Maze games have existed for a substantial amount of time in the video game sphere. If not, the entirety of video gaming history. Consequently, the “maze” always has some iteration in gaming. Whether it’s the OG “maze” of Pac-Man or the labyrinth of airlocks in the Palace of Okumura in Persona 5, players have always been finding their way through passages. Some games, however, make them the primary focus of the game. Games like HYPNOS.

HYPNOS is developed and self-published by Redlock Studio and their third launch as a game studio. Per their Steam page, the game is pitched as a “first-person adventure and exploration game”.

Gamer Social Club was able to get their hands on a copy of their early access title. Always willing to try out something new, I said I would take a crack at HYPNOS. So, without further ado, let’s dive into our early access feelings on HYPNOS.

The World & The Story

The World

HYPNOS is set in a vast expanse outside of the Nameless City at the edge of Dreams. So…nowhere close. The world itself is very massive, very…Lovecraftian. And also very empty. Shockingly so. I’ll get into that later.

It’s also a world that is very black and white, in terms of its color palette.

I do believe that, based on some of the shots I saw in the game’s trailer, that there are some other, more colorful, biomes at some points in the game. However, I didn’t get a chance to see them.

The Story

The story of HYPNOS is…interesting. You awaken in a dark alley. As you follow the path, you approach a hunched figure in front of a…door? Portal? Well, it’s something. And it’s red. And menacing looking.

What follows is the story of the main character, Choron, pursuing these visions on his journey of the holy mountain of Kadath and finding this unknown man named Matthew. Throughout the course of HYPNOS, you’ll also be introduced to the royal rule of the land by the Three Monarchs. These individuals have stepped in to rule in the stead of the gods.

There might be more story to HYPNOS. However, I was really unable to find any of it. We’ll get into that later.

The Gameplay

Honest truth – HYPNOS, from my perspective, is a walking simulator game with some light platforming. Gameplay boils down to exploring the world on foot and interacting with the various inhabitants of the Far Reaches.

The one cool thing that the game does allow for is the use of teleporting. To teleport, you’ll need to have activated Witness pillars. The Witness pillars serve two purposes. The first big one – they allow you to respawn back at them if you’ve gotten lost, or stuck…or jumped into the bottomless void of the map at some spots. You can access this respawn whenever you want, which is nice.

The other purpose of the Witness pillars – teleportation waypoints. To activate, you’ll need to zoom in your sight and look for various “pulse” patterns in your field of vision. Then, poof – you’ll warp to the visible Witness pillar.

Here’s the catch though. You can only teleport to activated Witness pillars. So you’ll need to make a point to activate them as you see them – or be forced to backtrack in certain instances.

That really sums up the gameplay. There’s no combat, per se, but your dialogue choices might prompt Choron to pull out his pistol to dispatch someone. But you, as the player, won’t have to “do” anything.

That being said – we’ve discussed what HYPNOS has to offer. Let’s now dig into what I liked…and what I didn’t care for.

The Good

Stunning Visuals

HYPNOS is pretty. No getting around that. But I have repeatedly said that it is not difficult to be pretty in 2026 in the world of video games. However, just…look at it.

The, as the game pitches, Lovecraftian architecture and gravity-defying landscapes are intriguing and pleasant to look at. Because, and here’s where I get critical, there’s not much else.

The Bad

Stunning Visuals…of an Empty World

HYPNOS is pretty. And it is empty.

A vast contingent of the Far Reaches is an absolute ghost town, especially given the scale of the world itself. There were 5-10 minute segments where I didn’t encounter a single inhabitant. And while that isn’t always a bad thing, when the world is this large, there needs to be…more.

…And No Sense of Direction in the Empty World

What exacerbates the empty world is that because it’s so large, there is very little, in terms of clarity, of where you are expected to go. There do not seem to be any guardrails in place that dictate “where” you should go. But with no sense of direction in such a massive world, I could easily see one asking themselves “Why should I bother? For the sake of exploration?”

Near Non-Existent Story

There might be a story in HYPNOS. Where it is…I honestly could not tell you. Outside of Choron pursuing his visions of Matthew in his dreams, we are not given much in terms of what this world is, who the inhabitants are, or what happened to the gods. I think, unfortunately, many games have looked to Souls-like games for inspiration when it comes to storytelling. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. And this comes from someone who likes this style of story-telling. I don’t mind not having it spoon-fed to me, but you gotta give me something to go with.

Flat Characters

The characters, Choron included, are very one-dimensional. Most are just NPC’s that give you a snippet of where they’re going, or maybe the state of the world. Some don’t even have that. Choron’s character archetype is also something that I feel I have seen time and time again. He’s brooding, and has a murky, shadowy past. It’s nothing new.

Snail’s Pace Travel

I so rarely dive into gripes about controls in games. But I have to here. Your base walking speed might as well be a crawl in HYPNOS. For context, I played this on an Xbox controller. To walk a little faster, hold the Left Trigger. To sprint, hold that Right Trigger as well. My index fingers were not happy campers when I finished HYPNOS.

In a world this large, even with the platforming required sometimes, I would like to see some toggle options when it comes to sprinting.

The Overall

HYPNOS is, as I noted, in early access. So that being said, I do not expect a fully completed game that has had all its pieces fleshed out. But did I actually like what I played? I…don’t know? While it’s pretty, it just feels so empty, and without a story that really hooked me in, I found myself almost looking forward to the end of my time with it. But would I recommend that someone try HYPNOS? I would, if not solely for the visuals, but to give a taste of what some of the newer “liminal space” games are like. And who knows – maybe you’ll be more hooked into the why of this world than I was.

HYPNOS is currently available in early access on Steam and also has a demo version available if you’d like to try before you buy.

Gamer Social Club was provided an early access copy of this game for the purposes of this early access review. This review was played on PC (Steam).