follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Thread Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap
I’m going to level with you. Historically, I’ve not been a huge horror gamer. I adore films in the genre, but for whatever reason, few of the heavy hitters in the gaming industry have ever grabbed me. As such, I’m not positive as to why I ultimately raised my hand for Sleep Awake, a truly disturbing-looking title that I really didn’t know what to expect from going into it.
What was clear, however, was that Sleep Awake promised to be visually striking, bizarre, and truly «out there,» which are the types of movies in the horror sphere that I traditionally find to be my favorites. Combine this with Spec Ops: The Line director Cory Davis and Nine Inch Nails guitarist Robin Finck being the leads of this project, and it was enough to get me thoroughly intrigued to learn what this game truly was.
After the five or six-hour experience, I am so glad that I signed up for the ride. Sleep Awake is an absolutely riveting title full of crazy reveals, dream/nightmare-like art reels, and a world that I want to continue learning everything about that I possibly can.
I don’t think this is a title that will hit for every type of gamer, particularly those who are dependent on some sort of combat-centric gameplay. But for those of us who are on board for an artsy trek into the unknown, the abstract, and the often unsettling, Sleep Awake is such an incredibly easy recommendation to make.
Incredible, Riveting World-Building
Right off the bat, Sleep Awake’s premise got me hook, line, and sinker. There won’t be any spoilers here aside from the general setup, because there’s something incredible about jumping into this one as blindly as possible. Main character Katja lives in a world where no one can fall asleep anymore.
Well, they can fall asleep, but upon doing so, a mysterious entity referred to only as The Hush then has the ability to rip these dreamers away, leaving nothing but an ethereal outline of their body on the ground where they finally passed out for the final time. In a world such as this, the goal is immediately made clear: stay awake by any means necessary.
How this idea is fully fleshed out into an entire world instantly is nothing short of a narrative masterclass. Staying conscious perpetually, of course, has everyone in a state of psychosis, with many turning to religious cult-like dedications like worshiping pain or intense shock therapy simply to keep their eyes open. Others have to rely on insanely side-effect-heavy drugs in order to keep their eyes peeled. There are, frankly, no good options here, and the world is bleak as a result.
That’s about all I’d like to get into from a narrative perspective, because there’s simply too much to uncover on your own by the end that I don’t want to ruin for you at all. I will say that as interesting as the premise is, it all starts relatively slowly at first. In the game’s 13 chapters, it wasn’t until about Chapter 5 or 6 that I realized I was completely all-in on whatever else Sleep Awake wanted to show me next. When this moment hits, there’s no turning back. Give it some time, and you’ll become fully invested.
The Crush, the dystopian city you’ll lead Katja through, is in true post-apocalypse style and even feels reminiscent of games like BioShock, Half-Life, or Fallout at times, thanks to fanatical factions and the authoritarian/fascist-style government that’s placed the city in a stranglehold in these dire times. Despite any inspiration from titles I already knew, however, Sleep Awake creates its own wholly unique, endlessly interesting take on a fallen world.
I stopped to pick up and look at every single item, read each notebook filled with incredible world-building lore, and soaked in absolutely everything that I could. Environmental storytelling here is off the charts, so as desperate as you’ll be to get out of certain situations in the game, stopping to take it all in really makes Sleep Awake’s expertly designed universe shine through tenfold.
An Audio-Visual Feast
From the moment Sleep Awake’s main menu populates, and you hear one single, bone-chilling piano chord reverberate in your eardrums, you’ll be clued in that this is going to be a standout title from a design perspective as well. This is a game that you will want to experience with a good pair of headphones. I played on PS5 with my Sony Pulse Headset, and you’re doing the game (and yourself) a disservice if you don’t play with a similar caliber of audio gear.
Of course, this shouldn’t be a surprise, since Robin Finck, Nine Inch Nails’ guitarist, is at the controls of the soundscape here. Finck absolutely cooked with Sleep Awake, with no possible notes I could give the audio experience whatsoever. It’s consistently perfectly themed, minimal when it needs to be, and pulse-pumping when it’s called for. The mix of industrial rock, synth-y sci-fi elements, and ambient noise is set-dressing at a genius level.
While it’s easy to continue gushing about the sound design with such a legendary musician at the helm, Sleep Awake’s visuals are just as equally, mind-bendingly triumphant. The game itself looks entirely fine from the perspective of graphical fidelity, though it won’t blow anyone away in the photo-realistic department. Ultimately, this does not matter one bit in a game like Sleep Awake, because the art is so on-point regardless.
You’ll explore the dire streets of The Crush, but also be thrust into sections constantly where you cannot separate dream from reality anymore. It’s a case-study in surrealism in video games, and one where I felt myself playing through always waiting for the next visual feast to take over my TV screen. There’s a similar vibe to the striking visuals in a game like Control, but I’d argue that Sleep Awake pushes the envelope even further.
The game goes many different directions, sometimes «grounded,» sometimes sci-fi, and often times like you’re stuck in some sort of brainworm-fueled hellscape that you desperately need to escape, yet can’t look away from. There are many sections of live-action frames and video clips spliced hauntingly between kaleidoscopes of trippy artwork or Rorschach ink blot-like imagery. You won’t always know exactly what you’re looking at, but it’s art in video game form that we don’t always get treated to.
