Among The Sleep Review

You start your day with endless love from your mother who is preparing a delicious cake for your birthday. You are two years old now. You enjoy your tasty cake while making some cute coo sounds and then anxiously wait to see what your mum got you as a present. Your mum takes you into her loving embrace to bring you back to your beautifully decorated room where she will finally give you the present. Before she gets a chance to open up the box she has to go downstairs for a minute so she leaves you alone inside your playground safely secured with bars and filled with toys. Your unopened present is waiting for you just outside of it, sitting on a table by the door.

As the anticipation grows, it becomes impossible for you to wait for your mum to come back. You have to open the gift now! So you start exploring your room to break free of the bars. You finally reach the box only to find it empty! Disappointed, you go back to your exploration. You can not give up! It has to be somewhere, the damn thing can't vanish into thin air now can it? And you finally find what you are looking for hiding in your toys chest to surprise you.

You meet your gift, Teddy, a teddy bear (obviously) who will become your best friend throughout the entire journey that is about to come. You explore your room a bit more with Teddy before your mum comes back to tuck you in bed. It is time to sleep now. It has been such a lovely day for you and you really love your birthday present. As a tiny two year old in this gigantic world, you don't feel alone anymore.

Everything so far seems completely normal and really sweet in Among The Sleep, a first person horror adventure game developed by Krillbite Studio after successfully reaching and even exceeding its $200.000 goal on Kickstarter.

However, after you wake up in the middle of the night you realise that everything has changed and nothing is ordinary anymore. All the nightmares and terrors of childhood become your reality as you search desperately for your mother who mysteriously disappeared sometime during the night.

This new reality you have just found yourself in, will welcome you willingly with a plethora of creepy noises, creaks, glasses shattering, plates breaking, doors opening by themselves, lights flickering, yellow eyes staring at you from the shadows... and darkness. Heavy, bitter darkness that does anything it can to consume the innocence of a two year old child and feed on his fear. While hugging Teddy will provide some small source of light, it will not be enough to rid you of the horror that is surging through you. The only hope you can find is in your mother's beautiful voice, singing you a lullaby from time to time motivating you even more to find her. Let's also not forget, monsters! The monsters that every two year old believe are hiding under their beds or inside their closets... The same monsters the parents tell their children that don't exist, do indeed exist in Among The Sleep.

You will find yourself in various locations from creepy playgrounds and daunting forests to living rooms and studies full of horrific creatures where your bravery will be put to the test. You must use your little body to take advantage of objects to remain hidden from these monsters. There are a lot of objects at your disposal for this purpose. You can hide under beds, bookshelves, tables; inside logs, cupboards etc... These monsters will vanish after strolling around a little bit. But then they will return again. You will never know when you are truly safe. You won't know if that's even a possibility as the constant, endless creepy noises you hear throughout the entire game will make you feel like you are being watched and followed wherever you go.

The puzzles are fairly easy to solve in Among The Sleep. The game is mainly about finding the objects to progress further into the story. The objects you find will bring you closer to the memories you shared with your mum. The memories you collect will open up new locations. As you collect more memories, you will note that you will hear your mum's voice more clearly. When you collect all the memories, you will see one of the most shocking endings you will ever witness from a video game which will completely change the perspective of your overall experience during the time you played Among The Sleep. It's an ending unlike I have ever seen in a video game before. It was stunning!

The surroundings are not very vast so you won't have to spend more than 20-30 minutes in one location. It is also very difficult to get lost as most of the time there aren't multiple directions to take. For example; in your house, which is the starting location, most doors can't be opened so you can't access other rooms. There is only one way. This would be my only complaint about Among The Sleep. I would have preferred more places to explore and larger surroundings as this is an adventure game after all.   

What I really loved about Among The Sleep though, is the small touches the developers added in order to capture the essence of a scared two year old child. Hugging Teddy to provide light or covering your eyes with your hands when you press ESC... Not to mention that you will be crawling almost the entire game as you can't expect to press Shift and sprint with 2 legs. You are two years old, remember? You can walk but don't expect to win a race against a turtle. Personally, these very little details have made the game even more enjoyable for me.

I will be honest, I didn't expect to enjoy Among The Sleep this much. It is a fairly short game and you can finish it after about 3-4 hours but the experience it provides is something worth living. It is definitely not the scariest game out there. It can't even be compared to other horror games like Outlast or Amnesia. But the background of Among The Sleep, helps the game provide one of the most unique horror gaming experiences out there. Going through such a horrific experience through the eyes of a two year old child who just wants to find his mum... I think this alone can be one of the scariest things in the world when you think about it. Closing your eyes will not be enough either because sometimes you have to find the courage to face your fears. Also, don't forget to bring your favourite plushie. Last but not least, be prepared for the ending!!!