When I saw this on Keymailer I was instantly taken with it, when I read the page and saw I could play it with Duck, that was me sold. So I asked and received within a few days. SO MUCH EXCITE!
I love the idea that this is like Toy Story toys gone bad and when no ones looking, they’re coming FOR YOU in your nightmares.
You can see us play it for the first time here.

In the first outing by UK based Waving Bear Studio, you play a bear defending Ellie in her nightmares from evil toys in wave after wave of evil toy carnage.

This game has left me stumped about what to say. This is the hardest review I have done so far this year because whilst I like the game, its not been able to keep my interest. I really struggled to stream this for an hour because once you’ve survived the night there is no rest, only more of the exact same.

We also really suffered a set back with this game in that it didn’t have split screen as an option when we played it – so what we wanted this game for we couldn’t have. We will be going back to it when it does, we really will and may update the review from there so that being said – take this review as it is, with the disappointment that we couldn’t play together but without that clouding our overall judgement of the game.

We started off with the tutorial, but found that that was mostly for learning the lay of the land. The controls were very intuitive and works with plugged in PS4 controllers on PC (but all on screen prompts were for an Xbox controller, no big deal).
Same controls as most shooters, so instantly felt easy to pick up and it was really nice not to have to relearn muscle memory for shooters for just one game (you know what I mean like when you go back to GTA after playing Destiny and you keep using the wrong sodding shoulder button).

Each night (or the two we did) had 10 waves but each ‘wave’ was the same type each time you reply the day. So you get little toys, then added evil ducks, sock puppets, nightmares and the tiny nightmares that get easily overwhelming on wave 10. We are not sure if more nights survived would change this pattern at all, so this is something to come back to when we can play co-op – but if this is the main format of the game, it would sadly become far too predictable and grindy feeling to go much beyond what we did.

I think in the hour we gave it we met most weapon types, they all seemed to pale in comparison to the mighty & plentiful grenade. My fave was the golf ball launcher, as the weapon you start with seemed to get way less effective over time against the harder waves. I liked the tool box mechanic to fix the door, if Ellies room does get attacked but that seemed to be the only thing different from this game to something like COD zombies.

Everything else about this game was very generic COD zombie feature but with variations due to the toy theme (and a slightly different upgrade station).

I sadly did lose interest in the game after around 45min as it didn’t seem to really go anywhere and I was sad surviving the night didn’t get you a cut scene like the way a fail did. In fact there was no real reward for winning the night, just 30 seconds of getting yourself refilled before you were back to wave 1 of 10. I guess I just expected a little more there. Does she go off to school that morning refreshed and happy because we saved her dreams, or what? COD zombies at least rewards grinding with character progression, all you get here are coins to change the cosmetic feel of the game but with no lasting improvements. Its also interesting note at the end of our playthrough we fired up the game a few more times to test the map generation and found only 3 variations, this may be due to early access but does mean it didn’t fulfil the game promise of procedurally generated maps.

In terms of what it is like to stream this game:

Pros
High view count on my “stream starting soon screen” showed a huge initial interest
Good opening soundtrack which we all liked
The stream liked the aesthetics of the game

Cons
Viewers dropped off quickly
Constant comparisons to COD zombies & comments like “who is this game aimed at?”
Viewers weren’t sold on it

I think overall I am underwhelmed by this game, we will go back to it when it has co-op as promised but until then, like a sad old neglected toy it will sit in my stream inventory and collect dust. But if you really like COD zombies and maybe want a kid or girlfriend friendly variation get a copy of this game, here.

Shiney rating
2.5 paws out of 5
Its not a good game, its not a bad game, its a ‘meh’ game.
I loved the premise and the colourful style of it all, plus banging intro music BUT it got really old really fast which is a HUGE shame. A great first outing with a game though by the devs, I am eager to see how they learn from this in their next game or what updates and changes they may make to this one.