The Good: Dark and creepy atmosphere, simple gameplay mechanics
The Bad: Very short, not much variety in anything, dated visuals
Ever since Amnesia: The Dark Descent was released atmospheric horror adventure games have been popping up, but none ever as good. Among the Sleep is probably the only one that has come close (even more so than Amnesia's own mediocre sequel). You play as an infant (gasp a baby in a horror game!) and you just wander around a very strangely land out horror adventure trying to figure out who this mysterious dark creature is that is trying to find you.
The game starts out pretty cheery. It's your second birthday and you get a gift from a mysterious person. As your mom puts you in your play pen you learn the controls and get out to open this gift. Lo and behold it's a creepy talking teddy bear that you can hug and use as a flashlight. As you go deeper and deeper into this crazy world the game gets more tense. You go from simple climbing puzzles to finding and hunting for items and keys and running and hiding from this scary creature. A lot of elements feel similar to Amnesia such as not being able to fight at all but only run.
Due to the claustrophobic and nearly haphazard way everything is laid out no particular moment is really memorable save for the first 30 minutes. You end up going through random doors, hallways appear out of nowhere in the dark, strange sounds will clatter away in the background, things will flash in front of you. All of this is to make you tense, but there's no real scare moment where you jump. It's all about a tense atmosphere that keeps you at the edge of your seat.
The main goal you could say is finding 4 relics to unlock a mysterious door. This is your hub that you always come back to. The game actually has a pretty crazy finale and things finally start clicking as to who this creature is and what it represents. It's pretty sad in the end. The whole game can be beaten in less than 4 hours which is a real shame. I would have liked to see more actual story unfold and some more cut scenes. The graphics are fairly decent but the textures are flat and muddy, but you won't be seeing much in the pitch dark 90% of the time. The game supports Oculus Rift if you are lucky enough to own one, so that is a bonus.
Overall, Among the Sleep is a short but sweet horror ride for any fan of Amnesia or adventure games. There's no combat, just you as a vulnerable baby trying to run away from your fears and keeping your teddy by your side.