Horror games are often categorized by their own unique take on the genre, whether they be jump-scare nightmares, slow-burning dread factories, or psychological terror mills that stick with you long after the credits roll and the word count stops.
But every once in a while, we’re blessed with a title that embodies all of these characteristics in one horrifying package. Today, that package is Sleep Awake.
Sleep Awake is a psychedelic horror game that combines everything you love about the horror genre and turns it into a fever dream. It’s by far one of the most haunting horror games I’ve played in a while, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for an excuse to leave the lights on at night.
Like any good horror game, however, it does still have its drawbacks. Game-breaking bugs, vague directives, and confusing narratives bog down what would otherwise be a perfect game. While I personally don’t mind a few flaws here and there, not everyone is willing to put up with them to see the greater picture.
Grab a blanket, turn on the lights, and get ready to learn everything you need to know about the horrifying fever dream that is Sleep Awake.
A Humble Beginning
Sleep Awake drops you into a post-apocalyptic world where survival hinges on a single, impossible rule: never fall asleep.
This post-apocalyptic world is shaped by The Hush, a chilling phenomenon that causes people to disappear in their sleep, leaving behind only ghostly, human-shaped outlines scorched into whatever surface held their final breaths.
No one has ever come back from being taken by The Hush, and that fact alone is enough to plunge the entire known world into chaos.
Desperate to survive The Hush, the remnants of humanity split off into several factions, each one using different methods to stay awake. The Pain Eaters, for example, use constant agony to keep their minds sharp, while the Machinists pump themselves full of powerful electrical volts to ward off sleepiness.
The most feared and powerful faction of all, however, is the DTM, or the Delta Transport Ministry. This faction acts as the self-appointed ruler of the post-apocalyptic world, and uses its influence and paramilitary force to invent and enforce its own twisted brand of order.
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You, however, begin your journey alone.
Unaffiliated with any factions, you live in a run-down shelter that you’ve transformed into a home. Though you start off by yourself, it’s revealed that you weren’t always alone; you once had a thriving family, one that had found an alternate method of surviving The Hush.
But now, you’re all that’s left.
To keep yourself safe from The Hush, you must learn how to create the anti-sleep infusion invented by your father before he went missing. This concoction acts as a super drug that prevents its users from falling asleep, though it’s incredibly complicated to make.
Thankfully, your family made sure to leave you with everything you need to make it.
The game’s introduction revolves around cooking up a new batch of this infusion by scavenging for resources around your home. Once the resources are gathered, you’ll then begin a problem-solving/puzzle segment that involves putting them all together to create the drug.
If this game excels at anything, it’s offering a world that feels like it’s on its last exhausted breath.
This entire process serves as an excellent introduction to the game, as it lets you get a feel for the controls and puzzle mechanics that will follow in later chapters.
This introductory stage does more than just introduce you to your character: it introduces you to the desperate survival tactics you’ll be using for the entire rest of the game, from scavenging resources to staving off sleep deprivation-induced insanity.
It gives you just enough to make you want more, without giving you so much that you feel overwhelmed.
A World on the Brink of Collapse
If this game excels at anything, it’s offering a world that feels like it’s on its last exhausted breath. Everywhere you turn, it’s just new shades of destruction, decay, and collapse, further proof that its residents have all but given up.
The “city” you’re forced to navigate feels less like a functioning settlement and more like a decaying monument to a society that forgot how to rest long before The Hush arrived.
Trying to navigate it is like walking through a minefield, except all the mines are crumbling buildings waiting to collapse and crush you to death.
Old telephone polls, slabs of concrete, and entire chunks of building fall and crash around you without warning, reshaping the entire landscape and burying everything below in an instant. The settlement itself is really more of a pile of rubble resembling shelters than a collection of buildings.
As you might imagine, this makes travel challenging, and trying to get from point A to point B often feels like playing a game of chicken with gravity itself.
You’ll probably die a few times on your journey to Amma’s apartment, but honestly, the parkour could be a lot more unforgiving than it actually is. Sure, it might take a bit of trial and error here and there, but for the most part, you shouldn’t have too much trouble navigating through the city.
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Even if you’re a parkour noob like me, you probably won’t have too much trouble with this.
But if you thought the city itself was bad, wait until you get a look at its residents.
The people who still cling to life are mere shells of who they once were, driven insane from endless wakefulness or chemically scrambled from the extreme methods they’ve used to keep The Hush at bay.
From pain-worshiping cultists to bloodthirsty DTM agents, there aren’t too many friendly faces to be found. That being said, you do get to somewhat peacefully interact with some residents by talking to them through windows or doors.
Most just ask things along the lines of “who goes there” and “what was that noise”, to which you get to reassure them that it was nothing.
This does leave a bit to be desired in the game’s worldbuilding aspects, but honestly, I’m just glad I don’t have to fight anyone.
Inventive but Unchallenging Gameplay
The gameplay and core mechanics of Sleep Awake aren’t much to look at, especially if you’re a seasoned horror veteran looking for a challenge.
