The American Dream (video game)

The American Dream (video game)
Information
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Developer	Samurai Punk
Publisher	Samurai Punk
Platform	PlayStation VR, SteamVR, Oculus Rift (Platform)
Device	PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Meta Quest
Operating System	PlayStation 4, Windows
Type	Game
Genre	Shooter, Action, Adventure
Input Device	PlayStation Move, Tracked Motion Controllers
Game Mode	Single-player
Release Date	March 14, 2018 (PS VR, Rift, Vive); June 30, 2022 (Quest, announced date)
Price	US$19.99 (launch); US$14.99 (current list price)
App Store	PlayStation Store, Steam, Oculus Store, Meta Horizon Store
Website	https://samuraipunk.com/

See also: VR Apps and PSVR Games

The American Dream is a satirical virtual reality game by Samurai Punk, an independent studio based in Melbourne, Australia, in which the player rides through a 1950s world's fair built by gun manufacturers and uses guns for everyday tasks such as eating, flipping burgers, gardening and dancing at a high school prom. It is a satire of American gun culture. Samurai Punk self-published it on 14 March 2018 for PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, at a launch price of US$19.99. A standalone Meta Quest version was announced for release on 30 June 2022.

The game is played only in VR. The player is guided by Buddy Washington, a talking dog voiced by Michael Dobson, through more than 20 short levels, each set at a different stage of an average American's life. Critics gave it mixed reviews. On Metacritic the PC version has a Metascore of 72 and the PlayStation 4 version 67, both in the "mixed or average" range.

Reviewed 13 October 2026. Developer and publisher, studio location and status, premise, gameplay and reload details, McDonnell quotes, PAX West 2016 showing, release dates, prices and ratings on Steam, PlayStation Store, Meta Horizon Store and Limited Run Games, July 2018 update, Metacritic and OpenCritic scores and the quoted UploadVR, GamingTrend, COGconnected and PC Gamer reviews. About review dates.

Gameplay

The American Dream is an on-rails shooter. The player rides a carnival-style cart through a vast complex which, in the game's fiction, a group of gun manufacturers built in the 1950s to show the "American Patriot" a better and richer life lived with guns. PC Gamer described the setting as a theme park "roughly modelled on Disney's Epcot Center". Buddy Washington narrates the whole game. In UploadVR's 2017 preview, the narrator appeared as a Labrador-shaped statue holding a megaphone, and tunnels shaped like gun barrels took the place of loading screens between levels.

Each level is a self-contained vignette from one part of a life, starting with the player as a baby in a crib. In UploadVR's review, a mother points a gun at the baby's mouth to feed it cereal; later levels have the player shoot burger patties to flip them on a grill and deal with problems in a backyard garden. GamingTrend's review also describes cleaning a room by shooting debris, a car wash job, and using a sniper rifle to communicate with a girl across the street. It lists 20 levels, ending with the arrival of a second child, and hidden American roundels with stars as collectibles that give no reward beyond completion. The store listing describes the campaign as fully voiced, single-player and narrative-driven, with "over 20 unique levels", and lists pistols, shotguns, SMGs and "tactical sporting rifles".

The player does not reload with their hands. Instead, the gun is used to hit a button on the arm of the cart, which releases a magazine; the game then slows down while the player catches the magazine in the weapon. A bolt-action rifle also requires working the bolt before the next shot. Reviewers estimated the length at about three hours (GamingTrend) to about four hours (UploadVR and COGconnected).

Development

Samurai Punk had previously made the split-screen shooter Screencheat. Speaking to PC Gamer in 2016, Samurai Punk artist Nicholas McDonnell said the idea "started out as an introspection I was having with a lot of FPS games that I'd played", in which guns are often the only way to interact with the world. He said the game became North America-themed because "most FPS games come out of the US" and because "when you start talking about guns, the conversation about America comes up a lot." McDonnell described a "'don't make guns violent' pass" on every vignette, since in the game's universe guns "are like a multi-tool, they can solve all your problems and they don't shoot people." The reload system follows the same rule: the player is not meant to use their hands, so guns have to do everything.

