Oh god do I hate the term "creepypasta." As someone who knows the origin of the term ("copy/paste" -> "copypasta" -> "creepypasta" ahaha!) and someone well-versed in the ways of the Internet just the thought of uttering the word makes me feel like a complete dweeb. I can't imagine what "normal" folk would think when they hear the term and were told what the word actually means. Then I go to sites like creepypasta.com (which besides the name is an otherwise good site for these kinds of horror stories) and when someone offers praise they'll be like "this is one of the best pastas I've ever read." No! NO NO NO! STOP IT! Since when did "short story" become thrown out and abandoned on the highway in the ditch? What was wrong with that term? These are short horror stories. That just so happened to be posted on the Internet. I understand, paradigm shifts, whether in vernacular or something else, but I hope this doesn't catch on any further than it already has. So kids, for those who've just discovered the Internet, and, possibly, life for the first time ever no, writers like H.P. Lovecraft, Clive Barker, Clark Ashton Smith, Algernon Blackwood, Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe... I could go on, what they've written is horror fiction, NOT "creepypastas" and if in some bleak dystopian future I ever hear someone say that they were I will punch that person and everyone in the vicinity in the face with my upgraded cyborg arm (hey who said dystopias had to be ALL bad? The world's never that black and white).

With that out of the way, here is a game that is actually an adaptation of one of said "creepypastas," but SnowOwl kept it classy and credits it as "based on the story..." so kudos for that! Anyway, the short bit of horror this is based on is called "Bedtime" (read the whole thing here if you want). The story's OK, it's kinda creepy but I wasn't particularly amazed compared to other cree-*ahem* short horror stories I've read online. It gets by primarily by looking to have been written by someone who has both a strong grasp of the English language and isn't a toddler.

Well, regardless what your opinion is, if you read the story before playing the game, you might notice that nothing about it seems like it would adapt well to a video game, even of the horror adventure kind, unless it was a text-based Choose Your Own Adventure type of title. And that's exactly the same issue that film-makers looking to adapt a book to a movie, or game developers adapting a movie (or book in rare cases) into a game have to face all the time. The solution in many cases, particularly with games (see: every licensed video game on the NES) is to make shit up completely. But don't worry, you're not going to see anything here like, a video game adaptation of Apocalypse Now where you must divekick giant bouncing hot dogs or something, though it's certainly not any less strange.

If you didn't or don't want to read the story I linked above, here's what it's about: your adult self recalls a traumatic series of events in the past, starting with his brother moving out of his room into his own. You don't particularly like being alone but the idea of having a bunk bed all to yourself is an exciting prospect simultaneously. Unfortunately this is when bad shit starts to occur. It seems that someone else has replaced your brother as your bunkmate, a monstrous bogeyman of sorts. Things begin to escalate from there. The only moments of reprieve you get are when you cry for your mother who upon entering the room makes the monster disappear somehow.

The game's overall story remains pretty much unchanged from the source material, and much of the text narrating the tale is also the same. So in order to make this into something someone would want to play, as in, a game, interspersed between the narrated text are the nightmare sequences and they are completely batshit. Well, I've played some of this dev's other games, in particular Miserere which this most reminds me of, and John Clowder titles, so maybe it's relatively normal compared to those, but jumping from reading the story right to the game this seems pretty far-out.

The dreams are all basically linear paths, though there is a segment towards the very end with branching paths. I don't know if those paths lead to different areas or endings or not. All I know is that I just went randomly on one path and came to an end. There is zero inventory in this game. Yep, zero. You can pause the game with the Esc key, which just allows you to load your game or quit. There are relatively few puzzles, most of them being at the earlier levels, which involve you maneuvering around maze-like environments hitting switches to open a blockage which will then allow you to access another switch and so on. These levels are the ones featured on the demo I believe. So, yea, after that, it's mostly a matter of moving room to room and admiring the scenery. And the scenery in all honesty IS something to admire. SnowOwl's stylistic touches continue to improve with every game, and this is no slacker's work here I'll tell ya. The rotting, grimy environments that are becoming a hallmark of his games are still here but it's done so in a more varied fashion, from a bizarre alien jungle, an underwater segment to a church of some kind, whose stained glass windows will flash colors on you upon walking past, as a result of some kind of thunderstorm outside. There are other, strange and not-so-strange creatures moving about, whose looks and animations are very well-done. And besides that, some of the effects used here are done with the purpose of creeping you out and to that end it succeeds.


Guys, there's something weird that happens to my screen during this section but I can't quite put my finger on what it is. Is it just me? Can anyone help me out here?

Another thing worth mentioning, is that you can't game over in this. Every nightmare comes to a bad end, but then you wake up, the story progresses, and then you move on to the next chapter (i.e. nightmare). So with no inventory, no real exploration (there are posters and signs you can examine which don't reveal much - the one really interesting thing is a logbook from some scientist in a lab at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. He describes in great detail why he fears these depths of the ocean so much. It's the one big piece of writing added to the story not in the original you will find, and while it doesn't add much more besides a reaffirming fear of the darkness that pervades your bedroom and perhaps other associated fears in the game, it's an enjoyable little read), almost no puzzles, with the ones that are there being extremely basic, and no imminent threats besides the ones that are supposed to happen for plot purposes, this is not something you will be playing for a deep gaming experience, but rather for its story and/or atmosphere. As I've said, the story which it is based on is merely OK, but these strange, unnerving nightmare realms with both great graphics and effective use of sound and music, is what will keep you going. Personally I think the scariest parts of the game are earliest in the game, as it continues the game becomes less scary and more bizarre than anything. But that's cool too! I mentioned how this reminded me of Miserere, and that's because of these very later environments where NPCs and wandering, odd (but harmless) creatures will roam about. A couple you can even talk to, who, in the fashion of Miserere, Middens or something will be pretty cryptic dialogue (one of them is something about a path you choose - does this branching path lead to different outcomes?).

