Among The Sleep is a first person horror video game, where you control a two years baby. With versions for PC, Mac and PS4, in this game, your only help will be talking teddy bear, of course, a good dose of courage. The indie game yields good scares and reminds us that don’t need much to feel terrorized, check out our review.
A night of terror
You start the game, having dinner with your mother on her birthday. Seems to shift to a new city, because there is no a party, just you and your mother, eating a cake and you get a teddy bear as a present. Someone knocks on the door, a discussion takes place, and you are taken to your room. Suddenly, the bear begins to walk and talk. So is the introduction of Among The Sleep.
The player begins the game in a "safe" environment, your room. Teddy bear will give instructions that induce interaction with some objects. It will also show your secret. When pressed, the bear rises. It will be your "flashlight" in the game.
Right away, one realizes that Among The Sleep seeks to explore children's fears and traumas. But the game is not for children, quite the contrary. Apparently, the studio Krillbite goal was to make the player connect with his childhood, recalling various fears we had when we were kids. In many situations, the disproportionate objects will help or hinder your journey.
Precisely because of its plot, you can not complain in some mechanical Among the Sleep. After all, the whole universe of the game is to match the mind of a two year old. Therefore, the game follows the old mechanics of walking in the dark and look for objects to interact.
A curious game mechanics is that when opening doors or even use one hand, you need to drop the bear, which will cause it to stop shining. This causes many moments of tension when a player is being chased by something and suddenly need to be in the dark again. Obviously, the effect is only achieved if the player knows adjust brightness when running the game for the first time. If you leave the very high brightness, this will be part of the experience that many will lose in Among The Sleep.
Controls and limitations
To be controlling a two year old, it soon becomes clear some limitations of our protagonist. He walks slow and clumsy way. When walking or running long, he falls to the ground. When holding the teddy bear Teddy, he shines, but it can mess up, because when the bear is holding the baby moves even slower.
Interestingly, he moves faster when crawling, which is a great solution for the moments of greatest despair. Among The Sleep has simple commands based on ASDW, Ctrl, Q, E, F keys However, at times irritate the commands as a handle when moving or trying to open a door. Although keep in mind that this might have been the idea of the studio, it's still frustrating.
Kids Nightmare
The game "kitchen" a bit player until the first big scare. But when it happens, is a proof that Among The Sleep is not only one child afraid of the dark. In the middle of the night, between one and another nap, you wake up with the bear being led by forces from beyond the best "Paranormal Activity" style.
Is a curious proposal from the studio to explore various childhood fears. Beginning with the audio, it's easy to cringe at the sound of lightning or the sound coming from the heating. Some forms present inside and outside the home also give the impression of being "alive" and are ready to attack.
Style elements "slender"
According to science, sharp sounds like a crying baby are interpreted by the human brain in different ways. They cause us, impatience, dread and fear. In the case of Among The Sleep whenever a creature emerge screen be blurry and strident sound invade your headphones. The feeling is creepy, but less intense than in games like "Slender: The Arrival".
Speaking Slender, some passages of the game remember the now classic game lead scares. However, the plot of Among The Sleep has other goals besides scaring the player. The game tries to convey a story with a message and maybe this can be seen as "less fun", why not focus your gameplay in just scare.
Short, like any other
The misadventures of baby and his bear friend last bit, are just two hours. That can last more if the player is lost in some scenarios. Among The Sleep also offers some puzzles to vary your gameplay. Here the emphasis is on account of the atmosphere that is more terrifying when the puzzle solution approaches.
Still, Among The Sleep is a short game. After finishing, there is much to do. It's hard not to leave with the feeling of having paid too much. Mainly because the game has raised a lot of money in Kickstater, something around $ 250K (over £ 550,000). Is a sense of potential and wasted money.
Basic Visual
Despite having some good elements, in order, graphs Among The Sleep unfold basic to the present day. Models of human characters have few details and there are some bugs in the scenarios.
The good side the graphics are median, is that you don’t need a top of the line computer to play. A basic PC without dedicated graphic card, can run the game and still showing reasonable graphics. A curiosity is that Among The Sleep also works with Oculus Rift, allowing total immersion in child and gloomy world.
Conclusion
Among The Sleep follows the fate of most indie horror games, ie short and intense. The gameplay is interesting, though at times be stressful trying to manipulate objects, which makes some mechanical dull. The premise of wanting to move beyond the horror story itself, is commendable, but the outcome of the plot offsets only to know who "was" Teddy.
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