Insomnia: Chapter 1
Melon Polygons/MonkeyFactory Media
Date: 2012. Location: Arctic Research Station Persei, somewhere in the
north Kara Sea.
You are Ethan Miller, junior technician and the last person who might
discover what happened here. And possibly the last who can survive it if
you can face the unknown terror stalking the halls. But hey, no
pressure.
This is a modest game with a modest price and no airs of pretention. It
took me about 80 minutes, and I rather enjoyed that time. Its largely a
solitary bit of station exploration, back and forth to meet the
objectives and perhaps unearth what went on.
A straight path through the game is possibly only half that, but you
would miss details revealed by a more fulsome exploration and the notes
to be found. It’s a largely (but not entirely) monochromatic but
detailed world, the Arctic being not at all a colourful place, and if
you are going to play you should take your time to explore.
I should say that it doesn’t seem to have a save system. I played it
straight through the first time, there being no save option in the menu,
and then started again. I hoped it would save on exit but that didn’t
happen. There might be checkpoints, and given I only played for 10
minutes or so I might not have reached one, but I suspect given its
length that saving isn’t a feature.
It plays in the first person, and uses the mouse and keyboard. WASD
moves you around, but you can steer with the mouse so you really only
need the W key. The E key interacts with the world, in response to the
little white circles that appear as you move through the station. It is
voiced, and ambient sound fills the arctic void.
The head-bob might be disconcerting for some. There was also a beast,
glimpsed briefly.
Insomnia is pretty much a one person endeavour, and intends to be part
of “a series of standalone psychological horror stories, each exploring
the limits of human isolation, memory, and guilt.” I thought it was
moody and claustrophobic rather than psychologically horrific, but that
might have been me. It isn’t a ‘must play,’ but I will come back if
there is a Chapter 2.
I played on:
OS: Windows 11, 64 Bit
Processor: Intel i7-9700K 3.7GHz
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4 32GB
Video card: AMD Radeon RX 580 8192MB
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