It never really progresses beyond this, but its short playtime – around three hours – stops just short of it becoming tedious. As a toddler, the world towers above you and slowly transforms: doors become obstacles, people shift into giants, and a chest of drawers turns into a makeshift staircases simply by pulling out the drawers. The puzzle solving also remains simple throughout – retrieving objects, finding keys, pressing switches – yet I still found it sufficiently engaging due to its unique perspective. In order to be reunited with your mother, you must retrieve four precious memories of her they have been scattered across weird environments, including a dark cabin beside a murky lake and a violently distorted version of your own home. It’s a great idea, with more introspection than your typical first-person horror adventure, though the environments lack sufficient detail to make them deeply impactful.ĭespite being set amid chaotic architecture and disorientating landscapes, the underlying structure is fairly simple and straightforward. I read the entire game as a way of working through past trauma, mastering the world and working back to the source of this pain.

You’re ill-equipped to cope with what’s going on around you. You’re only two years old and haven’t yet mastered language (in fact, one of Among the Sleep’s nice touches is that all in-game text is written in an alien script). It’s part psychological horror, but more interestingly it’s also part therapy – a walking cure, of sorts. It manipulates perspective in clever ways and transforms everyday locations into hellish mindscapes that, in some way, reflect the terrible events that once took place there. At first I thought it was just a night terror, but it’s really a psychological landscape. Wardrobes become never-ending labyrinths in which to hide playgrounds stretch into vast wildernesses with a gnarled playground. The journey ahead winds through an increasingly surreal and sinister environments, which is actually a big part of what Among The Sleep is trying to achieve.

Free download among the sleep rating