Through the Nightmares Review

Through the Nightmares is a precision platformer developed and published by the Ukraine-based Sandman Team. It's been in development for several years, with a demo released back in April 2020. It’s fairly obvious that this game was a labour of love, so should this dream be slept on, or is it worth its nightmare-level difficulty?

Children are being trapped within nightmares by the King of Nightmares, Morpheus. As the embodiment of good dreams, the Sandman will need to dive into Morpheus’ world to save these children or else they might be imprisoned in sleep forever. It’s a fairly simple story, but it allows you to explore some really neat environments that wouldn’t make sense in a sane world. All 45 levels tap into common fears children have, from dark forests to spider-infested suburbs; these environments can be awe-inspiring, yet unsettling at the same time. Oh, and if “spider-infested” didn’t tip you off, huge arachnophobia warning! Seriously, there’s a big fat spider on the world select menu. It does a lot for using low-poly models, and I really liked that. Also, the music is pretty good. I’d listen to it outside the game.

Now, onto the gameplay. You’ll be platforming your way through levels, trying not to die along the way. There’s more to running and jumping here, though: at the press of a button/trigger, the Sandman can shrink in size. It’s used to become lighter and get into small gaps, but being at full size will give you a better running speed and a higher jump. You also get the ability to stomp on the ground to crack through weak flooring or for a faster descent. That’s everything you get, and the game will test your use of those abilities through a variety of obstacles that will kill you at the slightest touch. The environment will react to your actions and threats move to the beat of the soundtrack, so it demands skill, timing and rhythm to get through the game.

Checkpoints are rare, only saved for special stages, and in any other scenario, dying will send you back right to the start. However, there is a flask you can find within a level and set down to give one… but only for three deaths. After that, dying one more time will send you back as normal, and you will need to grab it again. It’s something to help struggling players, but for completionists, you’ll need to bring it to the end of the level, which means you can’t use it. Luckily, most levels aren’t too long and respawns are instant, so it won’t take more than a few minutes to get back to where you were. Still, even with a crutch, expect to struggle a lot here.

I seriously struggle with my time with Through the Nightmares, because I’m really, really bad at precision platformers. I will admit that I had to step away to cool down before I threw my controller through my monitor. This game will require patience, which I am starting to realise I’ve lost, which will lead to more deaths than necessary. It is really satisfying to perfect a level, but the journey there will be tough. At the very least, not everything will be reset if you die. I’ve used this little trick to eventually beat some stages.

Now, onto performance, and thanks to its low-poly art style, it runs like a dream (no pun intended). It runs at a stable 300 FPS, with no crashes or anything to disrupt gameplay. Maybe I couldn’t shrink at times due to a dead input, but it didn’t lead to too many deaths. If anything, the only thing that would annoy you is maybe the loading screens, which aren’t instant.

Through the Nightmares is a nightmarishly difficult, great labour of love. You can feel the amount of work put into every single level, and the only thing stopping you from beating the game is your own skill and willpower to solve its platforming puzzles. Be willing to wait, use any knowledge you collect with each death, and don’t give up. It will be worth diving into the darkness.