Back to Bed (PC) (2014)

Overview: Bob is a sleepwalker and turns clockwise when a wall or apple (movable in-game object) is in front of him. Guide Bob back to bed.

20190517:
Today I continued my quest to play an average of one new game a day. The next game on my Recommended By Filter category was Back to Bed. I had no idea what the game was about and was pleased to have learned it was a puzzle game. Unfortunately, approximately forty minutes out of the hour I spent playing the game was bland.

Great art design!

Setup: Xbox controller.

Gameplay Log:
I completed the first twenty-eight levels and was stuck on the twenty-ninth level. (~64 minutes)
I got the fish on the twenty-ninth level but I didn't know how to use it.

Steam Game Time: 75 minutes

20190518:
Today I continued playing.

Walk in different planes!

Gameplay Log:
Completed the normal mode (~9 minutes).
Completed the nightmare mode (~82 minutes).
Completed some Steam Achievements ("Conserving Your Resources" @ 10:19PM, "Smart Guy, Huh?" @ 10:25PM, "The Button is Stuck!" @ 10:26PM, "Just Five More Minutes" @ 10:29PM)
Completed normal mode (23 minutes)
Completed normal mode (19 minutes) [The best run on Speedrun.com is 11m 33s]
Completed normal mode (17 minutes 26.57 seconds)

Steam Game Time: 4.4 hours (total game time)


A zoomed out view of a level.

Thoughts:
Pro:
+ Levels look cool; great art design

Neutral:
~ Some levels have solutions which require fast reflexes

Cons:
- Fails to make use of Escher-like art in an interesting way; the perspective is used as a satisfying part of the puzzles in about three to five of the thirty levels
- Boring, repetitive, lackluster
- Failure to maintain a flow of difficulty

After beating the game, unlock Nightmare mode which requires directing Bob to collect keys.

- The Nightmare Mode could have been converted the core gameplay; even then, the difficulty of Nightmare Mode was not high

Summary:
The basic concept of the game seemed promising, but the game failed to produce any challenging variations from each basic variation of the game. In particular, the levels generally look complicated, but offer no additional difficulty.

Overall, I wish the developers had put more thought into the puzzle design of the game. It's truly a waste of art. I would not recommend the game to anyone looking for a challenge.

Back to Bed (PC) (2014)

Relevant Links:
Back to Bed (PC) (MetaCritic.com)
Back to Bed (Steam Store Page)

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