Wake Me Up

When it comes to horror games, the most difficult thing for the developers to get right is the atmosphere, because it takes a lot of effort to carefully blend graphics, sound effects and the story itself in order to truly scare the players. Jump scares are not the solution most of the time, and it’s also important to include an original plot as well.

Wake Me Up is a horror visual novel in which you have to deal with horrible nightmares and find a way for the main character to wake up and escape them. The game uses classic visual novel mechanics, on the other hand, so don’t expect more than static backgrounds and the occasional dialog choice every now and again. Thankfully, the atmosphere is quite creepy and pressing most of the time.

It all starts when the protagonist realizes he is in a dream, and it’s definitely not a good one. Everything around him is dark and menacing, and there are some nasty things creeping around as well. Although the main character knows he is dreaming, waking up is not as easy as you might think, so you have to go through a variety of challenges along the way in order to see the real world again.

As mentioned before, there are some other characters/creatures you have to interact with along the way, and the things you say or do affect the course of the plot. Thus, you can reach multiple possible endings, not all of which are particularly good for the protagonist. In fact, you may not be able to wake up at all, although you are always free to try again and make different choices along the way.

Since everything is mostly black throughout the game, the graphics are not impressive in terms of artwork, but they go great with the atmosphere. On the other hand, the sound effects are very nicely chosen, since they always keep you on your toes. The music is not bad either, so you actually feel like in a nightmare if you just let your imagination run wild for a while.

In the end, Wake Me Up is clearly not for everyone, given the foul language and scary situations that may be harmful to younger players. However, the fans of the genre should get quite the kick out of the game, mainly thanks to the interesting story and pressing atmosphere.