I think my problem with the game's mix of the original story and the nightmare scenarios is that I'm not feeling how they are supposed to be connected in any way. While one can reasonably deduce these nightmares and the things antagonizing you in the nightmares is brought upon by this creature from the story, the nightmares are so ornate and comprise of overly specific scenarios with such strange imagery and words that one can't help but wonder if these were intended to be symbolic in some fashion. Like, early one, there's a wall sign you read which says "Anna Corp" to which you say "What is that?" Does it mean something? Is it just a red herring/non sequitur, a reference to one of the creator's other games? (I don't remember such a thing myself) Some random firing of synapses in the character's brain as dreams are supposed to be? But this is a game, one with with a story, a story about nightmares, it shouldn't just be about a random firing of synapses, these are meant to be dreams controlled by this creature, and if these are the areas I'm playing it'd only be proper for these to make sense with respect to the main story in some way.


This right here is a thing that is in the game.

Another thing that was a bit disappointing: I said earlier the story just by itself and just from looking at it doesn't seem to make for good video game material. However now that we've established this game, there ARE a few bits in the story that I think could have made for good gameplay bits. The story mentions you taking a crucifix from your mother's room. It is merely delivered via text here. I guess to remain consistent with the "no inventory" design through the whole game something like this wouldn't be considered, and it seems like a small thing, but seeing how you only get to "explore" (as in, see two rooms) of your house in the beginning I'd like to be able to see more continuous interaction with it in the game. Even if the crucifix is just "walk in mom's room, find the shiny thing (or not) and take it" it'd feel like I'd have more agency in the story, even if it is small.

Bigger parts of the story that I REALLY think would make for interesting parts though, both of what I'm thinking of come at the end. So to avoid giving away too much, I'll say one involves a struggle of some kind. It's when the nature of the beast is truly revealed. And the morning dawn has yet to come. I know everyone hates QTEs and Track & Field-style button-mashing things, but done properly you'd have something. This particular scene I think would be a perfect fit for something like this. The other big thing involves the very last words of the story. I imagine no gameplay elements were considered here to retain some ambiguity, which is fine, but considering the pretty strong implications, it would be interesting to see I guess I'm only mentioning these because of how anti-climactic the game feels. The actual written story feels as though it ends properly, but as a game adaptation, I don't think simply concluding with a long stretch of text and cutscenes describing the most climactic parts is good enough. I'd like to play at least one of those events out in some way. The final nightmare you run through felt merely like a lead-in to another nightmare, there should have been another one, a big WHAM! of a scene to give a story like this the conclusion it needs. As it is, well, it ends alright. And... that's about it. Mind, if you play this without reading the story, you probably won't mind nearly as much as I do, but seeing the possibilities for where this could go, I felt a bit let down by the end.

How do I feel overall? This is a game to me that falls somewhere between Miserere and Skinwalker in terms of quality. Miserere because of the beautifully strange and horrific dreamscapes, great art design and an eccentric array of creatures and NPCs (though this element is far more de-emphasized compared to Miserere, by the game's very nature i.e. its short, linear spurts through your sleeping mind). Skinwalker in that it is maybe too text-heavy with little in the way of gameplay with meaningful interaction, and story connections between one thing and another that don't make much sense or aren't well-explained (though this isn't nearly as bad as Skinwalker in that regard - although I think Skinwalker's ending, or, at least its "real" ending was much more satisfactory). So in the end we have... not my favorite SnowOwl game but still worthy of your attention for the things it does right. And the things it does right are even improvements in some respects over his last games. In particular the use of graphics, whether in sheer fidelity (there are a couple screens where you're walking in a gigantic room. Your sprite is tiny and you can see through a giant cave crevice some outside background. Beautiful, almost Oddworld-like, that one moment) or in how they're used (the first screenshot above... you might have encountered that in the demo if you played it, if not, well, that had me legit freaked out. I was trying to find all the things necessary to get out of the area while looking at the screen as few times as possible). It's not a game to sneeze at. Sniffle a bit sometimes, perhaps, but definitely not sneeze.

Two things I want to note because I forgot to mention them and I don't particularly feel like trying to find a spot in this review where I can fit them: one, as said on the front page, not a jump-scare game. There some loud parts or bits that come out of nowhere, but not in a way that'll jolt you. There is one minor jump-scare somewhere at the end, but like I said, it's mild. It involves a door, that's all I'll say. Secondly, there a few sequences where you'll find yourself running from one end to the other and the screens will seem to continuously repeat themselves, Mario 64 staircase-style. Don't worry, that's intentional, just keep going the direction you were going until something happens.

AND because this is the fifth SnowOwl game I've reviewed here, and also the developer whose games I've reviewed the most of (with everyone else it looks like 2 at most), and also because pointless addendums to reviews are fun, here is my ranking of them, best to worst: