Time To Wake Up Review

A Dream World Full Of Surprises

“Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This”, said singer Annie Lennox. But not all dreams, as we know, are particularly sweet, with some being downright disturbing. For years, people thought dreams were prophetic and gave us early warnings about the future. But now, scientists believe dreams are a way for the brain to clean itself and sort information from short-term memory into long-term memory. But still, why did I dream I was a Hoover? 

In Time To Wake Up, Alan is stuck in a dream and is trying to get out of it alive. It’s a cool indie game with a great narrative and some memorable game mechanics. Let’s get into dreamland.

A Strange Story Of Childhood Memories And Trauma

At first, I thought Time To Wake Up was a VR title that had been transferred to consoles because of the simple mechanics, which I could imagine working well in an older VR game. But no, it’s a narrative adventure with a blinking mechanic. Yes, with one blink of the eye, the game changes perspective, and walls that might have been there previously, suddenly disappear. Blink again, and the room turns upside down, leaving you standing on the ceiling.

The story focuses on 39-year-old Alan, a hermit who lives alone in his flat. He has strange notes everywhere, taped to the walls. We find out that most of these notes come from a book called “Hell Is Other People”, which he read when he was young and which reshaped his life into something that wasn’t particularly pleasant. When a new neighbour comes to the door to ask him out, Alan retreats to his bed and into his dreams…

What happens next is Alan in his dream world, returning to versions of his childhood and trying to make sense of his memories. He has a voice with him that acts as an inner monologue, but also feels like it might be something more malevolent. The writing and story premise are very clever and executed exceptionally well. The idea of revisiting childhood fears and trauma in a dream world where reality is twisted and symbolic rather than real has been used in games before, but this time around it is approached with panache, delivering some brilliant story beats along the way.

The Blinking Mechanic Makes For Clever Gameplay

Gameplay is a big mixture of things: exploration, simple puzzle-solving, platforming and some small sections of stealth. During the exploration, you’re moving rapidly through different dream memories, looking for an exit in each one. This could be in the shape of a door or simply a hole in the wall. Blinking changes everything, as explained earlier. It’s safe to say this is the best mechanic, and it feeds directly into the puzzles you need to solve, which require you to move between the two realities.

This is needed again during some of the platforming sections. Platforming is simple, as you only have one jump, but you’ll be doing it a lot throughout the game. Where the blinking mechanic really comes into its own is when you encounter a platform in one dream world, followed by a gap before the next one that you can’t reach. But jump and blink at the same time, and you’ll land on a platform in the other reality. It’s like the ‘leap of faith’ from the Indiana Jones movies. 

There are other fun mechanics, too, such as an underwater section where you have to find the right valves. There’s also a section in a gym where you’re playing ‘the floor is lava’, having to negotiate a route high above the ground without falling or touching the floor. Time To Wake Up is a game that never sits still, and that’s why it works so well.

In terms of the visuals and it very much feels like a VR title, with quite blocky graphics and lots of colours. But what it does with them, it does reasonably well. The dream worlds you explore are a great intertwining of reality and dream logic. People in this world are represented by giant eyes and triangles, and there’s a level set in a computer world that is particularly creative and different. The audio is strong throughout, with some solid voice-over work from all the actors involved.

A Dream Worth Experiencing

I love an indie game, and I love a game that surprises me. Time To Wake Up does this in spades. It has a good story, is full of surprises, and comes complete with a great blinking mechanic that changes the dream world around you. I do think the visuals are limited by the budget, but what the developers achieve is impressive. 

Does it answer the old question about what happens when we dream? No, but if all dreams were like this, it would be hard to wake up.

Important Links

Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/time-to-wake-up/9pbtvbx0zjnf