Deep Sleep is a series of point-and-click adventure games, created by Polish indie developer Scriptwelder. The series consists of three free browser games in which the player attempts to navigate and eventually escape a dream world inhabited by shadow people. The first game, Deep Sleep, was designed for and won first place in the 2012 Jay Is Games Casual Gameplay Design Competition.
Plot
''Deep Sleep'' (2012)
Interested in lucid dreams, a researcher constructs a world in his mind to explore. However, the world in his dream quickly turns nightmarish, and the researcher becomes trapped. He needs to wake up, which is explained when the player finds a telephone saying he "must wake up". Shadowy figures haunt this world and attempt to restrict the player from guiding the researcher to freedom. At the beginning of the game, the player appears to be in a bedroom. To escape, the player must first find a key, then go into the next room and use the key on a locker. A cube with a keyhole in it appears, and the walls of the room melt down. The player will then have to explore his or her surroundings, and use acquired items to escape. The main obstacle in the game are locked doors, and cannot be opened unless certain items are acquired. After a long period of time, the player finally escapes the building he is in, but has not woken up yet. Near the end of the game, shadowy figures start to appear and will advance towards the player. The player will then have to escape, as it is impossible to kill them. Running away, the player reaches a lighthouse with a Shadow Figure inside. The player then turns the light so it directly faces the Shadow Figure, and it vanishes. The game then ends, as the player "wakes up". However, the character is curious about the Shadow Figures he encountered and declares that he wants to visit them again.
''Deeper Sleep'' (2013)
Following the events of the previous game, the protagonist develops an obsession over the previously-encountered shadow people, and begins to worry that they may be real entities. While seeking information at the library, the world begins to degrade around them, revealing that they are actually still in the dream world. Much of the gameplay is similar to that of the previous game, as the player navigates various rooms and buildings and utilized various items to advance through the game. Various newspaper clippings reveal more insight into the nature of the shadow people, which are described as ancient otherworldly entities that exist only in the dream world, and desire to escape into the real world by possessing the uninhabited bodies of people in comas or lucid dreams. Towards the end of the game, the player descends down a water well and enters various tunnels, before encountering two eye-like orbs of light in the darkness. The game then ends, and a newspaper article is shown, revealing that a young boy named Cody had baffled doctors by awakening from a three-month coma, indicating that the player's action in the dream world can have consequences in the real world.
''Deepest Sleep'' (2014)
Picking up at a different point in time from the previous game, the player awakens in their bed, immobile, and sees a shadowy figure in their room, which briefly attacks before vanishing. The player then fully "awakens" and exits their room, only to discover that they are still in the dream world and resume their attempts at escaping. After finding various items and proceeding through various rooms, the player enters a series of underground sewers and tunnels, inhabited by massive dreamworld predators known as "bottomfeeders" that the player must evade. Upon escaping the sewer system, the player enters a room previously explored in a previous game, where they discover that their uninhabited body had already been possessed, and they are now a shadow person themselves. Upon facing this realization, the player encounters another human traveling through the dream realm, who begins to flee. The player is then given the option to either let the human escape unharmed and remain trapped in the dream realm, or possess the human's body and leave them doomed as a shadow being.
Reception
Deep Sleep received mostly positive reviews. Adam Smith of Rock, Paper, Shotgun wrote that although the game has a minimalist story, it "relies on mood rather than jump scares to unsettle". Cassandra Khaw of Indiegames.com called it "creepy without being overdone". Steve Brown of Adventure Gamers called it "a truly disturbing experience". Both sequels received similarly positive reception, with Jay Is Games calling Deeper Sleep a "chilling, wonderfully creepy game that will make the hair on your arms stand on end, and you'll wind up eager for more" and PC Gamer including Deepest Sleep in its "best free games of the week" for August 2, 2014.
