“A monster will kill you if you fall asleep” isn’t exactly an unfamiliar horror trope, but that doesn’t stop Sleep Awake from making it a central part of its story. Although the game is billed as horror, it’s really more science fantasy than anything else, as there really aren’t many scary sections at all. There are numerous sections of walking forward while letting the narrative do the heavy lifting, as the game is what is often referred to as a “walking simulator”, albeit one with a lot of trippy visuals and some pretty impressive production values. However, its cliffhanger ending and brief runtime don’t do it many favours in the end.
Sleep Awake is experienced from the perspective of Katja, a young English woman voiced by Persia Numan, one of the daughters of pop singer Gary Numan (there are multiple Numans providing voices in the game.) Persia does a solid job, but Katja’s lines are somewhat annoying. She’s constantly making obvious observations and she says the word “fuck” in damn near every other sentence. At the end of the game, a certain revelation causes her to exclaim, “What the fucking fuck?!”, which is exactly as eyeroll-inducing as it sounds. I’m certainly extremely fond of swearing, but it seems pretty forced and unnecessary here.
The basic premise I alluded to in the opening lines of this review is that entities known as The Hush have started abducting or killing people in their sleep. The game doesn’t make the actual origin of this threat clear at all, but this works with the game’s somewhat avant-garde presentation. Sleep Awake takes place in Katja’s family flat, as well as areas in the city in which it resides, known as The Crush. She also somehow travels to other areas through the power of “who the hell knows?” A thing will happen, and she’ll magically find herself in another area. It’s a miracle! She often hallucinates when the sleep deprivation starts messing with her.
Plot developments are often accompanied by live-action footage, which is likely why the game’s install is over 40 gigabytes. These are well-shot and visually interesting, although I often had to shut my eyes during them, as Sleep Awake seems incredibly intent on giving people seizures. Images cut and flash rapidly, plus there are oftentimes fast blinking lights for no reason. It reminds me of the show Stranger Things, which also wants to give people seizures. I honestly can’t think of a game that would be harder on the photosensitive here, so you’ve been warned. It occasionally extends to gameplay too, such as a sequence where you’re walking on narrow benches in a flooded, electrified room.
Sleep Awake is played in first person and, while it is predominantly a walking simulator, there certainly is more to it than that. You’ll need to find items (usually key cards) to open the way forward, plus there are a couple of “puzzles” (find three runes and then input them into a device to make a thing happen!) There are also multiple sections where you need to sneak past enemies, of which there are three kinds. The human enemies are pretty annoying to sneak past, but this sequence is quite brief and not too troubling to get through with some trial and error. One section is particularly cool, as you avoid one enemy by not looking at them, as that alerts them to Katja’s presence, but it only lasts a couple of minutes.
Aside from that, there are a couple of sections where you have to hold your breath for whatever reason, but you can count the number of times this happens on one hand. Which is great, because you can’t rebind mouse and keyboard controls at all, and the button that holding your breath is set to doesn’t really work on my mouse, but I made it through okay regardless. There are sequences where you run from foes, as being caught mostly means death. Katja can take two hits, and the way Sleep Awake reloads a checkpoint takes a little too long, so dying is a bit of an inconvenience.
The game’s level design is extremely clear, so getting lost probably won’t be much of an issue for anyone, although the item hunt that the game starts out with (which requires you to find everything needed to make eyedrops that keep people awake) might cause some wandering for anyone who isn’t paying close attention. Sleep Awake‘s art direction is probably its best feature, as the environments are lovely and varied, from dilapidated cityscapes to a couple of colourful outdoor areas. The way the game seamlessly blends its in-game graphics and the live-action cutscenes (where I’m pretty sure Persia Numan also plays Katja) is very cool.
Sleep Awake ended for me at about four hours, but I’d say it even took a bit less than that. As I said, it ends on a cliffhanger, which very much seemed like sequel bait to me. Devs, if you’re going to make a four-hour game, just make the whole story in a complete game instead, maybe. The story here does have lots of interesting lore and some solid world-building, but it’s way too reminiscent of other properties, plus the climax was pretty hackneyed and clichéd in some ways. Overall, this is a satisfactory experience, but only for anyone that’s good with shortish walking simulators that leave audiences hanging.
Sleep Awake: Sleep Awake is a fairly short walking simulator with some really terrific visuals and a story that definitely had my attention for its duration. – Andrew Farrell
Consider checking out our previous review:
Marvel Cosmic Invasion PC review — Both feet off the ground |
