In most games the object is to avoid death. That's not an option in Dream:scape, a surreal new iOS adventure. Your character Wilson is in a coma and at death's door leaving you to explore his memories in the "dream:scape," a lucid reflection of the rural countryside where he grew up.

You wander around the plain in a first-person view. Finding new locations in the right order fills in the backstory by unlocking voice-recordings and adding passages to your diary. Puzzles rarely get more complex than picking up an item to grant entry to a new area, though finding these can be obtuse.

The right analogue stick is completely superfluous as swiping anywhere has the same effect.

The highlight of Dream:scape is its haunting atmosphere. For a title without combat or game-overs, it's surprisingly unsettling. The deserted and melancholic landscape is brought to life with the Unreal 3 engine. More impressive is its sound. Chirping crickets, howling winds, and buzzing flies create a somber mood reflecting the story. It's not the most original tale; the conclusion feels forced and wraps things up too neatly in some areas and not enough in others, but most of Wilson's past is moving.

Unfortunately, a slew of both major and minor technical issues rob the game of much of its appeal. Its few reflex-based swiping sequences are so unresponsive they're downright broken. A late game quick-time-event was so preposterously unplayable that I had to look up hints online before realizing that a glitch allows you to bypass this sequence entirely. Even basic movement is more of a chore than it should be with a finicky left digital analogue stick that recalibrates every time you touch the screen's lower-left quadrant, but not always immediately. I even got stuck in a piece of geometry once and had to reboot my iPod. Elsewhere, there's invisible walls, flat textures, and a choppy framerate, but these rarely take away from the game in any meaningful way.

Textures are flat up close, but from a distance create a convincing illusion.

But it's not just technical flaws; there are some questionable design decisions as well. If you stray too far from the correct path the narrator will help point you in the right direction, except for when she doesn't. At one point I wandered around aimlessly for ages before realizing a previously locked gate had suddenly opened. A more refined hint system would be appreciated.

My enjoyment of Dream:scape was every bit as fragmented as its fantastic setting. Its Rockwellian environments and evocative tone were intriguing and memorable, but its unresponsive controls, unsatisfying finale, and obscure directions often turned this glorious dream:scape into a nightmare.

The bottom line. Dream:scape is a great mood piece with some lovely scenery and sound effects, but is hampered by awkward controls and other technical issues. Patient gamers may still find it engaging for a couple hours or so.