Launching on 18th June for Xbox One and PC, Waking is one of the strangest games we’ve ever played.
It begins with you on your deathbed, but you have a choice: will you let nature take its course, or will you fight for your life?
The answer should be obvious.
In your battle to awake from your slumber, Waking requires you to look inwards. You’ll explore mysterious environments, answer personal questions, and be coerced to draw upon personal experiences. At times, you’ll even be prompted to close your eyes and mediate. It’s all very surreal, which will either capture your attention and hold it like a vice, or turn you off.
Waking isn’t just about the exploration of environments and your own personal psyche, however. It also has a combat system which you’ll use to dismiss those who would have you sleep forever. Debris in the environment can be raised via some supernatural force, and then flung at enemies to do them damage. Once a foe is staggered, you can also get in close to perform melee attacks, or perform a powerful charged attack. These are only available to you once you’ve picked up and absorbed feelings and experiences, though. Waking is weird like that.
You can check out the first 20 minutes of Waking in the video at the head of this page. Developed by just one man, Jason Oda, the full game is expected to take players some 20 hours to complete as they attempt to recover all the pages of the Book of Somnus and traverse a mysterious palace. It won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but it certainly is thought-provoking.
