Baby Blues Nightmares Review: Tons of Potential

I’ve always had sort of a love/hate relationship with horror games. It doesn’t take much to scare me, so they tend to get under my skin, leaving me tense for the entire playthrough. That being said, I don’t play horror games very regularly, usually opting for something a little lighter. For some reason, though, I occasionally get the itch to pick one up in spite of my terror. When we were offered a code to Baby Blues Nightmares in exchange for an honest review, I felt that familiar itch. As I watched the trailer, I found myself excited about how much potential the game had, and I had a feeling that we would be seeing tons of playthroughs on Youtube very soon. So did the game live up to that potential as I played? I’ll tell you all about it in this Baby Blues Nightmares review!

Baby Blues Nightmares is a survival horror game at its core. You play from the perspective of a toddler, which is something we don’t see very often in games. Admittedly, that was a big reason I was initially drawn to it. Some of the features in Baby Blues Nightmares include inventory management, stealthy play/hiding mechanics, and a wide variety of scare tactics. This is only scratching the surface of what the game has to offer, though. It truly has all of the ingredients necessary to make a horror game that isn’t just scary, but also incredibly fun to play.

Story – Where Did Everybody Go?

Baby Blues Nightmares begins with a cutscene in which your mother is telling you a bedtime story. In this story, it’s revealed that you’re… well, you’re a bit different from other kids. You prefer the ‘ugly dolls’ from your favorite show, Red Belly Friends. You’ve collected them all, except for Red Belly, because you don’t like how he treats the others. But when the story finishes and your mother has left, you find that all of your dolls have disappeared. With this realization, you set off on a mission to find your lost dolls.

Not long after you’ve found your way out of your bedroom, you hear an argument between your parents, their voices carrying up from downstairs. It’s pretty clear that you have to go find them, but a locked baby gate at the top of the stairs stands in your way. After exploring a bit and finding the necessary key, you make your way towards your parents’ voices. All the while, their argument becomes increasingly volatile, eventually hitting a boiling point. You don’t make it in time to find them, instead coming across empty room after empty room. As a result, your parents are added to the list of your missing loved ones. Shortly after this, you’re introduced to the monster (presumably Red Belly), who you’ll be hiding from for most of the game. From this point forward, it’s your job to stay alive and find out where everyone has gone.

Gameplay – An Unfortunate Series of Events

I have to make a confession: I did not finish this game, and I’m not even sure if I came close to doing so. I only played around five hours of Baby Blues Nightmares. Unfortunately, of those five hours, the game worked perfectly for about an hour total. Originally, I played this game using my PS4 controller. Steam had no indication of whether or not Baby Blues Nightmares would support my controller, but as I loaded into the game, I was greeted with the ability to configure the in-game settings to use it. However, I encountered several bugs throughout my session when I used my controller. Luckily, none of them were game-ruining, just irritating. For example, any time I wanted to interact with something, like opening a door, I would be stuck in place until I opened and closed the pause menu.

Baby Blues Nightmares is split into chapters as you play. Chapter one ran exceptionally smooth (minus the controller-exclusive issues). I was fully immersed into the game at this point, and fully intended to lose my entire day, perhaps even my entire week, playing it all the way through. Sadly, chapter two didn’t go nearly as well.

Chapter 2: Where My Own Nightmare Began

At the beginning of each chapter, Baby Blues Nightmares will automatically save for you. That’s great! Well, except for the fact that this is the only time the game will auto-save. There’s no way to change the frequency, either. You may be thinking: ‘Okay, that’s not ideal, but how bad can it really be? Surely there’s a way to manually save.’ Boy, do I have a story for you!

I played through the entirety of chapter two five times. No, that’s not a typo. So what went wrong? Well, in my first two attempts, I was still using my PS4 controller. Huge mistake! There was a point where I had to hide in a locker from the monster, and quickly. It was a set scene that couldn’t be avoided if you wanted to progress further. Unfortunately, something about using my controller meant that when I entered the locker, I actually clipped through the wall into an entirely different room.

Not only was I somewhere I wasn’t meant to be, but I was stuck again. Opening and closing the pause menu did nothing for this particular bug, meaning I had to close out the game and start the entire chapter over again. I didn’t make the connection on the first go, so I repeated this exact process a second time. Truthfully, I was so frustrated at this point that I shut the game down and walked away for a bit.

Attempts 3-5

When I returned to Baby Blues Nightmares a short while later, Steam informed me that this game did not support controllers. This was a bittersweet moment for me because I was disappointed I couldn’t use my controller, but I also felt I had the answer to my problems. I went back into the game using my mouse and keyboard this time.

