Survival Horror Double Feature: A Mother’s Inferno & Among The Sleep
Luke Stratford June 11, 2012 - 7:26 pmNews: Numbed by the E3 Tripe-A barrage of grimdark shooters and Uncharted clones? We have just the thing to get you back on the edge of your seat.
Whatever your thoughts may have been about the fallout from this year’s E3 expo, one theme seemed to be constant – there wasn’t really anything that set the gaming community alight. Sure, some new IPs popped up, and they looked very good, but there simply wasn’t that collective ‘Did you see that? Holy Sh*t! reaction to anything put forward by the major players.
Enter A Mother’s Inferno, a Danish University project, and Among The Sleep, which boasts perhaps the finest concept for a horror game I’ve ever seen. We’ll get to that in a moment, but for now, A Mother’s Inferno:
Completed in late 2011 by a team from the Danish Academy of Interactive Entertainment, A Mother’s Inferno is a throwback to Frictional’s Amnesia: The Dark Descent, utilising the hand motion/mouse motion controls to put the player right in the heart of every movement and action made. Set, as the blurb puts is ‘on a train ride to hell’, you assume the role of a mother whose son has been abducted by unseen forces, and must descend through increasingly nightmarish and surreal carriages in order to rescue him. As a concept, sound, in execution? Reception has been mixed, for sure, but considering that it’s completely free, and can be played from a browser, survival horror fans looking to whet their appetites may wan to give it a try.
The second title, Among The Sleep, from Killbrite Studio, (again, kudos to RPS for spotting these) may sound similar, but the execution thus far sets it worlds apart. Set in ‘the mind and body of a two-year-old child’, Among The Sleep utilises a brilliantly simple idea to put the player on edge – and judging by the trailer, it’s one that’s pushing some of the primeval panic buttons. Take a look:
Even as a basic trailer, the idea of being rendered so helpless in any game is something shocking, and rather exciting. Among The Sleep will be out on the PC and Mac some time next year. A Mother’s Inferno, as stated, is available for free from its site right now.
Sweet dreams.
