A Psychedelic Horror Journey into Waking Nightmares
Sometimes, the absolute worst thing you can hear from a friend are those dreaded words: “Can I tell you about this dream I had?”
We have all been there. Dreams are inherently so strange, abstract, and weirdly personal that when you try to explain them to another person, it usually just sounds like a random, boring sequence of nonsense events.
But for us as individuals, dreams can mean so much more. They are a way for our brains to decode the anxieties in our lives and, at the same time, reveal our darkest, repressed fears. That’s why dreams have always been such great fodder for writers, especially those in the horror genre.
Sleep Awake is a game explicitly about dreams, but also about the nature of reality and how easily the two can get mixed up. It’s a complex, heady story, but one full of imagination and amazing visuals.
Sleep Awake positions itself as a first-person, immersive, psychedelic horror narrative experience, and it remains engaging throughout its runtime. It comes with quite the pedigree, hailing from Blumhouse Games and involving one of the lead developers behind the cult classic Spec Ops: The Line, alongside the musical talents of Robin Finck of Nine Inch Nails.
The premise is terrifyingly simple: after a major event, it has become dangerous to fall asleep. If you do, you risk getting pulled into a terrifying, unknown dimension known only as “The HUSH.” Consequently, there is only one remaining city left on Earth, a desperate place where the surviving residents frantically experiment with new drugs and strange magic to try and force themselves to stay awake at all costs. Naturally, cults and despots have formed to take control, and the city itself has become a decaying, hostile place.
Waking Dreams
We play as Katja, a young woman who has already lost her family – her father and brother – who have sadly submitted to the HUSH. She is holed up in her cluttered flat, where she spends her time making herbal remedies to create specific eye drops designed to stave off sleep. It’s a hard existence for her, as we can tell in the gripping first chapter. She is constantly on the verge of dropping off, fighting heavy eyelids, and as a result, the realities around her begin to merge.
She eventually leaves the safety of her home to go on a journey through these waking dreams and into the city itself, desperate to uncover the truth about her scientist father’s mysterious work. Bits of this complex story get drip-fed to you throughout the 5 to 6-hour game. It’s a compelling narrative that is written to the standard of high fantasy, even if it is sometimes hard to grasp some of the loftier ideas. Even at the end, it feels like just the start of a much bigger story universe. However, I think it’s an incredibly detailed world with some great ideas packed in there and some lovely bits of writing. There’s a great mechanic where you find bits of microfiche scattered throughout the journey. If you can find a machine to read them, you can uncover the fascinating backstory of how this world collapsed and became what it is now.
Stealth, Spookiness, and Puzzle Boxes
Sleep Awake is actually quite simple to play, and at times, it functions primarily as a narrative adventure. Sometimes the objective is just to go from point A to point B and perform a specific action. In the beginning level, for instance, you are in your flat, and you have to gather a series of ingredients to make those crucial eyedrops. This requires you to find items and exercise some patience with the machinery to make the process work.
There are also puzzles to solve in the game that involve you closely observing your environments in a room to find the answers. There are a couple of radio/rune boxes that need to be decoded in this way, and I found these sections quite enjoyable.
There is no traditional combat in the game, but you will have to use stealth. This aspect is okay and works fine mechanically, but it is definitely the least enjoyable bit about the game for me. In a couple of tense sections, you must avoid gas-masked guards who patrol the area and will beat you to death if they find you. In another section, you must navigate around blind creatures, holding your breath once you are near them and avoiding stepping on “crunchy” surfaces that make noise. Running is always an option if you get caught, and it actually works better than you might think.
Industrial Soundscapes
However, exploration and simply seeing this world is where the true heart of the game lies. And what an amazing place it is to explore. The interiors themselves are beautiful in how ramshackle, cluttered, and lived-in they feel. Despite the fantasy setting, they look like real places that have been inhabited by desperate people. The city design itself is significant, and the lighting is absolutely amazing throughout, casting long, ominous shadows.
When you transition to the more dreamlike scenes, the game becomes spellbinding, featuring unfathomable, impossible architecture and sand dunes that seem to go on forever. There is also a strange, arthouse editing style that splices in real-world footage – close-up shots of eyes or a woman running – intertwined with the gameplay to great, unsettling effect.
The audio design is far from shabby as well, which might be expected with musical heavyweights like Robin Finck and Gary Numan involved in the production. Brilliant, harsh industrial tracks blast through some of the more intense action sequences, ramping up the adrenaline, but the score also has more mellow, ambient moments that allow for quiet reflection within the main character’s mind. The voice acting is very strong across the board and works well to ground the fantastical elements in human emotion.
Inventive, Artistic, and Engaged
I could have done without some of the stealth mechanics in Sleep Awake, but I absolutely loved the other parts of the journey. The visuals and sound design are easily some of the best you might find on this current generation of Xbox. It’s not just that it looks pretty in a technical sense either; it’s the inventive, artistic way the technology is used to create a mood. The same can be said for the soundscapes. I liked the world-building and the narrative a lot, even if others might find it a bit too abstract and fall away from it.
Yes, the gameplay is simple, but it is plenty engaging enough to keep you moving forward. And frankly, it’s always good to play something different and unique. Sleep Awake is certainly that, with bells on.
Important Links
Ready to Confront The HUSH? SLEEP AWAKE Blurs the Line Between Reality and Fear! – https://www.thexboxhub.com/ready-to-confront-the-hush-sleep-awake-blurs-the-line-between-reality-and-fear/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/sleep-awake/9PF3T0M4HK95/0010
