Game: Sleep Tight
System: Steam (PC)
Developer: We Are Fuzzy
Publisher: We Are Fuzzy
Age Rating: 10+
Regular Price: £11.39 | $14.99
Release Date: 26th July 2018
(The game is also available on Nintendo Switch in the US)
Overall Feeling: I like it alot!
Review Code generously provided by We Are Fuzzy
During the day; carry out research, power-up, obtain weapons and build defenses! For at night; the monsters arrive and they are not holding back! Survive until the morning…if you can.
Gameplay & Controls
Sleep Tight is a twin-stick shooter mixed with base building mechanics; all themed around pillow forts and defending against monsters as a child. All good fun though – nothing scary here 🙂 .
You start off with one character and have another eleven characters to unlock. Each character has their own special quality that changes up the game; making the player adjust their strategy depending on which character they have chosen.
Defeated monsters can leave stars behind for you to collect; upon surviving a night you acquire suns. Both suns and stars are used during the day to carry out research, build walls/turrets, unlock/upgrade weapons and defenses, as well as obtain power-ups for your character. It’s up to the player how they use the suns and stars, but all suns have to be used for night time to arrive.
At night time, hordes of monsters in all sorts of shapes, sizes, speeds, strength and colour, appear in your room trying to attack you. You use your weapons, defenses and power ups, to defeat the monsters until daylight arrives. The more nights you survive, the more difficult the monster horde becomes. Every tenth night is a blood moon, and it’s best to be well prepared for what is to arrive on those nights.
Tip: There is an item on the research list, which (upon surviving a blood moon night) gives you an additional six suns – highly recommended by the eighth or ninth night in preparation for the blood moon!
When your character is defeated, you will be given a grade to show how well you have done. Besides being an incentive for the player to do better; one character gets unlocked if you get an A grade on six characters. It certainly isn’t an easy task and will likely keep players busy for awhile.
It’s worthwhile trying to unlock the characters. Some have their own game mode that changes things drastically; such as Kodie with “Trial of the Teddy” mode, where you protect the teddy for as many nights as you can, or Tommy with “Operation Commando” mode, where you can go into first person view to fight the monsters.
In terms of the controls; I only used the mouse and keyboard set up, but Sleep Tight is fully supported for controllers if you wanted to use a controller (nice to have the option of either one). Mouse and keyboard controls work brilliantly, there just isn’t a way (in game) to change what key is assigned to which action (not even for the controller). It’s not a big deal, but I know some players like to be able to change the control/key set up via a game’s option menu.
Sleep Tight is single player with an auto save feature – you can leave the game when ever you are ready, which is handy. There is only one save file available though, so if you leave a game on one character but want to try a different one; it will overwrite the existing file.
If you like to climb leader boards to become the best in games; you will likely find more replay value than others. Sleep Tight has online leader boards for each character – I’m not one for leader boards, but it’s interesting to see how well others have done with a character.
Although the game only uses one room layout, there is plenty of space for you to change up how you play and position defenses – giving you plenty of possibilities and ways to make each time different.
Surprisingly there isn’t a multiplayer mode. Will there ever be one? We can only hope! For now though; we shall have to build pillow forts in real life! 😀
Graphics, Designs & Soundtrack
Sleep Tight’s graphical style is very much like something from an animated film. If you seen Pixar films and loved them; you will likely appreciate the style of Sleep Tight.
The designs and animations of the monsters, make them suitable for any age. Their appearances and movements aren’t particularly threatening; more silly, dopey and clumsy than anything. It works brilliantly in keeping the game lighthearted.
As for the soundtrack; it suits the game perfectly but is limited to a few tracks. The track for the night time is faster paced than day time and has more of a beat to it to – there are a lot of sounds from the guns, monsters and the character, but the track works really well among all the chaotic battling. The daytime track is calm and gentle, acting as a good breather in between the action filled nights (especially during later nights when it gets crazy with monsters!).
Additional Comments
Nostalgia is a big part of Sleep Tight’s appeal. Rather than telling you a story, the game reminds players of their own real life stories/experiences. If you ever had fun building forts or dens in real life and defending against “attackers” of some kind; this game will likely remind you of those times 😀 .
Each character has their own accent and dialogue, that really adds to their individual personalities. Some will even quote a film or two (with slight alterations to some quotes to keep things family friendly).
For what content the game has and the quality of everything; I think it has a reasonable price tag. Surprisingly, (currently) there doesn’t seem to be a difference between the Switch version’s price and the game on Steam – which is definitely a plus in my view.
Overall Opinion
I absolutely love Sleep Tight’s lighthearted approach. I found the game incredibly enjoyable; from the characters and their little comments, to the nostalgia factors and the graphic style. I can’t help but smile with some of the comments the characters come out with; it’s quite humorous and all the more enjoyable for it 😀 .
So far, I have played Sleep Tight for 15 hours, still have a couple of the characters to unlock and others to play. I am still trying out different tactics to find what suits me best with certain characters – currently seeing how far I can survive without building any defenses; surprisingly it’s going better than expected!
Out of all the characters I have played, Kodie being protective over a teddy, really reminded me of myself as a child. It’s brilliant that the creators thought of such a mode – I love it 😛 .
The only real let down for me, is the no multiplayer mode. Building forts with friends and family was one of the best parts of building forts in real life. Playing this game in local multiplayer would of been such a good laugh – would of brought even more feelings of nostalgia to the game for me.
Being able to have more than one save file would also be good. Some runs can last for ages and if you feel like playing a different mode for a bit, but don’t want to erase your progress; it just isn’t possible.
I think if you take Sleep Tight too seriously, don’t really have happy memories of forts, dens or teddies; you aren’t likely to enjoy the game as much.
To me, Sleep Tight is a brilliant lighthearted game to just have fun with. It falls short with a few aspects and could be expanded on, but there is a good amount of content in the game.
If it reminds you of carefree, happy times as a child; then it will be all the more enjoyable! 😀
