Nightmare Simulator is a surreal visual experience with little gameplay and plenty of confusion.
TL;DR at bottom
Gameplay:
In reality, there is actually very little gameplay contained within Nightmare Simulator. It would most likely fall under the category of a walking simulator or simply a virtual experience as you have very little interaction with the environment, only the occasional key press to pick something up or press a button. The game itself is also very slow due to this lack of interaction, as you mostly just have to wait around for something to happen in the level.
The very first level of the game, for example, tells you to kill yourself repeatedly with the different tools tossed lazily about the flat plane. It isn't clear what to do besides kill yourself, but after looking into the objective (since I didn't know how to progress) I learned that the developer set a three minute timer on the level, and you simply have to do whatever you want for those three minutes until you can progress. This kind of system might be okay if there was more to look at or do in the level, especially on the first one, but with the annoying looping voice (which I believe is a audio clip from the YouTuber "LeafyisHere") and the lack of things to do was an annoying beginning to my experience in this game.
After each level, you spin the wheel and choose which "nightmare" you want to experience, but I don't think that your choice matters at all. The levels appear in a linear fashion and the wheel is just for show, as your choice doesn't affect what level you actually play. The levels are often very unclear about what the objective is, and it was somewhat difficult to progress through some of the levels. Overall, the game is pretty unclear and also slow and boring.
2/10
Graphics:
At a first glance, the graphics in this game are pretty horrendous. They seem to use basic assets provided with whatever game engine the developer used to create Nightmare Simulator. Most levels seem to be shoddily thrown together and are a organizational mess. The actual resolution and quality of the textures aren't horrible, but it certainly isn't very good either. Most of the levels take place on a large flat plane with a plain skybox and you can just walk off the edge and die if you get too close. This may attribute to the "nightmare" feel that the game is going for, but I thought there wasn't much work put into the level design. A few levels in particular were actually very visually appealing, most notably the space ladder level and the broken clock level. The broken clock looked awesome, and I wouldn't be opposed to having a screenshot of it as a wallpaper. The space skybox also looked surprisingly good. Overall, the graphics are okay.
5/10
Music/Audio:
Music is quite sparse in this game, and it mostly minutely adds to the atmosphere of levels. Granted, there probably wouldn't be music in your nightmares in reality. Sounds are also very strange, but, again, nightmares are strange. Some of the sounds are stock but some are strange choices like voice clips from a YouTuber or some odd voice lines. The sounds certainly add to a strange and surreal experience that honestly made me confused at some points. The audio is probably the most assisting feature of the game toward the "nightmare" experience it advertises.
4/10
Conclusion:
Nightmare Simulator is a nightmare. Not just in that it is attempting to simulate nightmares, but simply the fact that it is slow and boring, and honestly more confusing than nightmarish. I had a hard time progressing through the game due to the lack of clarity as to what to do next. The levels were sometimes nice looking, but the game gives a false sense of choice for what levels you want to play as it is linear, in actuality. The sound design is certainly odd, but perhaps that is what the developer was aiming for. I might recommend this game as a funny experience for a meme or something of that vein, but as a game/walking simulator by itself, I can't recommend playing it.
Overall: 3.5/10 - Not Recommended
TL;DR
Pros:
+Some nice looking levels
Cons:
-More confusing than nightmarish
-Unclear progression
-No real gameplay, mostly a walking simulator
-Short
Check out my gameplay of Nightmare Simulator below to get a better idea of the game.
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