Within Deep Sorrows

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Go three dreams deep to destroy your diary before the demon gets out.

Platforms: PC, Mac
Price: Free
Rated: 331 likes and 363 comments on Game Jolt; played by Markiplier in a two-part series at the turn of 2014.
Players: 1
Made by: Octagram
Released: 2013

What frightens A demon haunts Johnston Barker through his nightmares and is working its way into the real world; he has to go down through three dreams, each darker and with the demon stronger and more aggressive, to destroy the diary hidden in the deepest one, searching dim 1950s rooms where it can find him.
Content: jumpscares, very dark scenes.

A free first-person horror game by Octagram from 2013. As Johnston Barker you descend through three nightmares to find and destroy your diary, while a demon that lives in your dreams grows stronger in each one and edges closer to the waking world.

About Within Deep Sorrows

Within Deep Sorrows is a free horror game for Windows and Mac by the small studio Octagram, released on Game Jolt in July 2013. It found a large audience that winter, when Markiplier played it through in two episodes on his channel, and it later appeared on IndieDB as well.

You play Johnston Barker, living in the 1990s, whose nightmares are haunted by a demon. The demon is slowly making its way out of his dreams and into the real world, and the only way to stop it is to destroy his diary, which is hidden in his third dream. So you go down, one dream at a time. The dreams are set back in the 1950s, and you are not entirely alone in them: Johnston's conscience speaks to you along the way and gives you guidance.

It is a first-person game played in very dark places. The maker's screenshots show a dim corridor strewn with papers, an empty school gym lit by one lamp, washrooms with scrawled walls and a building in the rain at night. Each dream you descend makes the demon harder to avoid, stronger and more aggressive, so the further you go the less safe you are. Players who have finished it mention the slow build, the jump scares and how dark it is, and some found it hard to work out where to find the items they needed to go on.

It suits players who like free, older indie horror with a slow build and sudden scares, and who are patient with dark rooms and little guidance. The Game Jolt downloads for Windows and Mac still work; the Windows build is an installer of about 550 MB.

How to play Within Deep Sorrows

Download the free Windows or Mac build from the game's Game Jolt page and install it.
Start a new game and listen to Johnston's conscience, which guides you through each dream.
Explore each dark dream in first person and search for the items you need to go deeper.
Keep away from the demon, which gets stronger and more aggressive in each dream.
Reach the third dream and find the diary hidden there.

Screenshots

Within Deep Sorrows screenshot: a dim corridor with papers on the floor, a radiator and a lit candle stand on a table

Within Deep Sorrows screenshot: an empty dark school gym with a basketball hoop and boarded windows, lit by one lamp

Within Deep Sorrows screenshot: a dim washroom with toilet stalls, sinks and scrawled writing on the wall

Within Deep Sorrows: a dark classroom blackboard with sums and the words This lesson will never end chalked on it

Within Deep Sorrows title: the word Within in cracked silver and red letters on black

Tips

Raise the brightness or play in a dark room; many players found the game very hard to see.
Search rooms slowly and thoroughly; the game gives few hints about where the items you need are.
Listen to what your conscience tells you before you set off in a new dream.
Expect sudden jump scares, especially near the end.