Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Halloween Gaming Blog #1 Among the Sleep

Welcome to my other Halloween Blog. This one is for those of you who don't just want to watch the action from the safety of your couch but actually immerse yourself in it with some freaky and creepy horror games. Many like to think of this as the survival horror genre but in reality it is all just straight horror. In this section I will only cover games I have gotten a chance to play (not necessarily beat but have played) and will talk about all the games belonging to a category that I have played in each section. This means that some of these will be really long and some, like this one will be relatively short. I will put a rating at the end much like I do with movies so that you, after careful consideration can check it out. I will also put a series overview rating and give a brief homage to the games in the series that I have not had a chance to play. So without further ado lets get going :)
The first on my list is one of those games I did not get to finish called Among the Sleep. This is a game that I had followed since their kickstarter campaign and am hoping that they do eventually win their campaign to go onto a console or I get a better computer to play it with. I can tell you though after all the frequent updates during the kickstarter phase and the amount I did get to play I feel you really cannot go wrong with this.
This game takes place in what would normally be a slightly creepy place by itself. I mean who has been walking to the bathroom in the middle of the night and heard a sound in that dark corner? You think "I'm alone right?" but there is that nagging feeling in your reptile brain that you are very much not alone and you better empty that bladder and get back under those covers pronto! Now imagine this scenario but as a toddler with a very vivid imagination. You awaken in the middle of the night and leave your cradle to discover an empty dark house. Where are your parents? Is there something out there in those shadows? You must explore to get to the bottom of this mystery with only the help of your best friend in the world your Teddy Bear! Will you find your parents in time before the Boogieman gobbles you up?
The environments in this game are quite surreal and allow for a great deal of interaction. You can rifle through drawers and utilize them as stepping stools or open that closet to hide inside. The dark foreboding rooms coupled with images conjured by your toddlers imagination lead to not only have you jump at that creepy sound but run and hide as you see a monster searching for you while you can only hope that the closet is safe...or at least that nothing else is hiding there with you.
The monsters in this game are pretty terrifying and coupled with the exploration feature you get the feel that you are wandering and crawling through a real haunted house. Playing this in the dark adds to the creep factor and the fact that you cannot fight back makes the danger very real so be careful not to get a game over.
As the game goes along the world gets to be more and more imagination and less and less the house that you are wondering through. This makes things that much more interesting and less predictable about what you can find. Is this image a hallway in the house or is it the gateway to a magical realm? In the end I was unable to play it to its completion as I was unable to meet the processing line. The character movement was jerky and the load time was incredibly slow. I feel that to enjoy this you really need to check on your system requirements.

Creep Factor 7
Entertainment Value 6
Scar Factor 8

This game may be worth a greater level of value should I have gotten the chance to play through a little bit more without the game crashing on me which ruined the entertainment for me. If you are looking for a reasonably cheep way to creep yourself out in the middle of the night get this game it will do the trick.


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