This article originally ran under a different banner/website in January of 2020 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.
HEAR YE!!! HEAR YE!!! MY DEAREST AND LOYALIST FOLLOWERS!!! I, the Video Game Doomsayer, question the psychological effects Duke Nukem Forever left upon me. The thought of playing Doom (2016) or Titanfall 2 has me recoiling in fear, like a dog seeing his owner reach for the newspaper. That dastardly Duke has done something to my mind; I just know it. I turn to the news to see if one of the poison publishers said something foul, but alas they all have scurried off like rats in the light. With no news, surely, I must slink off in shame. FOLLY, I SAY, THE SHOW MUST GO ON!!! My hoplophobia must not hinder me. Surely, there is a title where I could play as the most defenseless creature ever. Perhaps a horror game where you play as a child?
LET’S TAKE PART IN A LITTLE EXERCISE, SHALL WE? Picture yourself as a young child. I imagine there was a dark stormy night that terrified you at this stage of your life. Rain pounding against the window. Lightning strikes giving you a small glimpse of the shadows dancing within your room. As you peak above your blanket, the shadow outlines the horrific monsters that live under the bed and tapping against your windowsill. While most of these events lead to tears and sleeping in your parent’s bed, Krillbite Studio aimed to capture this fear with their debut title, Among the Sleep.
We begin at what appears to be a birthday party. A warm motherly figure, excitedly informs us that it’s your second birthday. Before we can dig into the moist birthday cake, there is a knock at the door. She leaves you strapped to your highchair as she goes to answer the door. Off-screen, enraged shouting takes place before your mother reappears with a present. The present is a new teddy bear, who happily introduces himself as Teddy once your mom leaves the room. In the middle of the night, you are awoken by strange noises echoing throughout the house. Teddy informs you that something is not quite right and we need to find our mother. Kickstarting our harrowing tale.
Naturally, being a child doesn’t lend you the offensive capabilities of Duke Nukem, so it would only stand to reason that the gameplay of Among the Sleep would fall into the Amnesia: The Dark Descent and Outlast camp. You progress through the game by solving puzzles revolving around children’s toys. One level unlocked various hallways after you placed a puzzle piece in the child’s puzzle located in the middle of the level. As you venture through the levels, you collect items belonging to your mother that will unlock the path to her. So as you can imagine, you can pick up and carry objects, climb obstacles, and hide under tall objects. It very much feels like Amnesia: The Dark Descent especially with having to manually open and close doors with the mouse. You can even open up cabinets, climb in and close the doors just enough so you can peek out them. I became fully prepared to call upon my Outlast training and dive into these cabinets at the first monster growl, but alas, the opportunity never came.
This leads me to my biggest criticism of Among the Sleep, the game feels like Amnesia: The Dark Descent with the teeth pulled out. There was never a need for me to hide in a cabinet. I did need to hide from a monster once, but hiding places were littered everywhere in the level. In fact, I only really died three times; two of those times I accidentally fell off the level. The final death I didn’t think Among the Sleep had the spine to punish me for making a loud noise. Frequently, loud noises and groans will echo throughout the levels, but I found early on that I was rarely under threat. Naturally, I became complacent, knocked over an empty bottle, and turn to see a monster reaching my position. I was not met with fear or terror, but apathy. A lazy mistake that I did not repeat. Now I don’t think Among the Sleep needed monsters relentlessly pursuing me, but surely you could present something more challenging to make quiver in my bones. You can’t even say Among the Sleep is aiming to scare children since most children prefer to hang out in Slenderman’s woods, and Slenderman would devour this game in one gulp.
The one moment that I did feel unnerved was the prologue included in the enhanced edition. In the attempt to save one of your toys, you venture to the basement where the monstrous furnace lives. While the lights were on, the furnace sat there as the standard machine it is, but when the lights timed out, the furnace would turn into a ravenous monster spitting fire through its metal teeth. It begins to hobble to me forcing me to run to the light switch in between my toy rescue. Clearly inspired by the furnace scene from Home Alone, I began to feel uneasy as I would scramble to the light switch. Unfortunately, the furnace never caught me and the rescue mission was brief. Again, highlighting how little teeth Among the Sleep has.
Now I can see the defender flock to my criticism. DOOMSAYER, they cry, THE LACK OF CHALLENGE IS THE WHOLE POINT. THE THING WE IMAGINE GOING BUMP IN THE NIGHT DURING OUR CHILDHOOD, ARE NEVER TRUE DANGERS. IT IS ALL OUR IMAGINATION!!!
FOLLY, I cry, FOLLY!!! Story should never be used to handicap gameplay. The best games have story and gameplay work together to deliver games to new heights. The concept of Among the Sleep is brilliant. A child’s imagination is an endless fountain that can spawn numerous monsters lurking under their bed. While it is more realistic for the monster to be a pair of flashlights, it does not make your game memorable, especially with a three-hour run time. Unless you can acquire Among the Sleep for a few pennies, it feels hard to recommend over titles from the Amnesia or Outlast series. While a valid attempt by Krillbite Studio, I hope their future titles better mix their innovative stories with stronger gameplay.