UploadVR first played the game at PAX West in 2016, where it was shown on an Oculus Rift with Oculus Touch controllers; at that time Samurai Punk planned to launch it in 2017. In August 2017 UploadVR reported that the game was slated for the third quarter of 2017 on PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift with Touch and HTC Vive. In that article McDonnell, credited as co-founder, director and artist, said the game's purpose "is to raise discussion and to be satirical, not to say, 'Hey, we should control guns across America.'"

Release

The game launched on 14 March 2018 on PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. On 4 July 2018 Samurai Punk released an update that added what it described as a "high fidelity American mode" for Independence Day, along with minor fixes. Limited Run Games later took pre-orders for a region-free physical PlayStation VR disc, distributed on behalf of Samurai Punk at US$34.99. Pre-orders closed on 26 December 2021, and the disc was not one of Limited Run's numbered releases. On 23 June 2022 UploadVR reported that Samurai Punk would release the game on Quest on 30 June 2022 at US$14.99; the Meta Horizon Store lists it at that price.

The PlayStation 4 version requires PlayStation VR, the PlayStation Camera and a PlayStation Move controller, supports two Move controllers, and can be played on PlayStation 5. The PC version is VR-only, supports tracked motion controllers, and lists SteamVR or Oculus PC as its VR runtime.

Platform	Release date	Notes
PlayStation VR (PlayStation 4)	14 March 2018	PlayStation Store; US list price US$14.99 in October 2026; rated M by the ESRB and PEGI 16
Oculus Rift, HTC Vive (PC)	14 March 2018	Steam and Oculus Store; Steam list price US$14.99 in October 2026
PlayStation VR (physical disc)	Pre-orders closed 26 December 2021	Region-free disc distributed by Limited Run Games, US$34.99
Meta Quest	30 June 2022 (announced date)	US$14.99

Samurai Punk's website states that the studio "has ceased development". It still lists The American Dream with links to the Meta Quest, PlayStation, Steam and Rift stores.

Reception

On Metacritic, the PC version has a Metascore of 72 from 6 critic reviews, and the PlayStation 4 version 67 from 5 critic reviews; both are classed as "mixed or average". On OpenCritic the game has a Top Critic Average of 67, with 36% of critics recommending it.

Publication	Platform	Score
Metacritic (aggregate)	PC	72/100 (6 reviews)
Metacritic (aggregate)	PlayStation 4	67/100 (5 reviews)
OpenCritic (Top Critic Average)	All	67
GamingTrend	PC	80/100
UploadVR	PC	70/100 (as listed by Metacritic)
COGconnected	PC	65/100
Gaming Nexus	PC	65/100 (as listed by Metacritic)
PlayStation Official Magazine UK	PlayStation 4	60/100 (as listed by Metacritic)

David Jagneaux of UploadVR wrote that the game uses "dark humor and wry sarcasm" and suggested that the creators of South Park "would get along just fine" with Samurai Punk's writers. He found that after an hour or two the mechanics "start to feel increasingly repetitive" and thought the game "may have been better served to be just a bit shorter", but concluded that it "raises questions that are absolutely worth discussing regardless of your stance on gun laws." Ron Burke of GamingTrend wrote that "literally every level of the game is hilarious" and listed "Eye-wateringly funny dialogue" and the voiceovers among its strengths. His drawbacks were "Little replay value beyond shock factor" and audio bugs, including voiceovers that failed to trigger in the first few levels. Felix Wong of COGconnected found the gags "original and highly amusing", at least initially, but wrote that the game "runs out of steam towards the end" and that "the jokes about gun culture also start to wear thin" over its length. Before release, Shaun Prescott of PC Gamer wrote after a 20-minute demo that he found it "much funnier than I expected" and that "taken as a lighthearted critique of first-person shooters, it works."