Suspense: Madman’s Dreams becomes real on Steam

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Narrative-driven psychological horror game based on scientific mental disorders now available for Windows PC

Hopefully none of us ever have to experience the damaging effects of serious mental disorders. But wouldn't it be fascinating to do so for a little while, only as a passive observer? Well, now we can, at least in one former doctor's interpretation of real case studies, through the newly released psychological thriller Suspense: Madman’s Dreams.

Technically you aren't a strictly passive observer, as you have a role to play in seeing this nightmare through. But instead of being mentally ill personally, you'll project yourself into the minds of your psychiatric patients. In guiding them through their worst fears and phobias first-hand, you will "watch as their minds crumble before your eyes, tearing apart like an abandoned mansion." What you see may not be "real" in the traditional sense, but "it is real for the one who sees it, as their mind is inflamed and deteriorating." Your job, as you "wander through ever-changing environments," is to "direct the events and assemble all the pieces into a logical story, giving insight into the character's state of mind." 

Although you're inhabiting other people's consciousnesses, Suspense plays out like a standard first-person, free-roaming adventure in between brief conversations with the characters in question. Each tortured psyche you delve into will take you to a completely different location, including "a hospital, a dungeon, [and] an English house from the 1950s." As you progress, you must solve puzzles the conventional way and also "use your voice and voice commands to survive." Perhaps the most chilling part of all is that the disturbing situations you encounter, including "psychedelic scenes" and imagined violence that nevertheless causes "real physical pain" to its sufferer, may appear to be completely surreal but are based on the developer's own experiences working in a psychiatric hospital and recorded reports of schizophrenia found in actual medical textbooks. 

If you think you have what it takes to survive such an intense psychological journey, you can take the leap right away as Suspense: Madman’s Dreams is available now to download on Steam for Windows PC, along with a playable demo for those who'd rather dabble a tentative first toe into the insanity first.