| Demonsomnia | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Gameplay & Story | Release Date | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Demonsomnia is a co-op bodycam horror game where you hunt down demons in irradiated ruins. Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.
Demonsomnia Review Overview
What is Demonsomnia?
Demonsomnia is a new entry in the ever-expanding bodycam sub-genre of FPS games, plunging you into the terrifying world of demon hunting. You take the role of an unnamed agent tasked with cleansing a demonic presence in an irradiated land. It won’t be a straightforward hunt, however, as this demon’s not going down without a fight.
To draw it out, you’ll need to search the area for special materials, deducing their locations as you go. Meanwhile, the demon’s spectral lackeys and irradiated minions will be hot on your heels. Fortunately, you’re not alone. Your loyal canine companions and fellow agents are by your side, fully armed and ready for the battle ahead.
Demonsomnia features:
⚫︎ Dedicated single-player mode
⚫︎ 1 to 4-player co-op multiplayer
⚫︎ 2 maps to explore and purge demonic power
⚫︎ An extensive lineup of various enemies with different abilities and weaknesses
⚫︎ 3 modes with increasing difficulty levels
 Steam |
Demonsomnia Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Bodycam Graphics On Point |
Too Many Things Going On At Once Single-player Mode is A Bust Gets Boring Fast |
Demonsomnia Overall Score - 52/100
Demonsomnia is a curious case of a game that manages to be both chaotic and random, yet somehow still boring. Typically, chaos or randomness adds a layer of excitement, but here, it only results in confusion and incoherence. The game clearly needs more development time, along with major overhauls to its core gameplay. Better use of its decent bodycam POV and microphone mechanics should be a top priority. That said, I wouldn’t hold my breath for a brighter future for this game—even if the air wasn’t radioactive.
Demonsomnia Story - 4/10
Demonsomnia doesn’t have much of a story or narrative—it’s more of a game-length mission, honestly. While there’s some world-building to set the scene, it’s not enough to make the experience truly compelling. Many gameplay elements seem to exist just for the sake of it, leading to a convoluted world filled with unexplained MacGuffins and rituals. Unfortunately, these elements don't come across as mysterious or intriguing—just confusing and underdeveloped.
Demonsomnia Gameplay - 4/10
Demonsomnia’s gameplay is a chaotic blend of gimmicks and unengaging mechanics that don’t mesh well together. The bodycam POV is poorly explained, as is the voice and microphone functionality. The main objective is barely outlined beyond a few vague voice-overs, and the steps to achieve it rely entirely on luck. There’s no intuitive design here, making the experience feel disjointed and frustrating. It’s hard not to wonder what the original vision for this game was, because it certainly couldn’t have been this discordant mess of ideas. At least it’s fun for a few minutes before the monotony sets in.
Demonsomnia Visuals - 7/10
I suppose the one thing that Demonsomnia had going for it is its bodycam graphics, although I question its necessity in terms of gameplay. It doesn’t really add anything but flair to the table, but it does add a lot of it. The bodycam style gives the game a distinct look that I can appreciate—if I overlook the uninspired monster designs and the repetitive, monotonous landscapes that dominate its limited selection of maps.
Demonsomnia Audio - 7/10
Demonsomnia’s audio doesn’t stand out much, but it does effectively convey the horror and urgency of your mission. The sound design plays a crucial role in navigation, alerting you to the presence of certain monsters. However, outside of these cues, the game is nearly silent, with a soundtrack that consists of basic horror music that quickly fades into static.
Demonsomnia Value for Money - 4/10
This game is rather cheap, coming in at just under $14. That’s not a whole lot of money, but this isn’t much of a game, either. There’s barely anything to do, even if you are in multiplayer, and whatever you end up doing is better done in Phasmophobia anyway. You’re basically paying for a $14 novelty piece with the game’s bodycam feature and not much else. There are better games to get for this price; go play those instead.
Demonsomnia Review [Early Access] | Nuclear Waste of Time
The bodycam sub-genre of FPS games has gained popularity in recent years with titles like UNRECORD and the aptly named Bodycam capitalizing on the novelty of the concept. Unfortunately, UNRECORD has yet to be released, and Bodycam didn’t quite live up to the hype. This gap in the market has allowed weaker attempts at the same idea to thrive, reducing the bodycam gimmick to little more than a buzzword meant to attract downloads. That’s exactly the situation I found myself in with Demonsomnia, a game that not only failed to innovate within the bodycam FPS sub-genre but also managed to make demon hunting feel dull.
