With so many endless runners, it relieves us game reviewers when we see a new idea brought to the table, as small a change as it may be. What can stand to infuriate us more than just an average entry into this genre is if the change ends being to the detriment of the whole experience. That's where we find ourselves with Dream Chaser, an endless runner that while having an endless mode also includes a story mode, where the mechanics and intricacies of the game are spread out alongside a narrative over a number of levels. While a good way to introduce players to the game while telling a story of restoring peace to the realm of the gods, the developers decided to inject freemium game design in their premium title and end up creating contempt from the player. Contempt is better than apathy I suppose.

As a game itself, well if you've played Temple Run, you've pretty much played Dream Chaser. Your character runs down a corridor in the third person and you can tilt to move lift or right to grab dreams (which are the coins of this game), and avoid obstacles. There's also a jump that is mainly used to clear gaps, and a boost which will speed you along (and in endless mode this is crucial as continuing the game is determined by reaching checkpoints before your health / time meter falls. The boost has three levels to it, and collecting more dreams while boosting will increase your speed until you reach level three. So OK, the boost mechanic is a neat idea in theory, but the corridors you run down don't really offer anything interesting to take advantage of your Sonic-like speed, and it actually will hinder you more often than not by plunging you into a pit after not judging your jump properly.

Now what's the freemium aspect of story mode you may ask? It's simple. Every death in story mode will deplete a heart. Once you reach zero hearts, you can either pay to revive them, or wait till the next day to continue playing. Oh you can play endless mode as much as you want, but why you would continue to give your attention to a game acting like this is beyond my capacity as a reviewer. Oh, and all the prices in the store are obscenely high, so there's that too.

I guess the visuals can be quite nice and serene, and the music accompanies the whole aesthetic well, but the game is just your average run of the mill Temple Run clone, but then it has to go and add that freemium feature which just frankly is maddening. It adds nothing to your game and will just make your player base hostile towards you. With that said, only die hard fans who will play every new endless runner out there should check this out, and even then, you have played better.