GamesRadar+ Verdict
Sleep Awake has a great premise and certainly knows its creepy imagery, but its fiction is too dense and the mechanics feel a bit played-it-all-before. Compared to contemporaries like Still Wakes the Deep, Sleep Awake struggles to set itself apart when it comes to cinematic stealth horror, even if some late game imagery begins to impress.
Pros- +
Some of the nightmare imagery is distinctive and imaginative
- +
A late-game enemy is legit scary
- +
Stronger second half
- -
The actual game is an unremarkable stealth jaunt
- -
Flavor text is too dry to make learning more about its world compelling
- -
You spend most of it with its dullest enemy
- Best Buy's Cyber Monday deals will end in a matter of hours, these are the biggest offers live right now
- Best Disney gifts 2025, recommended by a mega-fan
Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.
"What if you could never sleep again?" is the terrifying question asked by Sleep Awake. In this stealth horror game a mysterious calamity called The Hush has arrived, and now no one can even enjoy a nice little nap without something horrible happening to them. It's a great horror premise, A Nightmare on Every Street, and one that makes me want to down a strong cup of coffee just thinking about it.
But I think developer Eyes Out might want to lay off the coffee themselves, as Sleep Awake is relentless at throwing things at you in its opening hour alone. Weird visuals, live action interludes, too many proper nouns, dense world-building, and seemingly every horrific image the studio can think of. Work your way through all that and the game glueing it all together is actually a lot more conservative than its surreal aesthetic lets on.
You play as Katja, who starts the game by brewing an eyedrop narcotic for herself and someone called Amma who lives miles away. Considering Amma and Katja live in a dystopian police state full of angry men who like hitting people with big sticks, they might want to consider becoming roommates instead of their current arrangement. You'll spend most of Sleep Awake's 3-4 hour runtime navigating this brutal city, which even Silent Hill's mayor would probably think needs a spring clean.
The City That Never Sleeps
Release date: December 2, 2025Platform(s): PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/SDeveloper: Eyes OutPublisher: Blumhouse Games
You'll find destitute apartments, a theater where immoral anti-sleep experiments were conducted, and totalitarian posters plastered on every crumbling wall. The only problem with Sleep Awake's atmospheric horror sets is that I've seen a lot of this stuff done already. But visual novelty does occur in frequent hallucinations, as Katja's tiredness inevitably catches up with her. Filing cabinets start dancing out of the walls, as if the walls are breathing. Or, far more worryingly, a turnstile gate suddenly fills with spinning knives.
Creepy, sure, but rarely threatening enough to instill actual fear (unless you're stupid enough to try using a stabby turnstile gate). Sleep Awake's most imaginative imagery is annoyingly deployed when you're at your safest. Montages of live-action people screaming and eyeballs way-up-close are somewhat unsettling, sure. But since all you're doing is watching in these moments, you're not under any threat. It takes ages before something you have to worry about in gameplay bothers to show up.
When they do, they're the aforementioned angry men with big sticks. Oh, and they're also wearing gas masks, which I believe qualifies them for horror cliche 974. You have to stealth past them by crouching to get under gaps and through vent grilles on the walls.
Sure, tense at times, but it's far from mechanically original. Last year's outstanding Still Wakes the Deep had similar sneaking, but there you were up against an enemy that was genuinely visually unique (not to mention bloody horrifying) which helped tired stealth feel fresh. Too much of Sleep Awake lacks such novelty, feeling more nap-worthy as a result.
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ NewsletterContact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.Snooze button
Maybe I'd have found my attention wavering less if the story was more engrossing. Katja has tragically lost her father and her brother, so I get why she's not exactly a bucket of laughs, but she still has more of a pottymouth than a personality. I'm pretty lousy company when I haven't slept too, but everyone talks about events so stoically and in proper-noun-heavy technobabble that they feel more like exposition machines than characters.
You do occasionally stumble across memories of unfortunate people who've fallen to an ill-advised snooze, but I find these little crumbs of sidestory too abstract and distant to move me. Perhaps the game's fiction makes perfect sense if you take the time to read every file and book you find. Well, good luck. I've been spoiled by the outstanding documents you'll find in Silent Hill f, because the ones I picked up in Sleep Awake just felt too dry and overlong – flavor text missing enough crucial flavor.
Sleep Awake gets stronger in its second half, when the surreal imagery and routine stealth stop living in separate silos.
But it's not quite a bleary-eyed disaster. Sleep Awake gets stronger in its second half, when the surreal imagery and routine stealth stop living in separate silos. One late-game enemy, with a clever don't-look-at-it mechanic and wonderfully nasty sound design suddenly jolted me awake. But where the hell were these nightmares earlier? And why are they such a brief part of the game?