All of this is swirling around us as Katja nonstop and at a breakneck, unpredictable pace. The (very well voiced-acted and endearing) main character will often blurt out, «That’s impossible,» echoing what I was constantly thinking as I experienced every single frame of hallucinogenic media that Sleep Awake continually threw my way.
Smart, Intuitive Directing
From a more mechanical video game design perspective, I was also consistently impressed by the direction of Sleep Awake. It’s a linear experience by most definitions, but it was still brilliant how I could feel the game driving me in certain directions and drawing my attention to what was important while rarely feeling like it was forced.
The game just feels intuitive, like an artisan-designed showcase piece that knew exactly what to reveal to me, and when. Signposting in the game is there, but blended naturally into the world to keep you moving forward in ways that will feel entirely self-propelled, despite being subconsciously nudged from Point A to Point B, or to look a certain direction to crack open a puzzle.
I really just can’t say enough good things about how this game is all packaged together, resulting in an experience that feels premium, curated, and planned out to the finest details. Movie studio Blumhouse is the publisher of Sleep Awake, and this comes as no surprise whatsoever, because the game is absolute cinema.
I’m typically a note taker when I’m covering a game, but the scribbles I jotted down for Sleep Awake are much fewer, simply because the game had me so locked in. Here are some things I wrote down, however, just to illustrate how invested and impressed I was:
«Amazing lore/environmental storytelling.» «Visual feast.» «Insane imagery.» «So unique.» «Atmosphere is 100.» «Narrative is wild.»
All of this, housed within a title that feels so well-directed and organized within the absolute chaos is no small feat, and resulted in a video game truly unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. Paired together with some of the things I felt the game was saying about society, life, truth, reality, and several more existential topics is quite the trip. «Life is but a dream,» indeed.
A No-Combat Experience That Keeps It Moving… Mostly
All of this brings us to the actual gameplay experience on a moment-to-moment basis, which is where you’ll feel me pull away ever so slightly from the masterclass that Sleep Awake is in every other regard. Still, don’t get me wrong at all. Sleep Awake functions very well for the vast majority of the runtime, just with a few caveats here and there.
Some will be quick to call Sleep Awake a walking simulator, and while that’s not a label that has negative connotations to me personally, I understand that’s not the experience everyone is always looking for. There’s no combat in Sleep Awake whatsoever, which means you’re mostly just figuring out how to get to the next chapter alive (and awake), with some occasional puzzle-solving peppered in from time to time.
Puzzles here are moderately standard, with a couple that I treated as more trial-and-error exercises until Katja told me I did everything correctly, and I’d move on. Other instances are old-school adventure game-adjacent, where you’ll find a switch in one room that you can place on a door in another room in order to open it and keep the progression going. Everything you need is always in your immediate vicinity, so there’s not a high level of challenge involved overall.
When you do fail and «die» in the game, you’re dropped into a Sunken Place-like void where you have to move back towards the light in order to respawn. This is an awesome, creative idea, but did wear thin by the time I’d failed a few times in a section and couldn’t just immediately get back into the action. I love the mechanic for the vibe, but at a certain point, just let me play the game, too.
Where I’d fail most in the game was in a couple of stealth sections that I simply could’ve done without. The AI of your hunters is poor, meaning you can just hilariously crouch beneath anything nearby, and the enemies will instantly lose track of you. Still, their movement patterns can be odd, and I just didn’t have any fun working through these (thankfully infrequent) sections of the game.
As curated as the rest of the game feels, these moments just kill the momentum and can be a bit frustrating in practice. It’s a shame, because the vast majority of Sleep Awake was a (disturbing) joy to play, but these sporadic moments were ultimately enough to keep me from awarding the game the highest score I could. Do not let this discourage you, however. Sleep Awake is still 100% worth experiencing. There are just a couple of parts you’ll feel like you’re «getting through» instead of outright enjoying.
Closing Comments
Sleep Awake is absolutely stunning visually and feels like walking through an art installation full of heavy themes and commentary. Combined with the impeccable soundscape crafted by Nine Inch Nails’ Robin Finck and some of the best world-building I’ve ever experienced in a sub-10-hour video game, it’s a title that will stick with me for a long time. Some occasional subpar stealth sections and an obtuse puzzle or two are the only blemishes on an otherwise incredible journey that had me riveted from start to finish, with a story and main character that were incredible to witness. I want more of this world and premise. I want a book. I want a movie. I’m not sure that I’ll be able to sleep till I get it.
Pros & Cons
- Absolutely riveting world-building and lore
- A fascinating story premise that kept me completely locked-in and invested nonstop
- Insane, art installation-esque visual feast
- One of the most effective and unique soundscapes in gaming (play with headphones!)
- A main character I truly enjoyed spending time with
- Occasional gameplay-centric missteps, like a rough Stealth section or an underwhelming puzzle
- Perhaps not as outright scary as you'd expect