It’s difficult to find a positive starting point with Demonsomnia, as it falls short from almost every angle. From a gameplay perspective, it feels like a mishmash of tired design gimmicks and generic themes. It’s as if an amorphous blob absorbed elements from various other games and is now attempting to pass itself off as an innovative newcomer—though it only offers watered-down versions of the mechanics it borrowed. The game needlessly incorporates UNRECORD’s bodycam POV, Phasmophobia’s proximity voice chat, Lethal Company’s objective-based co-op multiplayer, and graphics that seem ripped from a low-budget PS1 title.
I’d say the game lost its identity amidst all these influences, but it still managed to stand out as something uniquely frustrating with its unintuitive tutorial and confusing gameplay. Speaking of which, let’s dive into what you’re actually supposed to do in this game—though I had to piece it together from tooltips, tutorials, and a lot of guessing because the game never clearly explains it.
You play as an unnamed agent from an unspecified company tasked with purging an irradiated land of demonic influence. However, demons don’t go down easily. Armed with only a pistol and a canine companion, you must locate the demon, identify its type using various materials you’ve gathered, and somehow banish it through an increasingly convoluted process. If that sounds vague, then you’re getting the full Demonsomnia experience—because that’s exactly how lost I felt during my first playthrough.
Along the way, you’ll encounter various creatures, each with different levels of hostility. Much like in Lethal Company, each creature has a unique way of being dealt with, although your pistol is effective against most of them. Some enemies are incorporeal, others are massive, and some are quick and hard to dodge. There are even non-hostile entities, like goats that can guide you to useful loot—though following them often leads to a shootout anyway. When you kill a mutant, you can harvest their "liquids," a resource that can be used to heal, harm other mutants and enemies, or even banish the demon at the end. However, it’s worth noting that neither the bodycam POV nor the microphone features play any direct role in achieving these goals.
Exploration also yields additional tools that can assist in the demon’s banishment, though they’re not particularly helpful against the various creatures you encounter. Your mission ultimately leads to a location called The Mansion, where the demon resides. Here, you must use all the information you've gathered to determine which of the four possible demons you’re facing, testing what materials provoke a reaction and what angers it. Guess correctly, and you’ll successfully banish the demon; guess wrong, and—well, you can imagine the consequences.
This could have been a solid concept if it had been executed properly—or at all. In reality, these ideas amount to a lot of disoriented wandering and frantic shooting. Despite the supposed methodology, the lack of intuitive gameplay means that you’re often left relying on luck to figure out where to go and what to do. Sure, learning the ropes makes things easier, but the gameplay remains unenjoyable even once you know what you’re doing. Health is incredibly easy to come by, even on the hardest difficulty, and without a compelling narrative to tie everything together, the game feels hollow. You’re just going through the motions, with no real sense of purpose beyond what the game tells you to do.
That’s not to say Demonsomnia is all bad. Amidst the spent bullet casings and used syringes of its lackluster gameplay, there are a few redeeming qualities in its audio and visual design that give the game a personality beyond just being awful. Despite its clear inspiration and uninspired execution, the bodycam POV is surprisingly well implemented. It’s nowhere near UNRECORD’s level, but Demonsomnia does a decent job of evoking the oppressive atmosphere of a radioactive wasteland. The audio design isn’t half bad either, carrying much of the game’s horror alongside its grotesque character designs. These audio cues also serve as valuable tools for identifying danger, giving you a chance to react before being ambushed by horrors.
That’s about it for Demonsomnia’s few accolades, though, as there’s little else to praise. While the game is in early access, and some rough edges can be forgiven, it’s not polish that Demonsomnia lacks—it’s personality and soul. The game feels like a big pile of nothing—a game-shaped hole, if you will—and I struggle to find the words to describe it without resorting to harshness. After my experience with it, I’m certain of only two things: comparing this game to Phasmophobia is an insult to the latter, and Demonsomnia has a steeper hill than most to climb if it ever hopes to achieve greatness.
