Game Review: "Silence of the Sleep"

- by Ninja Ross, 1 October 2014

Silence of the Sleep opens with Jacob Reeves throwing himself off a cliff. He wakes up on a bed below a clock in a dark, miserable and dirty motel room with almost no memory of his previous life. After quickly realising this isn’t the result of mixing his drinks, he searches the motel for answers.

This being a horror game, these answers aren’t really going to be to his liking. They’re going to be painful answers. Answers with giant creepy monsters and a bar tender with a twisted mind. And thus begins Jesse Makkonen’s "Silence of the Sleep", a 2-D side-scrolling horror game out on Steam TODAY.

Jump!

It’s a dark, twisted and intriguing story. It’s fascinating to follow Jacob through the twists and turns, to watch his interactions with the mysterious bartender and the other characters in the story. But, as fascinating as it is, it’s not the main attraction of the game.

This game has a lot going for it, but the element that makes this game so great is the sound design. The music is incredibly moody and dark but never outstays its welcome. It plays at all the right moments and enhances the horror.

The sound effects featured also add to that horror atmosphere, helping to make you want to give up and cry. You’ll hear the creeping and slithering of the monsters before you see them, helping create a sense of dread as you progress through each area.

One specific sound effect I found particularly creepy is the sound made by the first creatures you come across. It kind of sounds like a monkey laughing but without any comedic effect whatsoever. They make the sound very suddenly when they spot you, which is as horrible as you’re imagining. There’s a lot of sound here, plenty of music and sound effects to go around. No voices, though, which kind of adds to the creepy “yup, this is hell” vibe the game gives off. This game has some of the best sound effects and music I’ve heard in any game, no matter what the genre.

The visuals are almost as incredible, keeping things simple but distinct. As mentioned, the motel is suitably grubby and horrible while everything in it looks like it’s either about to fall apart or eat you.

Motel baths.

There’s some violence in the game, but it’s subtle and effective. It’s never overdone. For example, have you ever seen Aliens? Remember the part with Bishop and the knife? It doesn’t go that well here. It’s a nicely violent scene without any messy, melodramatic silliness you find in some horror. It’s symbolic violence, important to character development and plot.

The creature designs are also incredibly interesting. Here’s a thing with tentacles and stuff. That’s not something you want approaching you in a hurry.

WHAT IS THIS

The gameplay itself is fairly minimalist but effective. You walk around, interact with things and try not to die. The majority of the gameplay involves solving puzzles and hiding. There’s no shooting or Shoryukon’s here.

The puzzles can be pretty challenging, to say the least. On the Silence of the Sleep’s website, Jesse says “I won’t hold your hand through the game.” And, true to his word, my sweaty hands were not held. Nobody wants to hold my hand...

At times, the lack of information and hints can be frustrating. I’ve been somewhat ruined by modern games and the hints they throw out when it looks like you’re even close to thinking. But still, sometimes some direction is nice.

THE NUMBERS, MASON! WHAT DO THEY MEAN?!?

But difficult puzzles are nice! You don’t get enough of those anymore and it’s good to see developers putting some thought into it.

Hiding from monsters can be fairly challenging, too; you’ll need to time every move perfectly if you’re going to avoid a “Game Over” screen. This involves a lot of hiding and running, as you’d expect. Thankfully, these parts of the game aren’t drawn out so they’re never overly frustrating or repetitive.

There are, of course, flaws. The dialogue can be pretty stiff and almost silly at times, but it’s rare and is never so bad that it pulls you out of the game entirely. You’ll notice it and quickly forget it.

Something that can be a little more difficult to forget, however, is the controls. They’re a bit sluggish and unresponsive, which can be especially annoying when trying to run away from the nasty looking monsters. I panicked several times, hammering buttons on my keyboard in an effort to get Jacob to turn around. That didn’t work out.

To be fair, sluggish controls can add to the tension in horror games. In fact, Resident Evil and Silent Hill are known for how effective their terrible controls are. But still, when Jacob suddenly stops runnig or can’t turn around to open a door, it can be a bit annoying.

These flaws, however, are tiny and forgettable when compared with everything else the game has to offer. Engrossing story, simple yet effective gameplay and unbelievably good sound design easily outweigh some control and dialogue issues.

It’s worth keeping in mind that this whole game was created by one guy; Jesse Makkonen. Even for a team of developers, this game would be quite an achievement but this is just one guy. One. Singular.  And it’s one of the best horror games I’ve played in a long time and you should be logging into Steam RIGHT NOW to purchase it. GO. BUY IT.


"Silence of the Sleep" comes out today on Steam. You really should go and get it (and leave us a nice comment below, thanking for the suggestion).

Tagged: video games, Reviews.

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