NOTE: this is the "Complete" version, featuring the full content of the game.

Garage: Bad Dream Adventure is a seemingly obtuse and intimidating little piece but people willing to give this robot fishing nightmare world a shot will find a surprisingly intuitive and genuinely intriguing adventure.

Inside a strange world known as "Garage" the player is a machine that finds himself in a village run filled with rails to wheel around on, sewage filled with odd crabs and frogs, and a variety of denizens in a patriarchal society where male machines sexually feed on female machines for fuel while clinging to their dwindling sense of self called Ego. In gameplay this translates to two meters that will kill the player if they reach zero, forcing the player to quickly familiarize themselves with their surroundings, find where to fill up on and buy more fuel/Ego, and involve themselves in an economy built on fished crabs and frogs from the sewage canals.

The fishing is relatively straightforward and at times both addicting and a little grindy - the player can passively set up crab traps and return to them later for a variety of bait that they can either sell or use at special fishing spots, where with the right hook and right bait can get themselves the fish they seek. However, unless the player finds the right parts and upgrades they won't be able to get the bigger fish that will eventually let them progress through the game. These upgrades can also increase Ego and fuel levels to allow further progression into the village.

Other than the fishing economy, the player must also talk with all sorts of strange machines and learn of their relation to the world. Memos lying around, keys in odd sidequests, and other secrets lie behind every corner. It can be a little obtuse to find one's way, but this version of the game has a very useful log containing all found dialogue from every character as well as an achievement system that rewards the player with items for aiming for objectives. There are some instances where the player simply has to walk around and talk to characters until they find what they're looking for (and one of the endings involves talking to all characters repeatedly to trigger events while fuel/ego dwindles in one of the more stressful things I've experienced in an adventure game) but familiarizing oneself with the world and each relationship is key.

As for the writing, the characters aren't super memorable but have their own range of oddities - most a little crazy but benign and some horrifically cruel ones deeper in the game. This increases even further as the player learns about secrets behind the female machines and shadows, but Garage isn't totally dystopic or horrific despite its weirdness. At its core there's some more psychological elements at play (but it would be spoilers if I told you!)

Finally, the environment is a decayed, murky joy to behold. Japanese signs litter rickety buildings, and the freakish depictions of these biomechanical entities (complete with sexual overtones) would make Giger proud. The music is a variety of disquieting ambiences, with gurgling and nostalgic radio tunes amidst a hypnotic drone. It's surprisingly comforting and cozy for a nightmare world.

Garage: Bad Dream Adventure is filled with strange secrets and rewards players who throw themselves head first into the world and its inhabitants, but is filled with systems that are surprisingly well designed and fun to play. If one doesn't mind a bit of a grind and a bit of backtracking to find out where to go next, it's a one-of-a-kind adventure.