Back to Bed is a puzzle game with an isometric view about a guy name Bob who is sleepwalking and you must guide him safely Back to Bed. This was release for mobile and now comes to consoles as an exclusive to PlayStation systems with remastered visuals, new music, cross-save and trophies, and better animations. Bedtime Digital Game have created a unique artistic style, it looks like a piece of surrealism art that belongs in a museum for all to admire. Just like Borderlands series from 2K Games, Telltale games, Guacamelee! from DrinkBox Studios own unique graphic art style. It’s beautiful in its own way that when you look at it you would know the name of the game. This game is divided into sections with fifteen puzzles in each and with nightmare mode that unlocks after finishing normal version. In total it adds up to sixty puzzles to play. I prefer to play this by bits on the go on the PS Vita version then playing on the big screen.

GamePlay

The mechanics of the game are simple. Bob is set on a predetermine path that lead him often  to fall off the map and you, Subob the subconscious of sleepwalker Bob must guide him via grabbing an apple(don’t ask me why it’s an apple) to place on the path he is going to change his route. In front of the apple when he hits the obstacle he will always go counter-clockwise. Guide him safely to his bed and advance to the next puzzle. It work well enough in beginning with three tutorials to show the basics of the mechanics but on later puzzles, new things pop out without explanation on those new mechanics. There are puzzles where you must use fishes to bridge the gap for Bob to walk across or walking through one mirror to connect to a different one. It’s simple enough to figure it out, but I just wish that they at least hint us when new mechanic is being introduce. Later levels introduce new enemies into the game, but only for two or three levels and then vanish. These enemies include dogs, clocks that could walk, and may patrol routes that you could alter (dogs) or make them fall off the maps (clocks). Finally there are trains that if Bob walk on the railroad then he will get hit by it and die.

Moments

There are a few game designs that are questionable. For example, when you die from train or wake up from clocks and dogs, you will have option to choose to go back to main menu or retry instead of the normal levels where it just continues until you pass it. It’s frustrating to keep replaying the same puzzle, encounter those enemies, fail, press retry, loading back and repeat if fail. They could have just left it to reset whole puzzle automatically like in the previous levels.

Even though it’s nice to have option of zoom in and out of map, I wish there was options to change the cameras view. Especially when there are puzzles that required you to put the fish down or fall on the right place. It might be due the black and white checker floor is what I could surmise. This black and white checker floor makes Bob’s footprint (to show where he will go) blend in so well that it’s sometime difficult to see. While it’s funny to hear Bob voice when he fall off the map when you use the fast forward function, it also gets annoying after a while when he keep falling in normal time (which is nice for developers to have mute buttons to both sound and music, but I wish it was rather a volume control instead). I would have like that there was a pause button that could pause everything in the map in order to plan out Bob’s route or finding items to put in Bob’s path instead of Bob walking in a loop to plan it out.

Final Impressions

Back to Bed is a beautiful work of art but few questionable game designs, only thirty puzzles (excluding nightmare mode because it’s the same map; it’s just added challenge of getting the key(s) that unlock door to Bob’s bed), uncreative puzzles where you are more likely of solving it through trials and errors (also make it feel unsatisfying after figured it out), and the simplistic puzzles that you will blaze through quick for most. I find the game puzzles playable but simplistic overall. If they would have added those suggestions it would have been more enjoyable to play. If you like simplistic puzzles and quick plays this game is highly for you to enjoy. Let me know in the  comments below your thoughts on the game if you have it or questions on the review.

Rating

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Screenshots

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