Among the Sleep

29.05.2014

Critic 66/100

Users 69/100

Genre: Puzzle Adventure Indie

Among the Sleep is a first person horror adventure, in which you play a two year old child. After waking up in the middle of the night to mysterious sounds, you start exploring the dark looking for comfort. The game explores horror through atmosphere and exploration, not with scores and combat systems. In Among the Sleep you’re vulnerable, scared, and trying to make sense of the world

The story begins as a toddler is having his birthday celebration at home with his mother. The celebration is interrupted by a visitor at the front door who is hidden from the player, but the story suggests it is the player's father, with whom the mother has divorced. The conversation is muffled and partly kept from the player as the mother raises her voice, refusing the father's request to see his son. The mother's angry tone frightens the toddler, whose fear is presented as blurred vision. Quickly, the mother returns with a gift, but the mother doesn't tell who the gift is from. Instead, she carries the child and gift upstairs to his room, a place of bright, warm colors and streaming sunlight. Before the present is opened, the telephone rings, and the mother leaves her son in his bedroom to play alone. The gift is revealed to be a sentient teddy bear. The bear introduces himself as Teddy. Teddy has a friendly, curious nature. After a few minutes playing together, they go into the closet, which turns out to be a large, dark room filled with long, black coats. Teddy says that if the boy gets scared in the dark, he can hug Teddy to feel more safe. The small adventure is ended by the mother finding them; she tells the child, gently, to "stop hiding from mommy" and puts him to bed. The boy wakes in the night to find Teddy being taken by an unseen force. His crib becomes overturned, and the player escapes. He leaves the bedroom and rescues Teddy from a washing machine. The bear grunts that 'something is not right', and that they need to find mother.