On my third attempt, I had a revelation. There is a manual save function in this game! How could I have possibly missed it on my two previous runs? Frankly, it felt like the game had played a joke on me. There’s a mechanic in-game where there are squeaky toys laid across the floor. If you step on them, the monster will be alerted to your position.

The first checkpoint in game is literally surrounded by squeaky toys, tucked into a little alcove, so I had dismissed it both times. I was a little jaded by this point, so I crossed the squeaky toy barrier to see what was inside. This was another bittersweet moment, as you can imagine. It turned entirely sour when I realized that the save function simply didn’t work. I tried multiple times in rapid succession to save, but it just wouldn’t take.

I moved on, but ended up dying to the monster twice more as I was getting used to playing with my keyboard and mouse. By now I was no longer scared, having experienced every creepy moment and jump-scare more than I was ever intended to. Finally, on my fifth attempt, the stars aligned and I was able to progress further.

The Last Straw

Honestly, I don’t know how else to put this. The rest of my Baby Blues Nightmares playthrough felt like a fever dream. I finally made it to what seemed like the bulk of the game, navigating a school-like setting to find the five dolls. In the beginning, this section of the game seemed to be going pretty well. I had found two dolls on my own and I was back to enjoying the game. Some of the scares even made me scream out loud! I found a map, which helped me find the third doll. However, the fourth and fifth dolls seemed to be unreachable based on the map.

I decided to retrace my steps, hoping to find a crucial piece of the puzzle for progression. I lapped the same route at least three times. A new area seemed to appear out of thin air, providing me with two crucial things: the fourth doll, and the screwdriver. I now had access to the vent system in this area. According to the map, that’s where I’d find the fifth doll. I had been saving periodically, but especially after I found a new doll, and I refused to move on without saving now that I had the screwdriver.

Unfortunately, it was a mistake to trust the manual saves. I had thoroughly confirmed they were working up until I found the map. Lulled into a false sense of security, I stopped being thorough. I had nearly completed my objective of finding all five dolls when the monster entered the vents. This had never happened before, and I died. When I loaded back in I had lost hours of progress. At this point, I gave up entirely and shut the game down.

Audio & Visuals – A Mixed Bag

Between the audio and the visuals in Baby Blues Nightmares, the audio is the breadwinner here. Don’t get me wrong, the visuals aren’t awful by any means. They just have a wide range of detail, depending on where you are or what you’re looking at. At times, this made the game feel a bit inconsistent. You could go from looking at a gorgeous night sky with wispy clouds to wondering what exactly that pile of goo is in the next area. In their best moments, the visual details contribute to the horrifying atmosphere in a way that’ll send chills down your spine. At the worst times, they can have you raising an eyebrow, breaking the tension entirely.

Another notable factor is that this game is dark, and not just in terms of content. Of course, horror games are sort of dark by nature, but this felt a little excessive. While I almost always turn up the brightness in a horror game (easily scared, remember?), even after fiddling with the settings in Baby Blues Nightmares, my eyes felt tired and strained after a while. In my opinion, the darkness in this game adds very little to the general atmosphere, so it wouldn’t hurt to make the game a bit brighter overall.

Audio: Ending on a High Note

In contrast, the audio was potentially the best part of Baby Blues Nightmares. While there’s no background music to enjoy as you play, the sound effects are extremely well done. At one point I was testing the squeaky toy mechanic. While it’s unfortunately unpredictable in terms of working as it should, the sound was so realistic that my dog came running into the room. She thought I was squeaking one of her toys! Practically everything in this game has it’s own sound effect attached to it, from your own footsteps to unlocking doors, or jarring explosions of sound accompanying a scare. I would suggest that you play at a lower volume than the default, though, because the monster and certain jump-scares can be almost painfully loud.

Another huge win in the audio department is the fact that Baby Blues Nightmares has voice acting. I always love to hear characters have an actual voice, but it’s especially impressive in this game as it’s developed entirely by one person at Steelkrill Studio. Both parents are uniquely voiced, as well as some of the scare scenes. It makes for a really immersive experience!

Verdict

Although I had high hopes for Baby Blues Nightmares, it sadly did not meet my expectations. With no controller support, a manual save that barely functions, and unpredictable mechanics, I honestly think it’s best to wait a bit before purchasing this game. I still believe that with a little more time, this game could be absolutely fantastic. The developer at Steelkrill Studio seriously nailed the atmosphere and some of the staples of horror games, but as of today (September 12th, 2024), Baby Blues Nightmares needs more work.

Hopefully, the developer will continue to update and polish Baby Blues Nightmares so that it can grow. I wasn’t kidding when I said that I could see this being a Youtube phenomenon. In the meantime, I’ll be looking out for updates to Baby Blues Nightmares with great anticipation.

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