Parasomnia Verum

Genre: First-Person Walking Simulator / Horror

Players: 1

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Review:

Parasomnia Verum is a First-Person Walking Simulator and Horror game released on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game puts players in the role of a woman who suffers from nightmares and is seeking help through what appears to be sensory deprivation therapy, involving floating in a pool of water.

Right from the start, this game has some major problems. The game’s 3D environments and characters are simple and ugly, the lighting is flat and bizarre in a way that simply doesn’t work, and can even hide important parts of the environment. The environments are unrealistically large and empty. And despite this game’s poor presentation, the load times are still absurdly long.

The gameplay isn’t much better. Players are constantly having to guess at what to do as players encounter one odd occurrence after another, with the game interpreting dream logic to mean that there is zero sense and consistency. Perhaps this adds to the unsettling atmosphere, but more than anything it’s simply tedious and annoying.

Also, as if to mock the player, what appears to be the game’s monster antagonist, a featureless grey humanoid-looking character, just seems to be messing with you the entire time. “Go here” it leaves a note telling you. “Do this”. Oh, now it’s turned the lights off, guess you have to turn them on again! Oh, now it’s knocking at the door for the umpteenth time. I get that some Horror antagonists like to sadistically play with their prey, but this is just outright childish.

Yet, despite that this game absolutely fails time and again, it does manage to have a creepy vibe, in part thanks to some creepy sounds. It kinda’ pains me to admit that, though – this game depends far too much on jump scares, and the sound quality is terrible. So it feels gross for me to have to admit that despite this, on some level, it still worked.

However, overall Parasomnia Verum doesn’t work. The graphics are terrible, the gameplay is tedious and annoying, the story quickly becomes interesting, and overall this game just feels like both the creepy antagonist and the game’s creator just messing with you. My advice to you is not to play that game by… er… not playing this game.

tl;dr – Parasomnia Verum is a First-Person Walking Simulator and Horror game about a woman seeking counseling help for her nightmares. While the game does manage to occasionally be creepy, otherwise it is an absolute mess, with horrible graphics, atrocious load times, terrible gameplay, and very little in the way of any redeeming value. Skip it.

Grade: D-

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