Psychological horror does not always need monsters, jump scares or elaborate combat systems to get under a player’s skin. Sometimes, the most uncomfortable experiences come from confronting memories that should have been left behind. Developed by Eye Blink Twice and published by Eye Blink Twice, Serafini Productions and Gamersky Games, Time To Wake Up is a short first-person adventure that explores childhood trauma, isolation and the long-lasting effects of bullying. Its central premise is intriguing, and its surreal environments give it a distinct identity, but while the game has some clever ideas, it struggles to turn its potential into a consistently compelling experience.
Players take control of Alan Malone, a troubled young man whose life has become a cycle of isolation, medication and avoidance. Living in a neglected apartment, Alan seems increasingly disconnected from the world around him, even rejecting an invitation from his new neighbor. When an unsettling voice follows him into a dream, he is pushed towards confronting the experiences that shaped his current state of mind. Much of the journey takes place in distorted versions of familiar school environments, gradually revealing the difficult relationship Alan has with his childhood, his parents and his classmates. A controversial book called Hell is Other People, along with its mysterious author, also plays an important role in his psychological decline. The premise gives the adventure a meaningful foundation, and uncovering the truth behind Alan’s behaviour can be genuinely compelling. However, the narrative leans heavily on familiar themes of bullying, neglect and social rejection without always exploring them with the depth they deserve. Some of its central ideas remain frustratingly vague, while the slow delivery occasionally makes the journey feel more like an obligation than an absorbing mystery.
The first-person perspective works well for a story that revolves around an individual’s perception of reality, particularly when the environments begin to reflect Alan’s troubled mind. One moment, a school corridor might appear relatively welcoming; the next, it becomes a disturbing place filled with threatening imagery and uncomfortable reminders of the past. The contrast between these two states of reality is central to both the atmosphere and the gameplay. Rather than relying on constant scares, Time To Wake Up creates unease through unsettling imagery, familiar childhood settings turned hostile, and the gradual realisation that there is more to Alan’s memories than initially meets the eye. There is an effective sense of psychological discomfort here, even if the game rarely becomes genuinely frightening. Its approach is more interested in leaving players feeling unsettled than making them jump out of their seats, and that restraint suits the material. Still, the story sometimes presents serious psychological struggles in broad strokes, making Alan’s journey towards recovery feel simpler than the subject matter warrants. Its emotional intentions are apparent, but the execution does not always earn the impact it seeks.
The most distinctive feature is the ability to blink and switch between two versions of the surrounding environment. This is more than a visual trick: changing the world can move obstacles, reveal routes, reset objects or transform the layout of a room. Players must pay attention to their surroundings and work out which version of a location offers the route forward. The mechanic fits the narrative particularly well, suggesting how Alan’s perception of the world can shift between comforting illusions and distressing memories. Early puzzles mostly involve identifying an obstruction and blinking to make it disappear or change position, which establishes the concept without overwhelming players. Unfortunately, this simplicity can also make the opening hours feel rather uneventful. The game is frequently content to use its best idea as a straightforward key to progression, when more imaginative applications could have made its puzzles considerably more engaging. The connection between gameplay and narrative is one of its strongest qualities, but the mechanic does not always receive the variety needed to sustain that promise.
Things improve when the adventure begins to introduce more elaborate platforming and environmental challenges. School gyms, surreal playgrounds, flooded spaces and a strange cyberspace setting provide opportunities to combine jumping, movement and carefully timed blinking. Some sections require players to switch realities while navigating platforms or to recognise how objects behave differently between the two versions of a level. These sequences demonstrate that the central mechanic can support more interesting challenges than the early puzzles suggest, and the gymnasium and cyberspace sections stand out as particularly effective examples of the game’s design. They also make the environments feel more closely connected to Alan’s experiences rather than simply serving as corridors between story moments. The trouble is that the quality of the puzzles remains inconsistent. Some are so obvious that solving them barely registers as an accomplishment, while others become frustrating through repetition or unclear solutions. Certain sequences require repeated back-and-forth switching through areas that have already outstayed their welcome, diluting the atmosphere instead of strengthening it. The game occasionally mistakes repetition for challenge, and its more inventive ideas would have benefited from tighter pacing and clearer puzzle design.
