Summary
The Backroomsstarted its life as a creepypasta, detailing how in certain parts of the world, there is a chance people could ‘no-clip’ through reality itself and end up stuck in a never-ending labyrinth of yellow walls and moist carpets. The internet took this idea and ran with it, creating many indie horror games and even web series based on this fictional phenomenon.
As is always the case when these ideas grow large, many hopefuls tried their hands at making their own version, which gave fans a rather mixed bag of ideas. While more middling experiences failed to capture the psychological horror of such an ordeal, there are those that truly shined, flexing their creativity and ability to create suspense.
8Transliminal: Beyond the Backrooms
A Rogue-Lite Experience Perfect for Challenge Seekers
Rogue-lite games arefor challenge seekers, those who don’t mind completely resetting upon death, which for other gamers sounds like an absolute nightmare. It is rare that horror meets rogue-lite, as the formula could easily lead to frustration, something that absolutely dispels all fear. ButTransliminal: Beyond the Backrooms manages to combine the two to a pleasantly effective degree.
The Backrooms is an area ripe for procedural generation, so players find themselves wandering around a different layout each time, and each time they must face the horrors and try to survive. What’s even better is that players can customize their experience by turning off entities and survival mode, which is perfect for those who aren’t here for a trying time and simply want to explore this take on the Backrooms.
Not even Backrooms games were spared from their very own multiplayer game, and the result was the rather enjoyableInside the Backrooms. There is more to this game than simply exploring the liminal spaces while evading the monster, and waiting for the credits to scroll up. With puzzles and stealth being key components for getting away from whateverterrifying entityfinds them, this title excites in many ways.
Absolute teamwork will be needed here, as the monsters aren’t going to sit back and wait as players solve the next puzzle, which means more often than not, one player will have to act as bait to keep their puzzle-busting friends safe. For those looking to share a Backrooms experience with friends, it doesn’t really get much better thanInside the Backrooms.
Despite swimming pools being a mundaneeveryday location, they are still a rather unsettling place that players might eventually find themselves in within Backrooms games. The waterways are somewhat peaceful, featuring all the amenities one might expect, and even some fun slides that would not look out of place in any water park.Poolsfeature all of these while straddling a line between peaceful exploration and an eerie atmosphere that can feel downright oppressive.
Like some other Backrooms games,Poolsdoesn’t feature any sort of tangible threat, not relying on cheap jumpscares of derivative monster design to elicit fear. It purely relies on the atmosphere, and preys on fears of getting lost or trapped in a liminal space. The only real challenge players have is that they may have to navigate through a maze-like area, but even that doesn’t hog most of the game time. It is a simple experience for players to enjoy and immerse themselves within.
5The Complex: Found Footage
The Eerie Ambiance Keeps Players Constantly on Edge
Through the lens of a VHS filter, players will get the chance to explore a realistic and sprawling version of the Backrooms, as yet another victim has fallen through the fabric of reality into this liminal space. Many Backrooms games contain some sort of physical threat to contend with, but that is not the case inThe Complex: Found Footage, but players might still feel a creeping sense of paranoia and danger.
That is because pgWave managed to create and maintain a perfectly suspenseful atmosphere within its eerie settings, stunning visuals, and audio design, perfectly working in tandem to maintain the illusion that danger might lurk around the corner. Though there is no eventual monster reveal, the game didn’t even need one to be scary with the atmosphere they created, resulting in a simple yet effective Backrooms game.
4Day 7
The Backrooms Get the Puppet Combo Treatment
Puppet Combo became a big name in the indie horror scene, known for creating video gamesfeaturing retro graphicsbased on popular classic horror movies, shockingly loud and startling jump scares, and known for being rather difficult to complete. They jumped on the Backrooms craze back in 2019, creating a game known asDay 7or simplyThe Backrooms, exclusively available through their Patreon.
Puppet Combo takes the phenomenon and puts their own spin on it, focusing on the survival aspect as those trapped within struggle for an escape before dehydration, starvation, or inevitable insanity take them. The player character, known as Terrance, meets a couple of other unfortunate souls trapped within the Backrooms, and not all of them are friendly. The surprise ending is rather excellently done, and is a more realistic interpretation of what might happen in such an absurd scenario.
One might not expect a Backrooms game to offer a Zen gaming experience, as horror games are rarely peaceful, but this is exactly what players get withAnemoiapolis. Rather than finding their sanity eroding as they explore the same maddening locations while chased by a monster, players instead get to take their time enjoying the sights and interacting with the environment to progress.
This experience, similar to awalking simulator, might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for players who want to experience the Backrooms without being subjected to an overwhelmingly scary experience, can’t go wrong withAnemoiapolis.With more puzzles and exploration than scares, this is the game to try for a more unique Backrooms experience.
With eerie locations to explore, monsters to escape, and puzzles to solve, Backrooms games are ripe for the multiplayer market, and that is exactly what developers such as Fancy Games realized, as they released their own multiplayer version calledEscape the Backrooms,arriving a few months after another Backrooms multiplayer attempt.
Up to 4 players are dropped into the never-ending liminal maze, in which they must navigate through to find the exit; all the while, they must be cautious of encountering one of the 12 possible entities. All must escape for success, butEscape the Backroomsisn’t going to make that so easy, as there is every chance that the players could be separated across the numerous different places within the Backrooms. Challenging and frightening, this is one of the best ways to experience the legendary creepypasta with friends.
1The Backroom - Lost and Found
A Story-Rich and Surreal Experience
There is quite a variety of Backrooms games, but most are quite minimal in story, opting simply for another soul trapped in the Backrooms, and they want nothing more than to go home. Usually, it involves some very basic puzzle solving, and may or may not involve a monster, just to add some scares and chase sequences in for good measure.
The Backroom - Lost and Foundmay be the most involved game of the bunch, feeling more like a complete product despite beingabsolutely free of charge. The player wanders through many Backrooms locations while trying to reunite a family of adorable sentient toy giraffes. Not to fear, the game does feature a present threat, and plenty of mind-bending moments and scares that fans of the Backrooms know and love without being too derivative of other titles.
