# The Dreamhold — user reviews > 32 indexed App Store user reviews of The Dreamhold by Zarfhome Software Consulting, rated 4.80/5 from 15 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-dreamhold/id517870810/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/the-dreamhold/id517870810.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 12 · 4★ 3 · 3★ 0 · 2★ 0 · 1★ 0 ## Newest reviews (12 of 32) ### 5/5 — Hell yeah *2013-04-16* Great time killer and the map helps a lot ### 5/5 — Super Einführung in "Interactive Fiction" *2013-02-18* Plotkin versteht es, Kopfkino vom Feinsten zu kreieren. Wer schon immer Mal "Textadventures" ausprobieren wollte, findet hier den idealen Einstieg: das Tutorial ist eingebaut. Auch toll: die integrierte, automatische Karte- so macht's auch unterwegs viel Spaß! ### 5/5 — Hell Yeaaaa *2013-01-29* It's a really delightful and lively game... But really challenging. I'm not sure how to finish it but its great!👏👏👏👏👏 ### 5/5 — Wonderful *2013-01-23* Great puzzles, gorgeous prose, and an amazing interface. Recommended for readers and thinkers. ### 5/5 — Great! *2012-12-16* In the past, I'd only played some short, low-effort interactive fiction, so this is the first real one I've tried. I really like it. As a big fan of escape-the-room games, I loved Dreamhold's puzzle aspect, as well as the fact that it let me use my imagination. ### 5/5 — Excellent intro to interactive fiction *2012-10-05* I've tried a couple of IF games before but only briefly. I thought this game was excellent as an introduction - not to easy and not too hard - and with a good system of hints if you get stuck. I thought the easy access to the map was great - without that I could easily have been lost. The way the whole interface was good. You need to be a particular sort of person to enjoy IF - patient! and keen on puzzles - but if that is you I doubt you'll find a better intro than this. And free! ### 5/5 — Making the impossible possible... *2012-08-04* The Dreamhold is a nice little and very athmospheric game. But the biggest achievement of the game is giving proof that IF can be fun on a smartphone. Until the Dreamhold I thought that it can't be done, but this one gets it right. GREAT! Looking forward to see more! ### 5/5 — Amazing *2012-07-28* First everything the guy above said definitely, and secondly you've made if all seem so fluid and it all works perfectly. Maybe a bit less sensitive controls when coming off keypad but otherwise perfect. ### 5/5 — I played it till I ran out of battery. *2012-06-06* Awesome game, thanks for the iOS fix! I played it till I ran out of battery. It just goes to show than you don't need fancy graphics, just a good story with well thought-out logic. The map is a nice addition and works well. Top marks - when's the next one coming?! ### 5/5 — Awesome! *2012-06-04* I have been playing text adventure games since the very first one, I still remember the excitement of getting a new Infocom or similar game and diving into it and losing myself in new worlds. I have kept up with some of the recent releases and even played this one some on the pc. I was excited when I was able to play my old games on the iPad but it just seemed to be missing something that prevented me from diving back into the old masterpieces. What you have done here is provide that missing piece. The map feature you have added is awesome, the ability to just in a few taps bring up frequently used words and type commands and even take notes is fantastic. I would love to see Interactive Fiction take off again with full length games and the features you have added here in this one. Great Job! ### 5/5 — A clever spin on a classic idea *2012-05-27* I've tried every text adventure and interpreter (such as the venerable Frotz) there is for the iPad, and I think that The Dreamhold brings a few new things to the table. The auto-map, which I suppose might irritate purists, is an idea whose time has clearly come. Likewise, I think the Achievements, which are something I normally disdain, seem to somehow make sense as a way of marking one's progress through the game in some manner beyond a simple numerical score. ### 5/5 — Smooth, elegant iOS implementation of a newbie-friendly game *2012-05-26* I've played for about 15 min and have not seen any errors. Very friendly for those new to interactive fiction -- the auto-map is beautiful, and I love being able to personalize the margins and line spacing. At first I thought it was not possible to enter words by tapping them on the screen -- there is no visual feedback if you tap once, so it didn't occur to me to double-tap. (I'm sure that feature is described in the instructions somewhere.) ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 3/5 — Glitch *2019-08-05* I accidentally typed a character it couldn't process, and it reset my progress ### 3/5 — ::Pouts:: *2012-05-27* I was really looking forward to playing this game but I too got the text of death. It's so sad! ### 3/5 — Noooooo! *2012-05-26* It did it to me too... The same Fizmo error. 