When I was younger, I was never really into horror. I played Nintendo games, with Wii Sports being among my top-played favorites. However, a few years ago I played my first Five Nights at Freddy’s game and since then, I’ve been hooked. Indie horror has become one of my favorite genres. The concept of accessible multiplayer games, or “friendslop,” has become super popular. In most cases for this genre, these games are similar, but this game is more unique.
“Enter the Backrooms” is based on the “lost media” genre on YouTube, which chronicles mysterious creatures in liminal spaces. The Backrooms YouTube series was the source of inspiration for this game, with the first level of the game being the famous yellow wallpaper, floor and fluorescent lights that characterize the original videos.
One of the most intriguing aspects of this game is the art style. It’s similar to videos of The Backrooms that have been circulating online. The way that everything looks mimics this style almost to a T, adding to the overall effect.
Another key aspect of this game is exploration. The maps are very large, being several floors long and having seemingly no end. The goal in these levels is to find the exit, which is easier said than done. There are many puzzles that the player completes to find the way out. It’s super confusing, and forces players to explore even if they don’t want to.
With filters and wide areas players can explore, this game can be pretty scary. Even in the earlier levels with little to no enemies, the ambience in this game made me anxious to keep going. Every time I moved to a new room, I hesitated before opening the door. I was nervous and when the horrifying enemies did show up, I only had a few seconds to react. The combination of long-winded areas and monsters add to the horror in this game. I appreciate the horror elements and how they combine to make the experience more terrifying.
One concept that I noticed while playing this game was that the graphics are glitching out on occasion. For instance, when I was walking towards the fire extinguishers in level one, the graphics would change in quality as I moved closer. This would affect my immersion and it made me notice other graphical glitches that I wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.
Another thing that confused me is the way that the game mechanics are explained. One feature that particularly stumped me is the idea of “Sanity,” a statistic designed to continually decrease over a certain amount of time. It’s found in one of the menus, and is represented by a brain icon. When I was first introduced to this, I thought that the mechanic was similar to one in Phasmophobia, which gives players a similar bar to keep track of. When your “sanity” goes down in that game, enemies will interact with and chase you down. However in this game, the mechanic is less clear, as I thought the monsters wouldn’t show up if I kept my sanity, but I still died when restoring my “sanity”. It made it more exciting, but I was definitely confused by it.
Ultimately, Enter the Backrooms is a fun, albeit horrifying experience. The game has a lot of mechanics that take inspiration from other sources and it’s very unique in that way. The setting being a part of an internet-famous genre makes it more familiar to many people. While there are many bugs and confusing aspects of the game, the developers will likely continue working on it and fix the issues to make a better experience for gamers all around the world.