Sure, there are a few puzzles and stealth portions thrown in here and there, but the gameplay itself feels more reminiscent of a walking simulator than anything else.
While this may put some off from the game entirely, I personally don’t mind it too much. As someone who panics at every little sound in a horror game, I’m more than comfortable with one that actually lets me breathe every once in a while.
The first half of the game mostly relies on problem-solving, simple puzzles, and basic traversal as you make your way through the city in search of Amma, your elderly friend who relies on your anti-sleep drug to survive.
If I had to say one definitive thing about Sleep Awake’s gameplay, it’s that it consistently delivers interesting ideas, but rarely challenges players in any meaningful way.
You’ll sidestep along collapsing ledges, crawl beneath fallen debris, push and pull heavy obstacles, and sneak your way past watchful DTM agents patrolling the ruins. It’s all relatively engaging thanks to the unstable setting and general horror aspects, but none of these tasks really require much precision or mastery to accomplish.
Even the game’s stealth sections involve little more than dashing under the nearest table and waiting for the guards to forget you even existed.
The second half of the game is where things actually begin to ramp up, even if only slightly.
Narratively speaking, the second half of the game shifts its focus from keeping yourself and your last remaining friend alive to uncovering the truth behind The Hush entirely.
This portion focuses on tougher exploration and problem-solving, with puzzles that actually take more than half a brain cell to complete.
You’ll also encounter a couple of genuinely tense chase sequences and a challenging new form of stealth, which involves entities that react violently to you noticing them, rather than the other way around.
If I had to say one definitive thing about Sleep Awake’s gameplay, it’s that it consistently delivers interesting ideas, but rarely challenges players in any meaningful way.
An Imperfect Apocalypse
Every horror game comes with its own set of hiccups, and Sleep Awake is no different. Even though I had fun playing it, I still have to admit that it’s got more than a few rough edges.
The most consistent issue that I ran into was the game’s tendency to hand out vague directives with no real clues on how to accomplish them, so you’re stuck just kind of guessing until you land on the right answer.
Now, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with horror games that don’t just immediately hand you the right answers. In fact, when done correctly, it can be fun to piece everything together to get the plot moving again.
But in Sleep Awake? It feels less like a fun, narrative scavenger hunt and more like a corn maze you don’t have a map for.
The biggest issue I encountered, however, came in the form of a game-breaking bug that caused me to restart my entire game.
In the game’s fifth chapter, there’s a section that requires you to speak with Het before you can go any further in the game’s story. However, once I reached this portion, her dialogue sequence never activated. I tried everything, even going so far as to load up my last save and redo that section.
But nope, no matter what I did, her dialogue sequence just wouldn’t activate.
Eventually, I just went back and played the entire game up until that point all over again. Thankfully, the bug fixed itself on my second try, but it was still pretty annoying to have to go through.
And while this last issue could come off as kind of nitpicky, I feel like it should still be included: the story itself delves into deeply confusing territory at times, making it difficult to piece together a linear narrative.
While the surreal tone is clearly intentional, there are moments where the narrative veers so far into ambiguity that it’s hard to tell whether you missed something or the game just isn’t explaining it. This might work in some horror games, but in a game that’s already layered with so much obscurity and delusion? I don’t think so.
I mean, seriously, who the heck even is Amma? What “superior” methods does the DTM use to stay awake? Who is Xavier? What is Het, and why can she only communicate with Katja through hallucinatory delusions? How does a post-collapse wasteland still have access to electricity, telephones, and running water??
And the mysteries only continue in Sleep Awake’s finale.
This game has an open ending so extreme that it almost veers into cliffhanger territory, making the whole experience feel incomplete. I know that it’s probably just a lead-up into a sequel, but still, some closure after all that psychedelic chaos would’ve been nice.
Final Thoughts
In the end, Sleep Awake is a game that left me feeling intrigued, on edge, and constantly engaged, even if I ran into some mild frustration here and there.
Its premise is undeniably unique, offering a fresh perspective on a market overly saturated with copy-and-paste psychological horror.
The gameplay may not be especially challenging, but I’m sure I don’t need to be the one to tell you that a horror game doesn’t need to be difficult to be good. Sometimes, all you need is a tense atmosphere and an eerie vibe, and Sleep Awake’s got that in spades.
In fact, most of my gripes about the game come from my lack of understanding of the game’s story and lore. They’ve created a world so interesting and mysterious that I can’t help but want more, and if you ask me? That means they’re doing something right.
Overall, Sleep Awake is an ambitious horror game that swings big with its ideas, and even when it stumbles, it does so with intention. If you’re looking for a bite-sized horror game you can finish in a day and still feel terrified, then I’d happily recommend Sleep Awake.
Review code provided by publisher. Reviewed on PC
Overall, Sleep Awake is an ambitious horror game that swings big with its ideas, and even when it stumbles, it does so with intention. If you're looking for a bite-sized horror game you can finish in a day and still feel terrified, then I'd happily recommend Sleep Awake.
The Good
- Unique and Compelling Premise
- Atmospheric Storytelling
- Compact Runtime
The Bad
- Vague Objectives
- Unchallenging Gameplay