4S on 5.1.1. ### 3/5 — What a great idea! *2012-05-26* However I can't play because right away at the bottom I see a message that says "Fizmo fatal error. Caught signal 11, aborting interpreter." And when I tap to enter text a dialog comes up that tells me the app has encountered a serious error and must quit. I have iOS 5.1.1 on an iPhone 4S. Anyway I love the idea of packaging each game as an app and I look forward to playing this one and many more! ### 4/5 — Good introduction to text adventures, tricky fantasy adventure *2019-03-08* I really enjoyed the writing and atmosphere in this magical fantasy story. It’s somewhat reminiscent of Myst, but is told entirely through text. Magic and surreal events take place in this game, like a dream. Your task is to explore the (small) world and figure out what happened and who you are. Besides being an atmospheric game, It is deliberately designed as an introduction to text adventures (also known as interactive fiction) and does a good job of coaching you through the way to solve these games, which can be frustrating if you don’t find the right way to think about the puzzles. I have played a few a long time ago, so I didn’t fully need the tutorial, but it was still helpful. The tutorial will help you solve the basic plot, although there is still significant challenge. Beyond that, there are many optional parts to explore, which are relatively tricky to solve, but some of the most awesome and surreal. I found these optional parts pretty hard to solve and resorted to the walkthrough to discover some. There is also a backstory, but it is told in a very fragmented way that makes it hard to understand. It came across more as ‘mysterious scenery’ than a useful story to me. A small complaint is that some of the physical-style puzzles like the Orrery (a working model of planets) and the cistern seemed really awkward to solve through text. A picture really would be worth a thousand words here, even though the words were well written! I found myself battling the games ‘parser’ in these puzzles to express myself. Overall, a very good game, I wish the author would do more magical fantasy ### 4/5 — Not too exciting, but still fun *2018-09-21* I would have liked it even better and may have given it a full five stars if there had been more peril and a more climactic ending. But it was a very enjoyable game, nonetheless. ### 4/5 — Work through it it's worth it *2017-04-22* It's a thinking mans game, and it's wonderfully well thought out. Came back to re download ### 4/5 — Amazing *2017-01-20* This game was exactly what I was looking for, and I really appreciate all the effort put into it. The fact that there's a long description for anything you can "examine" really shows all the time spent in making this interactive. ### 4/5 — Exceptionally well written *2016-11-17* But soulless. Not very fun. I needed a walkthrough; knowing what to do or having to figure it out myself made little difference in the fun factor. Still, kudos on the totally free, really clever game. ### 4/5 — Very Nice *2012-12-29* This game is very nicely done. I think it will mostly appeal to the older generation, who can remember this type of adventure. The help system is very good, and it is not as boring as some other text adventures. It plays very well in verbose mode, where the location descriptions are much more detailed. I know already that I will want to continue playing. It's rather like being in the mood to read a book! Well done, and keep em coming. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Retro-Spaß! *2019-08-01* So etwas hätte ich mir vor über zwanzig Jahren gewünscht, als ich mich mit Infocom Adventures herumgeplagt habe. Und einfach kostenlos. Tolles Geschenk vom Entwickler. ### 5/5 — The game is great so far! *2017-10-04* I have been considering writing an interactive fiction for a while now so I decided to start by playing a few. This was the first I found and I love it! Only one issue so far. Possible minor spoiler... If you take the mountain painting from the Atelier and hang it in the sitting room it turns into the desert painting. The mountain painting is no longer in inventory. The desert painting is both on the wall and in inventory. I haven’t progressed far enough to know if I still need it (I already got the brown mask), but if I had taken the painting before using it I wouldn’t be able to complete the game. ### 5/5 — Very addictive! *2016-06-04* At first I thought this would be a confusing game but as a first time player I've found it very enjoyable! I highly recommend it and it's worth getting! ### 5/5 — I never write reviews but… *2016-01-09* I never write reviews but this is the best game EVER. My friend personally knows Zarf, and she showed me this game. I've been playing it for a few days now, non stop. Please get this game right now. It's free for a LIMITED TIME people. Also, Zarf is my spirit animal. If you want to look him up his real name is Andrew Plotkin but he doesn't like that so please refer to him as Zarf. ### 5/5 — Excellent *2015-08-31* Excellent game, intriguing story, very expansive and detailed, very nice tutorial for IF gaming. ### 5/5 — Spectacular *2015-07-25* Absolutely spectacular! Hours of entertainment, exceptionally well-written, plenty of commands, complex storyline and inventive puzzles. The entire experience was unforgettable, magical and mind-boggling. Possibly the best text based adventure I have experienced. A must-have for fantasy fans, text adventure geeks and book-lovers! ### 5/5 — I don't normally write reviews... *2015-07-15* ...but this game is fantastic! The story is well-written, and the puzzles are challenging. It kept me glued to my screen the whole time. As a first-time IF player, the tutorial and help screen were helpful. Don't be afraid to try this game if you're new to the genre, too. ### 5/5 — Finely crafted *2014-02-15* Fun to explore, helpful interface and fabulously written. A must have. ### 5/5 — Very nicely done. *2014-02-06* Digging through quite a few of these text adventures in iTunes & found most of them to be crap. This one most certainly isn't. Very nicely done. ### 5/5 — Good *2013-04-24* This is how a text adventure should be. Very enjoyable. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-13.*