Jim’s Nightmare: Chapter 1 Early Access [Review]
Psychological horror adventure Jim’s Nightmare is unnecessarily frustrating.
Jim’s Nightmare: Chapter 1. Credit: Pumpkiny Games / Sky Den Games
Jim’s Nightmare: Chapter 1 looks like it was right up my alley. Unfair gameplay, however, quickly grew frustrating and made me lose interest.
Jim is an ex-gangster struggling with mental illness. You must uncover the truth of his past and root of his illness. I didn’t get far in the story, clearly influenced by Disco Elysium and Silent Hill, because of frustration in the gameplay.
The game is a point-and-click adventure with RPG elements. Based on earned experience points, you can switch between specializations that create different balances between three stats that govern your stamina, observational skills, and mental acuity. You switch between the real world and a discount Silent Hill world in Jim’s mind as you play. I got to a point in the game where in the dream world you have to escape a chainsaw wielding maniac; the point-and-click controls made it impossible to evade him and I just died over and over. If your game uses this kind of control scheme, it’s a poor choice to include mechanics that limit your stamina and kill you in a single hit.
The game’s writing doesn’t hold a candle to the games that inspired it, even though the voicework does help. It just didn’t do enough to hook me. I would have stuck around to see if the game just needed a little more time to get there, but it just wasn’t possible.
Jim’s Nightmare: Chapter 1 will be out in Early Access on June 4, 2024. The final game will have six episodes, which will be added through updates all included with the purchase. You can wishlist or preorder the game now.
Overall Score: 2/10
Played on: Steam Deck, PC
