A City Sleeps Reviews

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.

A City Sleeps feels like a half-made game. Perhaps if they had a little more time or budget to add a few more Dreams, and even out the experience for players of all skill levels, it might have been something special. As it is, A City Sleeps is strictly for hardcore shoot-’em-up fans and people who are intensely curious about the future of rhythm games (an interesting Venn diagram for sure).

A City Sleeps' high difficulty level is bound to limit the game's appeal to hardcore players. Although I wouldn't go so far as to say that the game is unbeatable, but there were times when I felt hopelessly stuck, and it's probably one of the longest "short" games I've ever played. But I didn't find myself becoming too frustrated despite having more deaths than I can count. This has to do in large part to the game's fantastic soundtrack, which features an experimental electro hip hop score by M-Cue. Even when the game started to feel practically unbeatable, the music kept me coming back for more. The graphics, though minimal, are also great to look at and has a lot of personality to it. Overall, the game is one that can be hard to play and hard to return to, but it's also hard to put down once you do.

Harmonix made its name with music-focused games like Rock Band, Dance Central, and Amplitude. That theme returns in A City Sleeps, though not in the way you'd expect. Don’t expect a gem highway or onscreen dancers; it's all hardcore bullet hell action all the time, and it's played (ideally) with a standard controller.