Another late-game monster, while not quite as successful, still innovates in ways that the gas mask chaps who make up the bulk of the stealth don't. I left Sleep Awake on something of a high, then, but also with a sense of frustration for what could have been. Sleep Awake is a far too sporadically scary game from a studio who clearly have massive horror potential. I just wish I hadn't felt like I was sleepwalking through most of it.
DisclaimerSleep Awake was reviewed on PS5, with a code provided by the publisher.
After more frights? Our best horror games ranking will help you out!
CATEGORIES PS5 Xbox Series X PC Gaming Platforms PlayStation Xbox
Abbie StoneAs well as GamesRadar+, Abbie has contributed to PC Gamer, Edge, and several dearly departed games magazines currently enjoying their new lives in Print Heaven. When she’s not boring people to tears with her endless ranting about how Tetris 99 is better than Tetris Effect, she’s losing thousands of hours to roguelike deckbuilders when she should be writing.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
Logout Read more
Blumhouse first-person horror game is a Silent Hill dystopia where nobody sleeps, and you need to stealth around like it's Alien: Isolation – which I might be better at if I weren't so scared
Routine review: "This imperfect but wonderfully atmospheric moon-based horror leaves a strong impression"
Hotel Barcelona review: "Everywhere better roguelike games go right, this hotel-set horror goes left"
Silent Hill f review: "The legendary horror series' most unsettling atmosphere and writing to date butts heads with combat that's more irritating than scary"
Little Nightmares 3 review: "An overly safe, uneven, and half-baked follow-up where co-op is a hindrance instead of the evolution it should've been"
Silent Hill f's punishing Souls-inspired combat is a beautiful metaphor, but this better not ignite a new survival horror trend
Latest in Survival Horror Games
Routine review: "This imperfect but wonderfully atmospheric moon-based horror leaves a strong impression"
Silent Hill f owes its popularity to fan art, theories, memes, and more, say leads: "Games that do get talked about even months after release are the ones that are fun to theorize about"
How to solve the Resident Evil Survival Unit clock puzzle
Resident Evil Survival Unit codes (November 2025) and how to redeem them
Capcom says Resident Evil Requiem's "stalker" enemy will only be "a small part of the game," improving the worst thing about my favorite game franchise
Lady Dimitrescu actor Maggie Robertson is keen to return as the iconic villain in future Resident Evil games: "we really found something with her"
Latest in Reviews
Sleep Awake review: "An all-timer horror premise is let down by tired stealth that I feel like I'm sleepwalking through"
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond review: "The series' atmosphere has never been better, while being dragged down by a boring overworld and clunky psychic powers"
Escape from Tarkov review: "An extraction shooter that will make you truly miserable if you let it, but can offer dizzying highs you won't find elsewhere"
Stranger Things season 5 volume 1 review: “Can the Duffer brothers stick the landing? It’s sure looking like they will”
Fans think this is the best strategy board game ever made, and I have to admit that they've got a point
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery review: "Brings Knives Out back to its roots for a sequel that's almost on a par with the original"
GAME REVIEWSMOVIE REVIEWSTV REVIEWS
1Metroid Prime 4: Beyond review: "The series' atmosphere has never been better, while being dragged down by a boring overworld and clunky psychic powers"- 2Routine review: "This imperfect but wonderfully atmospheric moon-based horror leaves a strong impression"
- 3Marvel Cosmic Invasion review: "Excellent '90s-tinged superhero brawling across a punchy campaign falls just short of arcade bliss"
- 4Escape from Tarkov review: "An extraction shooter that will make you truly miserable if you let it, but can offer dizzying highs you won't find elsewhere"
- 5Fans think this is the best strategy board game ever made, and I have to admit that they've got a point
- 1Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery review: "Brings Knives Out back to its roots for a sequel that's almost on a par with the original"
- 2Wicked: For Good review: "Builds to an incredibly cathartic conclusion, but isn't quite as captivating as Part 1"
- 3The Running Man review: "Some fun action and Glen Powell's star power aren't enough to energize this disappointing Stephen King adaptation"
- 4Predator: Badlands review: "Die-hard fans may be disappointed, but as a blockbuster action-adventure, Badlands kills it"
- 5Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc review "Storytelling just as compelling as the chainsaws, devils, and visually excessive fight scenes"
- 1Stranger Things season 5 volume 1 review: “Can the Duffer brothers stick the landing? It’s sure looking like they will”
- 2Pluribus season 1 review: "Easily one of the year's best dramas"
- 3The Witcher season 4 review: "The Henry Cavill-less fourth season is the best yet"
- 4IT: Welcome to Derry review: "A supremely confident step back into the history of Stephen King's cursed town and killer clown"
- 5Splinter Cell: Deathwatch review: "A pale imitation of the long-dormant stealth franchise"
