Bedtime Blues

Genre: Clicker Horror Game

Players: 1

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Review:

Bedtime Blues is a “Clicker”-style horror game, the genre made famous by the Five Nights at Freddy’s series. Players take on the role of a small child trying to survive the night as he is threatened on all sides by malicious toys.

The game is presented with an extremely low resolution, making the game’s 3D environments and characters seem indistinct, no doubt to hide the low graphical prowess of the folks who made the game, although more than anything it just makes this an ugly, annoying game to look at. Characters in the game largely don’t move, they just pop from one spot to the next.

As for the gameplay itself, players must manage their dwindling flashlight’s battery as they shine it at any toy that threatens to get close, scaring it away. Meanwhile, they must try to get shuteye and get enough sleep to beat the level, while listening for the sounds of encroaching toys.

Okay, so there’s all sorts of problems with this. First, the flashlight battery dies laughably quickly, and having to crank it to charge it seems contrived. Second, the game never really makes its mechanics all that clear, meaning you’re often left to figure out why the heck you keep dying and what you need to do to stop it. Third, the game is extremely repetitive – in the first level, expect to have one of the toys beg you to read it a bedtime story in a warbly voice at least a dozen times.

But of course, the big problem here is, the game just isn’t scary. And believe me, I’m a scaredy-cat when it comes to these sorts of games, but the only emotions I felt playing this game were annoyance, frustration, and at best a little bit of creeped-out unease.

I was never a big fan of the Five Nights at Freddy’s games, but I can at least see the appeal of those. But Bedtime Blues is a horror game without the horror, whose main hallmarks are frustration and repetition. Don’t bother with this one.

tl;dr – Bedtime Blues is a Clicker Horror game like Five Nights at Freddy’s, but not a good one. Its terrible low-resolution visuals, its extremely repetitive and frustrating gameplay, and its lack of genuine scares make it a stinker even if you enjoy the genre.

Grade: D-

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