Developer: Krillbite Studio
Publisher: Killbite Studio
Rrp: £14.99 (or £13.29 on gog.com)
Released: 29th May 2014
Available on Steam and gog.com
Played using: Keyboard and mouse
Among the Sleep is a FPH (First Person Horror) game with a unique premise as you get to play as a toddler. Following in the footsteps of games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Outlast, gameplay essentially revolves around collecting objects to progress and hiding from monsters. The fact that you’re a toddler greatly adds to the fear factor as you don’t have much in the way of strength or speed.
Early in the game you are gifted with a teddy bear who often acts as a guide, you can also hug the teddy (by pressing the F key) to illuminate darkened areas around you. Personally I found the bear to a bit creepy looking but perhaps that says more about me than the game.
Being a horror game there has to be some danger to the player and Among the Sleep is no different in this regard. While playing through you will encounter some monsters, I wish I could call them something else but I’m afraid I just don’t have another name for them. These monsters don’t kill you but instead scare you which essentially works in the same way. If you see one the edges of the screen become more blurred and a loud shrieking noise assails your ears. Stay too near one and eventually you’ll become too scared and black out, restarting you at the last checkpoint. Also as with most horror games you can hide, which, with a little patience will cause the adversary to walk off.
Of course you must remember you’re a toddler, really long falls will cause an ‘owie’ which is game over and you also can’t swim so that too causes game over.
Then again the game is very generous with the checkpoints and the game over screen is actually kind of charming.
Quite often as you play you will find there is a element of puzzle solving to be done, nothing too taxing of course as the games strengths lie in other areas but just enough to keep things interesting.
This game is full of nice little details that really sell the experience, like all the writing that appears in the game (outside of the menus) appears as unintelligible squiggles, or the fact that when you pause the game the pause menu background shows the child’s hands covering it’s eyes as if playing peek-a-boo.
Another fine example are the child’s drawings you find scattered around that can tell you the story (or at least give hints) to what is going on. These aren’t anything you collect, you’ll just see them scattered around, I think this is a nice example of using the environment to tell your story. Of course all is revealed by the end of the game but you can get some clues through these little items beforehand.
As I’m sure any parent will tell you toddlers are not fast, and just as in real life neither is your character… At least when he’s stood up. If you choose to crawl (control key) you’ll be rewarded with a much faster speed.
The controls are simple to understand and use, with certain actions that are only able to be performed while standing up. There is also a leaning function (using the Q and E keys to lean left and right), though I never found a use for it. Also like other horror games you open doors and interact with objects by clicking them with the left mouse button and dragging, allowing you to control the speed you open the door.
I found that it was the ambient sound that effects that made me feel scared rather than anything that was seen on screen. That being said the way the areas you play through are like twisted, dreamlike, (perhaps nightmarish would be a better word) versions of the real world which adds to the feeling of tension.
The game suffers from a few of the pit falls that many indie developers do, environments that you can get momentarily stuck on, and odd occasions where you can see where you shouldn’t be able. These little bugs don’t break the game but they are immersion breaking and the few human characters that appear have that uncanny valley feeling.
There is a free piece of DLC (downloadable content) that is included with the game and is the prologue to your adventure. You can access it by choosing the ‘chapters’ button on the main menu and selecting it
All being said and done this is unique title and well worth a look, but… Not at the price they’re asking for. The game is just too short even with the free DLC for that price, you can easily complete all of it in just over a couple of hours. I’d try and pick it up when it’s at around £5 or so.