Pros of Demonsomnia
| Things Demonsomnia Got Right |
|---|
|
Bodycam Graphics On Point |
Bodycam Graphics On Point
I have to say, despite being underused both in terms of story and gameplay, the game's bodycam POV is surprisingly well done. The view isn't shaky, and the limited field of vision, paired with the graphics, creates a dark, claustrophobic atmosphere that really draws you in. It's unfortunate that the game didn’t fully explore the potential of the bodycam concept beyond just being a visual element. That said, it still managed to do it some justice, though it pales in comparison to the way UNRECORD masterfully executes the same feature.
Cons of Demonsomnia
| Things That Demonsomnia Can Improve |
|---|
|
Too Many Things Going On At Once Single-player Mode is A Bust Gets Boring Fast |
Too Many Things Going On At Once
One of the biggest flaws in Demonsomnia's gameplay is its lack of coherence. The game throws too much at you all at once, with little effort to explain anything. Maybe this was an intentional choice to create a sense of mystery or intrigue, but instead, it overwhelms players with an avalanche of objectives, cryptic item descriptions, convoluted lore, and constant threats from creatures trying to tear you apart.
Take the game’s main antagonist—the Demon. It's less of a character and more of a vague objective. You're tasked with exorcising it from a wasteland, but you have no idea where it is, what it is, or how you're supposed to deal with it. Meanwhile, you're constantly being hunted by three or more mutants or ghosts, each with their own combat rules, that you need to figure out. And as if that’s not enough, the game scatters equipment pieces around the map, but doesn’t tell you what any of them do.
The worst part? None of this is explained to you. You're left to decipher a tutorial that feels like it was slapped together for a high school science fair project, just to get a basic understanding of what’s happening. Demonsomnia doesn’t suffer from a lack of content; it suffers because it never bothered to communicate that content effectively to the player.
Single-player Mode is A Bust
It’s obvious that Demonsomnia was designed with co-op multiplayer in mind, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the game’s single-player mode, which is an absolute bust. Without teammates to talk to, the game somehow becomes even more tedious than it already is. The monotony of its "search-and-destroy" gameplay is only made bearable in multiplayer thanks to the interaction and communication between players.
Beyond the boredom, the game feels nearly unplayable in single-player. Completing objectives alone takes far too long, and there are way too many enemies for you to handle with the limited 200 bullets you’re given. At this point, it's hard to understand why the developers even bothered including a single-player mode in the first place.
Gets Boring Fast
Whether you're playing multiplayer or solo, Demonsomnia quickly loses its appeal. The enemies aren’t nearly as interesting or engaging as those in Lethal Company, nor are they as varied as in Content Warning. The main objective is vague, and the steps to achieve it feel unrewarding since you can never quite tell how close you are to completing it.
To top it off, the game has almost no replay value. Beyond its general dullness, there's little incentive to play through it more than once, even if you manage to slog through a full run. With only four demon types and minimal variation between hunts, once you’ve done one hunt, you’ve essentially experienced everything the game has to offer.
Is Demonsomnia Worth It?
Absolutely Not, Save Your Money and Bullets
Normally, it wouldn’t be fair to judge a game too harshly while it’s still in early access, as that’d be like critiquing a painting after just the first brushstroke. However, a game's potential is often evident from its foundation, and Demonsomnia isn’t shaping up to soar very high. Unless it undergoes several—or perhaps a dozen—major overhauls to its core gameplay and presentation, I can’t see a bright future for it.
$14 is on par for most early-access horror titles, but I’d still rather spend that money on something more worthwhile. There are plenty of games out there with bigger ideas and better execution, often at the same or even lower price. You’d be better off playing those instead.
| Platforms | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steam |
|||||
| $13.99 |
Demonsomnia FAQ
What Game Modes Are Available in Demonsomnia?
Demonsomnia has three modes available for both multiplayer and single-player games. These include:
⚫︎ Armed Mode: Standard game mode with guns and roaming mutants.
⚫︎ Unarmed Mode: Easy mode with less mutants but no guns
⚫︎ Demon Mode: Hard mode with hardier mutants
How Many Players Can Join A Lobby in Demonsomnia?
Up to 4 players can join in any game mode of Demonsomnia at a time.
You may also like...
Demonsomnia Product Information
 | |
| Title | DEMONSOMNIA |
|---|---|
| Release Date | August 13, 2024 |
| Developer | Woziva |
| Publisher | Woziva |
| Supported Platforms | PC(Steam) |
| Genre | Horror, Survival, Co-op, Shooter |
| Number of Players | Online Co-op (1-4) |
| Rating | N/A |
| Official Website | Woziva Official Website |
