Back to Bed is an exemplary example of indie games that are able to explore unique themes and art styles that break out of the standard AAA molding. It flaunts a profusely surrealistic tone and art direction that will surely be drool-inducing to any art major. Despite it’s profoundly satisfying look, it feels like the most basic of puzzle games in a way that will quickly wear down anyone but the most devoted of puzzle-fiends.
In Back to Bed, the goal of every level is to lead sleep-walking narcoleptic Bob through his beautifully surreal dream worlds (Distinctly inspired by the likes of such artists as Salvador Dali, M.C. Escher and Rene Magritte) to successfully lead him back to his bed. You play as Subob ( a dog-like creature with Bob’s face) and lead Bob through the world by placing subtle obstacles to direct his movement . You can pick up objects such as Magrittes Apples (and later fish bridges) to obstruct his line of movement. Movement is displayed in a trail of footsteps, which will make him turn. When Bob’s path is blocked, he will always turn clockwise and continue onward either until you get him into his bed, ending the level, or he falls off an edge which will prompt him to respond and repeat his initial pattern.
That gameplay all starts simply enough, but the biggest flaw in Back to Bed is that despite the stunning visual design of the levels, the gameplay mechanics do not develop any further than this basic conceit, and apart from a few gimmicks introduced early on, the puzzle mechanics don’t really reflect the surrealist theme in the way that the environments do. There are mirrors that work like portals, teleporting you from place A to place B on the level, and a few others consisting primarily of enemy type characters like hounds and a patrolling alarm clock that will wake poor Bob up. However, the mechanics never evolve past “Bob turns clockwise, get Bob to the bed.” You can fast forward time to speed things up, and for whatever reason, zoom in on Subob, but the mechanics never expand beyond those simple interactions.
The lack of innovation and evolution of mechanics throughout the game had my love for the art design quickly overshadowed by the annoyance felt trudging through such repetitive and tedious gameplay. I’ll admit I’m not a huge fan of puzzle games in general and if you are, you might have a much higher tolerance for this–but as beautiful as it looked on my TV, this just felt mechanically more like a mediocre mobile or iPad game than a console game. I felt a deep appreciation for the art style and had a lot of fun admiring the environments, but while playing out a few levels in small chunks, I couldn’t sit down and play it for more than a couple levels without switching to something else.
As much as the gameplay wore me down, the visual design is truly refined and there is a lot of thought through aspects such as the sound design that carry the surrealism theme well. For example, the weird voice and it’s truly bizarre pronunciations that give the game a sharp dream-like feel. If the simple puzzle mechanics or the surrealism angle seems particularly appealing to you then this game is worth checking out. It gives you about roughly two hours of gameplay at a fair price. There is also a harder mode unlocked by completing the main game, but I was pulled into the game enough to try that. As much as I enjoyed playing a few small chunks at a time, it becomes a little too tedious to play for extended periods of time and just doesn’t feel at home as a console game.
A PS4 code for Back To Bed was provided by Bedtime Digital Games for this review