Fortunately, the controls are straightforward enough to keep the experience accessible. Walking, jumping, interacting with objects and activating the blinking mechanic are easy to understand, and the game does not bury its core systems beneath complicated menus or elaborate tutorials. This simplicity suits a narrative-led adventure, allowing players to concentrate on environmental clues and the changing layouts around them. Later platforming sequences demand more attention, particularly when blinking needs to be coordinated with movement, but the challenge generally comes from understanding the puzzle rather than mastering an extensive control scheme. That said, some of the more frustrating encounters expose the limits of the design. When a puzzle’s solution is unclear or repeated attempts fail to produce an obvious lesson, straightforward controls cannot prevent the experience from becoming tedious. We also saw occasional frame-rate drops during transitions between the two worlds, which can undermine the smoothness of a mechanic that is supposed to feel immediate. Technical presentation is otherwise reasonably solid, but these moments prevent the shifting realities from feeling entirely seamless.
Visually, Time To Wake Up relies more on artistic direction and atmosphere than on impressive technical detail. Its school corridors, libraries, playgrounds and other dreamlike locations create a recognisable world that gradually becomes more disturbing as Alan’s memories come into focus. The contrast between relatively peaceful surroundings and their nightmarish counterparts is particularly effective, giving ordinary spaces an uncomfortable psychological dimension. Some of the more surreal environments also provide welcome variety, with cyberspace standing out as a particularly memorable change of scenery. However, the visual design does not consistently make the most of its premise. Several areas reuse familiar motifs, and some of the more ambitious sequences feel as though they stop short of exploring what the two-world concept could achieve. The PS5 version also has moments where visual clarity and detail are less consistent, although the underlying art direction remains more compelling than the technical presentation itself. The result is a game that can create striking, unsettling scenes without always maintaining the same level of visual inventiveness throughout its relatively short campaign.
The audio presentation does much to support the atmosphere. The soundtrack complements the shifts between the calmer and more disturbing versions of the environment, reinforcing the sense that players are moving through different emotional states rather than simply changing level layouts. Voice acting is another positive, helping to give the narrative a human element even when the writing becomes heavy-handed. The guiding voice, Tom, also provides occasional sarcastic remarks that offer a little humor amid the otherwise oppressive subject matter. These moments help prevent the experience from becoming relentlessly one-note, although the tonal contrast may not work for everyone. More importantly, the sound design and performances help carry scenes that might otherwise struggle to make an impression through their visuals or dialogue alone. While the story does not always develop its themes as convincingly as it could, the audio presentation gives its unsettling moments a stronger sense of identity.
Time To Wake Up can be completed in roughly two to three hours, depending on how quickly players work through its puzzles. That relatively short runtime is both a strength and a limitation. The game gets to the heart of its premise without demanding a substantial time investment, and its later levels offer enough variety to demonstrate the potential of its central mechanic. Its conclusion also attempts to give Alan’s journey a meaningful resolution, although the emotional payoff may feel insufficiently developed for players who want a more nuanced exploration of his trauma. Multiple endings tied to diary choices provide some additional incentive to revisit the story, but the uneven pacing and inconsistent puzzles make another playthrough difficult to recommend to everyone. Time To Wake Up is therefore best approached as a compact, atmospheric adventure rather than a particularly challenging puzzle game or a definitive exploration of psychological distress. Eye Blink Twice has created a distinctive foundation, and the relationship between blinking, environmental changes and Alan’s memories is genuinely promising. Yet too many sections rely on familiar narrative ideas or repetitive puzzle-solving to make the entire experience feel as cohesive as it could have been.
Ultimately, Time To Wake Up is an uneven but occasionally memorable psychological adventure. Its premise has emotional weight, its central mechanic gives it an identity of its own, and its art direction and soundtrack create an atmosphere that lingers beyond individual scenes. At the same time, the story is not always as insightful as its subject matter demands, and repetitive puzzles prevent the gameplay from reaching the same level as its strongest narrative and visual ideas. Players looking for a short, unconventional experience with a darker psychological edge may find something worthwhile here, especially if they appreciate atmospheric walking adventures. Those expecting consistently clever puzzles, a tightly paced story or a particularly sophisticated treatment of mental health may come away disappointed. Time To Wake Up offers glimpses of something more ambitious, but it never quite brings all its ideas together into the experience it could have been.
Score: 6.4/10