With your grandfather recently deceased, Insomnis finds you visiting the manor you’ve just inherited.
Playing as Joe Castevet, you might want to turn around and leave not long after your arrival, however. Something about the manor just doesn’t seem right, and the more you dig into its secrets, the more you might recoil in horror. Needless to say, only the brave should tackle Insomnis.
Played from a first-person viewpoint, as you move room to room, reading documents that point to a fractured relationship, you’ll also find clues that the manor was used for some pretty unsavoury activity. How far does it go? That’s for you to find out. And for some, the revelations might be a bit distressing.
Alongside the feeling of unease brought on by the subject matter, there’s also great use of the DualSense’s speaker to further put you on edge at times. The occasional brush with an apparition will creep you out too.
Ultimately though, Insomnis revels in the type of horror that gets under your skin: a grim tale of human depravity. As such, there’s no action to be found here – no combat or conflict. Instead, you’re simply left to solve puzzles and gain access to more areas of the manor, where further revelations await about those who once resided there.
The puzzles range from simply finding a code to unlock a safe, to much more complex conundrums that will have you re-examining documents for information. There’s nothing too challenging here. However, thanks to the open nature of the house you can find yourself getting hung up trying to solve a puzzle before it’s even possible.
Insomnis isn’t a very long game: chances are, you’ll be completely done with it within a couple of hours. And while there are two endings, neither of them feel particularly fulfilling. Add in the fact that the voice acting for Joe isn’t convincing at all, and you have a game that’s largely enjoyable but all too brief.
If you don’t mind forking out for a spooky experience that you’ll complete in an evening and then perhaps never think about again, you could do a lot worse than Insomnis. It is genuinely unnerving at times, and its puzzles are rewarding to solve. It’s just a shame there isn’t more to it.
Insomnis Review – GameSpew’s Score
This review of Insomnis is based on the PS5 version, via a code provided by the publisher. It’s available on PS4, PS5 and PC.
