Among The Sleep Review

I’d like to start this review off stating that I do not enjoy playing horror games. I don’t get that kick out of it that some people do. I get overly jumpy and on-edge and that doesn’t do anything good for me. With this said, it was surprising that Among The Sleep didn't have this effect on me whatsoever and I’m pretty sure I know why.

The first major release from Krillbite Studios, Among The Sleep puts you into the first person perspective of a very young child. A talking bear, aptly named “Teddy”, teaches you how to play the game as well as accompanying you throughout your journey. There are a few basic mechanics which Teddy teaches you: you can interact with certain objects by either picking up or moving them, you can climb on top of objects, stand, sprint and crawl. Along with these, you can hug Teddy whilst standing up which makes light emit from him.

The design of the game is great. There’s a few on-screen prompts here and there, but for the most part, you learn to play the game by overcoming challenges. To me, this is the best way to learn any game and I get irritated when I’m overly babied by tutorials or prompts. Krillbite managed to get this balance pretty spot on. Along with this, the child’s perspective of things puts an entirely new spin on the horror genre. By being so low down, everything towers over you. You then have to make a choice of either being taller by standing up (and having the option of having the light from Teddy on) or going faster by crawling, but being lower to the floor. Again, Krillbite managed to hit a great balance with this system which furthered my immersion within the game.

It’s not very long into Among The Sleep where you get your first taste of what you’re in for. For Teddy to demonstrate his light emitting ability to you, he takes you into your wardrobe and has you hug him. Once he’s lit up though, you realise that your wardrobe is now a lot larger than it once was and there’s dozens of coats hanging within. The atmosphere set up here is fantastic and had me on edge very quickly. I let out an audible sigh of relief once I escaped the cupboard and was put to bed; however, it only got weirder from there.

Once put to bed, you drift off, only to be woken by Teddy being dragged out of your cot by an invisible force and your cot follows, eventually tipping over. The section that follows your cot tipping over is possibly one of the scariest in the game - not because it’s full of jump scares or weird noises, but because it’s realistic.

One pitfall that I found whilst playing through Among The Sleep, was that it all became very surreal. Once this happened, I was able to easily detach from the protagonist and play it like any other puzzle game, overcoming the task at hand. In other horror titles such as Doorways or Amnesia, I would have a very real sense of danger which would make me take breaks regularly. I only had this once during Among The Sleep and that was very early on when you’re still in a realistic environment.

Another large letdown was the use of my surroundings as an aid to make me scared. As you could expect, there were a lot of random bangs and creeks which, to its credit, did make me jump occasionally, but a lot of the jump scares could easily be anticipated. What I would have liked to see was some childish fears implemented into the game. I’m not sure about you, but as a kid (and I’m not ashamed to admit, still now occasionally) I would awaken in the middle of the night and the shadows would look like an actual thing. This would instantly send a cold shiver down my body and I’d be hyperventilating for a few minutes until I had the courage to get out of bed and realise it was just my Buzz Lightyear toy resting up against a pile of clothes. We, as humans, are scared of the unknown and it would’ve made for a much more frightening experience had these sort of scares been included.

Instead, we had some very ‘in your face’ type jump moments from a tree-like monster that would follow you around the game. This also ruined a lot of the tension for me because, as anybody knows, as soon as you see the monster, it loses a lot of its ability to terrify. I believe the aforementioned ‘shadow’ scares could’ve been used to great use here instead of having a physical being follow you.

Even though Among The Sleep lost a lot of its appeal for me, it did have quite a strong story throughout, which can’t be said for many other horror games. Once completed, it left a lot of unanswered questions which, in this case, is quite a good thing. It makes you think back on the game you just played and consider each part that you played in more detail, trying to understand a potential second, or even third, meaning to it.

It does seem like the team at Krillbite Studios were trying to tell a story and that they did. Whilst the game is quite short (I played through it in four hours), it was a good length to tell this particular story, leaving lots of room for interpretation. Even though I personally became detached from the protagonist, Krillbite has created a fantastic environment for the player to become immersed within. Examples of this are that you can actually see your feet (for once) and any writing within the game is shown in mystic rune-like objects (sort of how you might expect a child to view words).

Overall, Among The Sleep was a bit of a letdown on the horror front, but if you’re looking for an interesting interactive story, you should definitely give it a shot. The immersion mechanics were great and they managed to make you feel powerless, if only for a brief period. It would’ve been nice to see some more realistic environments and subtle scare tactics and, if these were added, it would’ve been a fantastic game rather than just a good one.