Scaring the Children – Among the Sleep Review

By Christopher Cross
10 years Ago

<a href="http&colon;//www&period;krillbite&period;com/">Krillbite Studio</a> is no stranger to putting players in the role of characters who are fragile and smaller than the world around them&period; <a href="http&colon;//www&period;krillbite&period;com/theplan/">The Plan</a> was an experiment in what would happen as a fly if you tried to brave the forces and ascend through the treacherous sky&period; With their newest game, Among the Sleep, the life of a child is in peril as players embark on a journey through the night to find out what happened to their mother, who has mysteriously disappeared&period; With incredible atmosphere built by its score and art design, Among the Sleep nails the horror elements but rarely feels like a very compelling video game&period;&NewLine;I think what sets Among the Sleep apart from most games is its decision to place the player in the shoes of a child&period; Not only that, but the game never breaks away from the conceit&period; This is how Among the Sleep defines itself amongst the horror landscape&period; Written words are merely gibberish, everything is too big and too high, and the only constant in the child&&num;8217&semi;s journey to save his mysteriously absent mother is a talking teddy bear&period; All of these aspects combine to create a sense of innocent terror&semi; forget the fact that there is a shadowy figure prowling the environments you roam&period;&NewLine;There is a lot to love about the way Among the Sleep presents itself, but it is also a game that attempts to have a strong thematic presence&period; The game opens with your birthday being interrupted by a noise at the door, which results in your mother becoming scared and putting you in your room&period; Once there, you discover a teddy bear who talks to you and teaches you how to play the game&period; The game offers a neat idea of hide-and-seek&period; Pausing the game simply has the child put his hands over his eyes, making everything stop, with him removing his hands as soon as you unpause&period; Once again, a neat flourish that adds to the immersion&period; When your mother mysteriously disappears and Teddy brings you on a journey to find her, however, is when the game starts falling apart&period;&NewLine;<figure id="attachment&lowbar;96913" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-96913" style="width&colon; 1920px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-96913" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/04095109/AtS-teddy-2&period;jpg" alt="(Among the Sleep, Krillbite Studio)" width="1920" height="1080" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-96913" class="wp-caption-text">(Among the Sleep, Krillbite Studio)</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;For a two hour game, Among the Sleep offers so little in terms of gameplay until its very end that it&&num;8217&semi;s clear there was no idea as how to make a game starring a child interesting&period; The mystery of where your mother had gone and the creepy noises plaguing the character were intended to be enough reason for progression&period; The final chapter is when all the variation in mechanics start happening which is satisfying then, but getting there requires grinding through a lot of repetition &&num;8211&semi; something which players will notice the moment it begins&period; The entire set up is that players must collect four memories of their mother to place in some magical tube in a clubhouse&period; The objective is outlined and so painfully obvious that it means the game will end after those memories are collected&period; The issue is that getting the first two memories is easy and uninteresting&semi; the third memory is where the game then gates players behind another group of collectibles to obtain&period; That is the variation offered within that memory&period;&NewLine;As I mentioned, it&&num;8217&semi;s getting the fourth memory and the rest of the game afterwards that breaks from monotony and tries to take advantage of its unique perspective&period; The gameplay ranges from stealth, to carnival-like games, to light puzzles that all maintain a sense of wonder in the environment, but also bring something fresh to a game that felt like it had nothing to offer besides a neat hook&period; The weird thing is that Teddy reminds the player to be quiet often, presumably to avoid being detected by the evil spirits trying to kill the player&period; Since I was a child and moved faster when crawling, I basically never encountered a spirit until I decided that, as someone reviewing a game, I should probably at least see what happens when you die&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re like me, though, you&&num;8217&semi;ll probably breeze through the game having few encounters with anything remotely threatening&&num;8211&semi;besides boredom&period;&NewLine;<figure id="attachment&lowbar;96914" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-96914" style="width&colon; 1920px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-full wp-image-96914" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/04095054/AtS-home-7&period;jpg" alt="Among the Sleep" width="1920" height="1080" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-96914" class="wp-caption-text">(Among the Sleep, Krillbite Studio)</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;What matters about Among the Sleep is that it isn&&num;8217&semi;t afraid to shy away from more mature themes, despite its innocent protagonist&period; There is a whole adult world out there, which makes itself known to the player by the end of his harrowing experience&period; Though powerful in theory, the impact of its execution is lacking because of such a monumentally boring experience&period; Is something too high up&quest; Pull over a chair or open a drawer&semi; that&&num;8217&semi;s basically one of the only obstacles you will face when running through the short story of Among the Sleep&period; Even with such a minor obstacle, it becomes annoying far too quickly&period;&NewLine;The ambiance and aesthetics of the game offer up some chilling atmosphere, but it isn&&num;8217&semi;t enough to make up for Among the Sleep&&num;8216&semi;s lack of momentum in its story, and lack of variety&&num;8211&semi;and abundance of repetition&&num;8211&semi;in its gameplay&period; It has something to say, but that barely accounts for the fact that it is still a video game&period; It is clear that there are things that the game could have done to alleviate its repetitious manner based on the fact that neat ideas for a child-centric horror game are found in the final chapter&period; Nothing of interest from that later chapter appears in any of the previous content, which makes Among the Sleep a tirelessly repetitive experience that will either hook you with the promise of a narrative, or leave you falling asleep&period;&NewLine;<hr />&NewLine;A PS4 code for Among The Sleep was provided by Krillbite Studio for the purpose of this review&NewLine;

Categories: Game Reviews, PS4 Reviews
Tags: Among the Sleep Games PlayStation Survival Top Stories

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