturated (like many others) by countless adventure games. Also they started copying each other more and more and most of the time provided some awfully boring ideas. Still a game, in which you slip into the role of a bony man, seemed just too silly. In the meantime adventure games are returning again and LucasArts finally closed its gates. So after fifteen years I decided to fill a gap in my knowledge.
Two defining hits, Red Alert and Warcraft 2, had just seemingly set the so-called real-time strategy formula into stone. SSI wanted a piece of the cake and came dangerously close to Warcraft territory. At least they put some thoughts into it and offered a few unique selling points. Professional critics gave good marks, but the general public did not translate such ratings into major sales.
What was it that set this game apart? In principle, it follows the established formula of base building, resource harvesting, production of military units and finally storming the enemy installations. War Wind tried to score with a focus on individual units. No faceless tanks or masses of swordmen, but a countable amount of basic units which could, however, individually equipped and upgraded. Probably, the player was supposed to form a roleplaying-like bond with those units, further strengthened by the option to take a couple from level to level. Fostering and care instead of cannon fodder.
With its explicit illustration of madness, DreamWeb is clearly not thematically in line with the mainstream trend, even though bloody visuals about serial killers are quite traditional in the film industry. On this matter, DreamWeb purposely allows the player to choose whether Ryan is really just a brutal murderer or the sacred tool for saving humanity.
The desolate state of Ryan's psyche is expressed in his diary entitled: "Diaries of a (Mad?)Man", which is included with the game in printed form. Within the setting of a dystopian metropolis of the cyberpunk age, he is confronted with a call for contract killings. The perhaps only imaginary guardians of the thousands of years old DreamWeb themselves would have chosen Ryan to save the world from destruction. In the course of the game, he learns from them that the souls of deceased people return to a reservoir of souls on hidden pathways of the DreamWeb. Evil forces have taken possession of 7 people in the real world, threatening to negatively affect that sacred well of souls. The elimination of these enemies is in Ryan's hands.