The Deepest Sleep
Script Welder's point-and-click horror adventure games Deep Sleep and its sequel Deeper Sleep couldn't be more ironically named if they tried, since they're not so likely to bring about restful slumber so much as nightmare fuel intent on keeping you awake. In the first game, you found yourself trapped in a literal nightmare and struggling to wake up, while in the sequel as you researched lucid dreaming you discovered you hadn't ever actually awoken. Now, in The Deepest Sleep, as the title implies you find yourself going even deeper into your nightmare in order to find a way out, while at the same time trying to stay one step ahead from the creatures who want to keep you asleep... for good. To play, just click when the cursor changes colour to interact, and use items from your inventory at the top of the screen as you find them in order to solve puzzles and proceed.
This series has always been one of those rare batches of games where "weird and disorienting" is both point and attraction, since they capture the surreal and unsettling atmosphere of dreams so perfectly. Even when it isn't throwing jump scares at you, The Deepest Sleep keeps you on your toes with some superb use of lighting and sound. Most of the items you'll find have a fairly logical implementation, even if you'll need to be wearing you back-trackin' boots for a lot of it, and some scenes will definitely make you squeal as you scrabble to survive. That said, however, some of the puzzles are also more frustrating this time around, in particular a timed, multi-room puzzle in growing darkness where you have to remember the correct sequence you used to get through to get back out of once you find the item you need. Though technically the last game in the series, The Deepest Sleep still feels like it leaves a lot of questions unanswered, and the concept itself still offers fodder for more great ideas that could be played with down the road. On its own, however, The Deepest Sleep is still a great example of a horror game that knows how to keep you on the edge of your seat, and exactly when to try to make you spring right off it.