NeverAwake is a 2D, scroller twin-stick shooter by Neotro Inc., available on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows. You play as Rem, a young child who coincidentally is “never awake”. Your goal is to shoot your way through the monsters in their head. While it sounds like she’s not very lively to play, a lot is going on in her mind to delve into – nightmarish dreamscapes filled with all the things Rem dreads; vegetables, dogs and school children…. scary stuff.

The goal is to collect souls while shooting down all of Rem’s nightmare creatures using an assortment of projectile power-ups and items. The game functions on a singular difficulty, but things can be used to increase Rem’s defense. The tutorial didn’t explain why I had lipstick and headphones until a few stages into the first world.

However, once I began getting hints on the stats screen on approaching each challenge, I understood how to confront the challenges head-on. I had trouble finding the item shop early on, which, in-game, was called the “main menu”, which threw me off but luckily, the button placement was fairly self-explanatory apart from that.

The art style mostly fits into a hand-painted category – enemies, backdrops, and the cutscenes are more in this style and 2D. However, I did find some inconsistencies in art styles, where Rem and some other elements read more as 3D than others – this was reasonably noticeable during my travels. There was a disconnect between the real world and dream worlds because of how impactful the 2D-art was compared to the low-poly 3D elements outside of them.

There isn’t much in the way of cutscenes, relatively small text reflections at the end of each level into Rem’s thoughts. The beautiful painterly scene of Rem in the hospital made me want more between each world to give a visual on her recounts. However, the order of the story felt jumbled to what was happening in each “world”, and her “I hate everything” memories tend to get tiresome.

It’s crucial to point out that NeverAwake could benefit from a seizure and flashing lights warning. Often there would be so many particles and effects on screen, including bright flickering rainbow projectiles that were pretty painful to look at. With a lot going on, it can be very visually overwhelming, and I found that when I looked away from the screen, my eyes struggled to unsee flashing lights.

I also felt the overload of effects distracted from the well-placed barrage of enemies; it almost felt like getting rid of the flickering lights in favour of basic shading would help rather than hinder the gameplay; it was hard to see the projectile’s direction because of it.

The overload of effects also led me to have framerate drops whenever I used my specials and when there was too much on the screen. A particular gripe I had was the very short level “loop”, which, when the player cycled back to the beginning of the stage if the player hadn’t collected enough souls. During the loop transition, a flashing inverted screen flickers, making my eyes sore. These few seconds were often enough to make me take a hit during the stun and possibly end that run.

Likewise, some attacks had little to no animation or too many effects on the screen to telegraph moves, inevitably leading to damage; I wouldn’t realise I was hit until later for not being able to see or hear damage cues.

Regardless of the issues, the game is incredibly moreish – I quickly sunk 3 hours into my first session, hoping to break Rem’s slumber, and kept going back for more. The gameplay is pretty rinse-and-repeat, as expected of the genre. That said, there was plenty to change up the level layouts to keep engaged, especially in enemy types and boss battles.

Enemy designs, particularly bosses, were creepy and fit the grotesque dream bill. Their barrages of attacks gave enough variety to each foe to keep the game interesting and a chance to try out new tactics to beat them. Becoming familiar with what specials work best and the weak spots to hit was satisfying, especially when getting past the tricky parts.

Sometimes, I couldn’t keep up with the overwhelming number of enemies on screen, so I occasionally switched to auto-aim to focus on dodging and reacting. Auto-aim, upgrades and an ability called “oversoul”, which buffed my shields, fire rate, and damage, helped me smash through more complex levels, which I appreciated. These features made the gameplay more accessible when it hit the close to “rage quit” moment and kept the momentum going.

NeverAwake bodes well as a casual twin-stick shooter for hardcore players who don’t mind an intense onslaught of creepy critters coming toward them. Players with quick reflexes may even find some challenges in NeverAwake as some pattern recognition is relatively straightforward.

It’s a great casual twin-stick to sink a few hours into depending on skill levels and may appeal to speedrunners and those up to a challenge.

Written by: Yasmin Noble