Neverending Nightmares

Neverending Nightmare is an indie surrealism/horror game developed by Matt Gilgenbach. This game might be best described as "exploration horror"; you wander around various creepy environments, drinking in the visuals and the music as the tension mounts, punctuated by the occasional (generally well-timed and well-done) jump scare. There are monsters, which have to be avoided, and they are appropriately creepy, but this isn't Amnesia or Clock Tower; the game is easy by design (on the theory, I think, that having to do the same section over and over isn't so so much scary as annoying). The music is excellent, instilling a real sense of unease (this is one of relatively few games where I'd actually listen to the soundtrack, if only one were included), and the art style is interesting, unique (well, it's clearly mimicking Edward Gorey, so in a sense that's the opposite of unique, but at least you don't see many other games using it), and generally effective. The story branches, with different levels and endings. But. But but but. Your character moves frustratingly slowly, and the movement animations are horribly amateurish. There is a run function, which will cause him to do a regrettable and hilarious slow-jog ... thing ... for about ten feet while making exaggerated panting noises. There's no animation for walking straight downward, so if you do that, your character will sort of float in that direction while his legs move as if he's walking forward. And while the art style works in general, I just can't get over the character model for the protagonist; he looks ridiculous. To get the different endings, you have to replay levels. Silent Hill and Amnesia, which have strong game-play elements, can get away with this better than Neverending Nightmare, which relies so heavily on pure atmosphere. The game is short, maybe two hours. This is intentional (a longer game would need a stronger central gameplay mechanic), but some gamers might want more for the price.

The game has interesting depiction of depression. It is very unique horror game and you can see that a lot of love has been put in to it. The art work is fantastic. Sound design is perfect. Sadly, the game is not really polished. While the art style is great, a lot of the assets are reused and enemy types are limited. The game is short (3-4 hours) yet the game feels like it drags on because background and enemies remain the same for . . quite some length. Would I recommend this game? Yes, but just know that the game is in unpolished state. I hope that the developers can expand the game later with a remake or DLC update.

One thing this game gets right is style and atmosphere. I was impressed the most with how well light and darkness work here given the graphics are made of pencil streaks in (mostly) black and white. Sound is great, too, and it is definitely a creepy game. The gameplay felt good, too, though not very deep. You pretty much just walk around hallways, rooms and a few other backgrounds, avoiding/hiding/running from humanoid monsters. You don't have much stamina, though, so you must be careful and pay attention, so in combination with the game's overall mood of peril, you're always tense. The let down comes with the game's length, it's really kind of short and it also doesn't really go anywhere with its story. First of all, you can guess very well what's going on rather early and not much is being done with it. Second, it's basically the same thing over and over, the story repeats itself too much, trying to get a point across that's both, painfully obvious and obscure. So do I recommend the game? Yes, when on sale, due to the short experience and because it simply leaves more to be desired. What's there's well done, but not enough. If you're okay with short, go for it.

Yet another "interactive experience" where there's little to no actual gameplay. All you do in Neverending Nightmares is run for 5 seconds, then catch your breath, run for another 5 seconds, then catch your breath again. There are almost no interactions with the environment, aside from looking at paintings, dolls and dead animals. In the very first nightmare you can pick up an axe to open a door... that's pretty much it. There are enemies to run or hide from but these encounters get tedious real fast. Since there is absolutely nothing to do in this game but wander around until you find the next event that gets you to the next nightmare, to get caught and being forced to replay just a few seconds (you always wake up again near the room where you were killed) becomes a chore. There isn't any real story either. There are a few branching paths that lead to several endings but they require you to replay some of the levels. So maybe, when you've seen all the endings, you get a better sense of what happened, I don't know. I'm still giving it a 2nd star because of the fantastic art style. It felt like exploring a european 1800's comic book.