Counting sheep, continuously falling, your first crush teacher dressed in a chicken suit and doused in Marmite… these are just some common recurring dreams, but me? I had A Dream About Parking Lots. I don’t, but for the sake of introduction, I do. I don’t.
I’ve never once dreamed of a parking lot, or as we say in Blightly, ‘car park’, that I can remember. What’s the significance? Dreams are subjective, as a house may represent safety and comfort for some, or a traumatic memory associated with spilling a biscuit-dunked tea on a white carpet, where Mum removed all gaming privileges for a week. Again, that’s not me, but I did burn a hole in the carpet with a hairdryer. Anyhoo, no need to do any amateur detective work on Wikipedia – the game ambiguously explains it all.
A Dream About Parking Lots is a walking simulator that’ll offer a sleepy challenge: can you see it through to the end without wondering, and wandering, if there’s any substance to it? The game will appeal to a select few, and I’m including myself in that exclusive, elusive group, as the game is somewhat experimental and existential. Without going too much into it, as that would spoil the experience, you wander these parking lots from a first-person perspective with your car keys held out in front of you. Repeatedly pressing the remote will give both an audible and visual clue where your car is parked. We’ve all parked somewhere and forgotten exactly where, right? Hence the remote.
The thing is, while the cars aren’t all the same, the layout is very clinical, and it’s incredibly difficult to pinpoint where yours is at a glance. Through the half a dozen or so areas, you might see the car early on or hear it, but you have to walk a maze of fallen obstacles or cars blocking your progress. Without any interaction options, jump or a nuke, you navigate this labyrinth of automobiles while rapidly pressing the remote (if you don’t know where the car is). When you reach the car, then what? You get in it and drive off, but you neither control the vehicle nor see a rewarding cutscene. What’s the point of A Dream About Parking Lots, then? Don’t blame me; speak to your therapist.
Ah, this is what’s actually under the hood of the metaphorical hot rod: psychology. While plodding about the car parks frantically clicking at a button, a therapist will ask you reflective questions about what the car parks, or parking lots, represent. That adage of ‘you get out what you put in’ somewhat applies here, as for about 70% of the questions asked, I took a proper moment to process and answer. From my understanding, there are no multiple endings, and your input doesn’t affect the outcome of the game, but it might influence your own thought patterns and core beliefs.
Without any timers, health or, well, nothing except an arena of parked cars, there’s no effort required other than to think about the questions, and if you storm through those, there’s equally no point in playing A Dream About Parking Lots. It is a very short game, and, surprisingly, it made it to the Nintendo Switch, as it must have taken 25+ minutes to complete. Again, A Dream About Parking Lots will appeal to a select few and is very niche. I liked the ideas it represented and could squeeze enough out of it to motivate myself in some way. Writing this review, for example. However, it wouldn’t be out of place on itch.io, or a free Steam demo to showcase the developer’s skills and ideas. As an end user, repeat: only a select few will appreciate it. Now, go forth and make your own parking lot games so I can review them.
