Among the Sleep - Enhanced Edition

Runs great on new Macs. Weird scary game.

Among the Sleep is a Norwegian-developed first-person horror walking sim, where you play as a toddler. Oh also, this is probably the only game in existance to feature the Swedish nurse rhyme "Trollmors vaggsång" which is pretty funny as it's something I recognize from my own childhood. You wake up in the middle of the night, looking for your mother together with your new best friend - the Teddy Bear. While he has no name, he is actually voiced! The voice-acting is pretty decent, however as someone from Scandinavia it would have actually been fun to play it with Norwegian voice acting (I only noticed this existed due to the credits). You realize quickly that your house is not really the same during night... During the game itself you are also told a secondary story, a story about your parents and the biggest anxiety of the child you are playing. The big monster so to speak. So gameplay-wise you have 4 levels + the prologue. They're not very long, but different puzzles and segments makes some levels more tedious than others. The main downside of this game is the monster. I know right? Well, much like other games of the genre and era this game is the worst when the monster makes an appearance. Perhaps it's just me liking the athmosphere of "maybe a monster being there" rather than it actually existing, or more the type of horror game where you can actually beat the monsters. Eitherway the puzzles are mostly 3D platforming or collecting items, nothing complicated but it's not really simple either. This isn't a very long game, you can definitely finish it quicker than I did who chased down all of the collectible drawings (and re-did some segments due to the previously mentioned monster). But I'd say it's recommended for people who are fan of this genre and type of games!

Very impressive effort. A lot of careful thought and consideration went into interpreting events from the mind of a 2-year-old. The game also has a subtle but clear premise that I think anyone who is a parent or wants to be needs to be told or reminded of from time to time. This doesn't really qualify as survival horror. The developers captured fear in a beautiful and poetic way that really translates well on the screen, but the game isn't primarily about fear, nor is survival really an aspect. The game is about how a child too young to understand might subconsciously try to process a sudden loss of the comfort and security which is the only thing he/she has ever known. Controls are intuitive, sound is atmospheric and convincing, visuals are solid, puzzles are straightforward. I easily played through the whole thing in an afternoon, and was perfectly satisfied with the length.

Among the sleep puts the player in control of a young child seeking out his mother with the help of his stuffed bear. This seems as far from being a horror game as it can get, but through the use of terrifying enemies and fantastic environments, it becomes a truly frightening experience. Fortunately, the game manages to avoid the major pitfalls of other horror games, avoiding the use of jump scares and creating vibrant colorful environments in addition to the dark and bleak. The one downside I could find in this game is that it is short, though I suppose it's better to leave the player wanting more than to drag out merely for the sake of increasing game length.

This is not a horror game. It also has no survival elements in it so I don't what that top review is even on about. It's an adventure game where you play a 2 year old. The environments are imaginitve but the gameplay gets repetitive fast, the controls are start to annoy you. You can only fall and start crawling so many times before you say enough of that now. The dragging controls are also awkward, they don't work the way you expect them half the time so you just end up flailing you mouse. It's a good thing this game only last 2 hours because it wears out it's welcome fast. One thing I am sure about is I will never play it again because it has 0 replay value. The story is incredibly predictiable so much so that I guessed the ending 15 minutes in yet the game still makes a point about how much of a twist this is. Got to be honest, that was kind of pathetic. But it's still a nice quick experience. I wouldn't (and didn't) pay full price for it. It's not worth $17 no way.