Ever wonder what it is to be a two-year-old and see the world through their eyes? Well in Among the Sleep you play as a two-year-old and in the middle of the night you must find your mother in a creepy, dark house.
General Gameplay
The gameplay is about being a two-year-old exploring your home at night, and seeing the world in his eyes. At the core of the game it is a story driven, adventure game. The Game Visuals are very clean and easy to see all the game without any issues. As the game is through the eyes of a two-year-old the game may show some graphics more vividly then others. The game does use a darker color pallet to showcase the game, but this is not a problem as you can easily adjust the brightness of the game. The game interface is very easy to see from the pause screen and anyone can pick up and start playing the game without any trouble. In our playtesting we did not encounter any issues with colors, graphics or interface, however because the game does have some “scary times” the game may not be suited for younger gamers (ages 5-8 years old, we will cover this more in our Family Friendly section of the review.). Audio of the game is very well done. There are all the ambient noises that you would hear in a game like this from the background of a home, to the sounds that all the objects would make when they are interacted with. The game does have voice over that go with the story from a teddy bear that is your companion to your mother talking and giving her narrative in the story. There is some language in the spoken narrative, however it is used in a way to better tell the story and not as a shock factor. In the sound effects in the game, there are some scary sounds that some younger gamers may not suitable for. The game in our opinion is better played with a headset as you can better experience the spooky environment, however if you have a 5.1 surround sound the game is supported, and you should be ok with either. The Controls for Among the Sleep are very easy to understand, and play the game. With the left thumb stick to move the baby, a button to “hug the teddy bear” a stand-up button, inventory, and an interaction button, the game is design around to be very easy to control. In our playtesting we did not run into any issues with playing the game and everyone in our gaming family found the controls very easy to understand, and use while playing the game. There is no need for any special controller for the game so using the standard controller is fine for the game.
“A beautiful but heartbreaking story seen from the eyes of a two year old where all around you is a scary place”
Family Friendly
One of the debates in the office while reviewing the game, “Is this a story driven game or a thriller game?” and to answer this question is that it is a both. When we first started to review Among the Sleep, we started to notice the elements of it being more towards the side of being a thriller type of game. A game in which the “jump scares” are starting to show early on made us believe that this was a game that was more about “jump scares” but as you dig deeper there is more to the story then it is on the surface. The game story deals with some emotional things that can happen to a family, I will not go into spoilers here, but it is an interesting take on how a 2-year-old would deal with these types of issues and how they perceive the world around them. Among the Sleep has a very good story behind it, however to get to it and better understand it you must play the game. Overall is this a family friendly game, yes and no. Yes, for older gamers that are over the age of 10 and no for ages 9 and younger. Also, the game is very linear in it story and direction. There is no outside exploration in the levels and most things are laid out for gamers to know where they need to go and what to do. There are drawings in each level to find but that is the only collectable in the game to collect and when you get more sidetrack the game will help you get back on track. The game difficulty is not that bad, as if you fail in a level it will place you right back to where you were before. So, for those in your gaming family that love story driven games the restart point will make it easy for them to play the game. There are some horror moments when you get caught by the “monsters” in the game but these were just minor. In our Special Needs gaming testing we did not encounter any issues as all our special needs gamers enjoyed the game, found the controls very easy to learn, use and play. Also as the game is spoken narrative, most were not disturbed by the light language in the game and was able to follow the game story. Overall the game is a decent story driven game but there were some technical issues when we did our review (nothing that would be game breaking but still we had to restart some areas of the game) Among the Sleep is short clocking in around 5-6 hours of gameplay but the story is worth the price of admission, also we thought that it was cool playing from the eyes of a two-year-old.
Closing
Among the Sleep is a good story driven game with a few jump scares. A short game but still fun for those in your gaming family that enjoy games that focus on story.
