A.V. Club writes: "Sleep Is Death isn't so much a game as a new storytelling medium. There are no points to be scored or power-ups to speak of: It's just you and another player, improvising your way through the narrative, trading off turns that last a mere 30 seconds for as long as both parties are willing. As your annoying friend who does improv will tell you, the guideline of "yes, and" permeates every facet of real life whether you realize it or not. Especially here, even though half the fun of playing against total strangers online seems to be subverting the storyteller's vision."
AWESOMEoutof10 writer Fraser Brown confesses his love for games that allow players to make the rules and do what they want, and demands people re-engage their imaginations.
Jason Rohrer’s Sleep is Death is an interesting game to say the least. Did you ever play the game where one person would write a sentence and the other would follow suit, taking turns and seeing where the story would end up? SiD is just like that, but with pictures. With a simple object editor and some of the simplest menus out there, Rohrer has created one of the most unique story-telling devices out there.
Here at Twinfinite, we’ve decided to take these tools and our imaginations and see what comes out. Each week, with me hosting, we will post a new staff member’s story. They will all start with the same first slide and we’ll see where each takes us. This week is a little intro to what makes SiD special. I’ll be hosting and Yamilia will be, well, Yamilia.
Justin Belin writes, "For the most part, the debate as to the merit and the extent of artistic expression that is contained within electronic entertainment (read: videogames) has grown long in the tooth by 2011. Droves of believers have wasted endless virtual breath crying foul at the well-documented and only recently pseudo-retracted blasphemy of Roger Ebert. Because ultimately, and to paraphrase another tired argument, art is in the eye of the beholder. If you look upon Shadow of the Colossus, Flower, Braid, Catherine, or even Modern Warfare and see something that speaks to you with the same voice you hear when you gaze upon the canvases of Thomas Eakins, Keith Haring, or even Jim Lee, there is simply nothing a movie critic, or anyone, can do to tell you with any conviction that your feelings are wrong."
