Neverending Nightmares

About Neverending Nightmares

Neverending Nightmares is a psychological horror game by Infinitap Games, released on Steam in September 2014, on PlayStation 4 in 2016 and on Nintendo Switch in 2020, and also sold for iPhone and iPad. Its creator, Matt Gilgenbach, built it from his own struggles with depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

You play Thomas, who wakes from a terrible nightmare to find that he is still dreaming. Each time he wakes, he is somewhere deeper: an old house of long candlelit halls, a library, a hospital ward, an asylum corridor of cell doors. You walk from side to side through these rooms, open doors, carry a candle and choose which way to go.

The pictures carry most of the fear. Everything is drawn in black and white crosshatching like an old illustrated book, and only a few things are coloured: a candle flame, the things you can use, and blood. That colour does the work of button prompts: a brown wardrobe in a grey room is where you hide when something patrols past. Bloodied figures wait in rooms and corridors, and a swollen baby-faced monster or a pale woman with bleeding eyes may come after Thomas. He cannot fight, and anything that reaches him kills him in one blow, so you hide or run while he gasps for breath. The game shows graphic self-harm and suicide imagery, which Steam's content notice warns of, and it is rated Mature by the ESRB and 16 by PEGI.

It is slow and quiet more than it is full of chases, and reviewers single out its sound and the dark ambient score by Skyler McGlothlin. Critics also found the rooms repetitive, with many empty ones between the frights. A first run takes about an hour and a half, and the story branches into three completely different endings, so it is made to be played again. It suits players who want horror about the mind rather than about fighting, and who are comfortable with its subject.

How to play Neverending Nightmares

1. Start a new game; Thomas wakes from a nightmare and finds he is still dreaming.
2. Walk left and right through the rooms and use doors and the objects drawn in colour.
3. When a monster or apparition appears, hide in a wardrobe or run; you cannot fight, and one touch kills.
4. Each time Thomas wakes, carry on into the next, deeper dream.
5. Choose which paths to follow; they lead to one of three endings.

Tips

• Play with headphones; the score and the sounds carry much of the mood.
• Anything drawn in colour can be used, so look for it in each room instead of searching every corner.
• When something patrols the hall, look for a brown wardrobe to hide in and wait for it to pass.
• Look into the dark beyond the candlelight: shadowy figures sometimes wait there before they move.
• Read Steam's content notice first: the game shows self-harm and suicide imagery.

Questions