Mama’s Sleeping Angels PC (Build 23605471)

Collect cursed items and use weapons to face the monsters in Mama’s dreams. ETERNAL SLEEP… …IS NOT THE END… …AWAKEN LOST FRIENDS. EXPLORE. FIGHT. FEED MAMA. During a sleepover you find yourself in the depths of a goddess’ dream, the eternally hungry Mama. Survive the dangers of the dreamworlds with firearms and powerful masks that permanently alter your abilities. The price to pay for leaving is simple, return with cursed objects you’ve gathered during your exploration. Or your life. Learn the mysteries of the ethereal and investigate your surroundings with your handy flip-phone. Through it, you can analyze cursed objects that provide beneficial or bothersome powers.

When back inside the safety of the house, check the computer room where you can find information on the life forms, curses, and items you have encountered. It’s basically a cursed version of REPO (you don’t need friends for it, but the absurdity leads to plenty of spooks and laughs with others). If “WTF is/was that?” were a game, this would be it personified. Essentially, the loop is that you’re a dream-hopping angel (from a cast of unlockable characters) who has to find cursed relics for a demon/creator-like entity known as Mama.

Each time an item is collected, its curse has to be analyzed before it’s brought to a scale until the quota is reached, after which the dream can be ended and the cursed relics fed to Mama. The unique twist is that each curse has an effect on gameplay, whether visual or otherwise, and they can vary wildly. The levels, as the store page says, are procedural, and after a few runs that has proven to be true.

The trailer makes it appear to be an action game, and while there are weapons and the monsters can often be killed, that doesn’t seem to be the point. It’s neither strictly a horror game nor an action game, yet everything is just weird enough that it somehow loops back around into being both at the same time. The vibes and overall aesthetic are perfect, the player character and monster designs are excellent (especially Ribbit), and it’s easy to see this becoming the kind of game that demands a lot of time while piecing together whatever lore can be found.