I’ve received a smattering of emails about horror games today. A smattering is more than the usual single dollop of horror that waits for me, lurking with intent and denigrating the size of my various parts. Lucid: The Awakening caught my eye because, despite the very real possibility of fictional dreams being no more than an excuse for the worst kind of bewildering nonsense, as a close acquaintance of Mr Sleep Paralysis, I find dysfunctional sleep processes fascinating and terrifying. Here’s how this particular Little Nemo’s quandary begins.

At The Cortex, patients are uploaded to different Nightmares to test the concept of Lucid dreaming…while in each nightmare, a corresponding villain will be within, trying to stop you from completing the objective. Once all objectives are completed, the player enters an elevator to proceed to the next level or nightmare.

Villains! You can catch a glimpse of one of them in the concept trailer below.



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The video certainly did the trick – the fear is in me. Unfortunately, it’s the fear that this may be a Slender-like ‘walk forwards until a scary noise happens’ sort of game. Maybe the trailer is too early. I did like the introduction of the smaller Inception horn toward the end though. Sort of an Inception kazoo.

A Kickstarter launches soon and hopefully, with more info and a better idea of how it’ll actually play, we’ll know whether or not to maintain interest. As of now, I’m dubious but willing to wait for more. Especially because the developers told me things like this:

In Lucid, there are no weapons. Each level will have a different light source that matches the environment of the dream. The monster in each level will be roaming the map. Searching for you. The player will have two methods of survival. To hide, or to distract.

A monster that actually roams, rather than being triggered at certain points, or popping out of thin air and saying ‘boo’ randomly, could well take this from tedious to terrifying. It’s on Greenlight if you fancy clicking a button to demonstrate approval and future interest.