Enter The Backrooms
- February 12, 2021
- Justin Kroh
- 10h median play time
Get on Steam"Enter The Backrooms" is a survival horror game set in an endless maze of rooms called The Backrooms, where your sanity is constantly tested through eerie experiences. Explore 34 Main Levels and 20 Secret Levels, each with unique settings and over 100 Sub-Levels. Evade hostile entities and gather artifacts to empower yourself in this tense, psychological journey. Remember, you are never alone.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- The game captures the eerie atmosphere of the Backrooms, providing a unique and immersive experience.
- It features a large number of levels and entities, offering plenty of content and replayability.
- The developer is actively updating the game and engaging with the community, which shows dedication and potential for future improvements.
- The graphics are often criticized as being poor, which detracts from the overall experience.
- Performance issues, including lag and crashes, have been reported, making the game difficult to play for some users.
- The gameplay can feel repetitive and tedious, especially in the earlier levels where encounters with enemies become monotonous.
- graphics168 mentions
- 25 % positive mentions
- 60 % neutral mentions
- 15 % negative mentions
The graphics of the game have received mixed feedback, with many users noting that while they are simplistic and reminiscent of older consoles, they do not significantly detract from the overall experience. Some players appreciate the low-quality visuals for enhancing the game's tense atmosphere and immersion, while others express disappointment and suggest improvements. Overall, the consensus is that despite the graphical limitations, the gameplay and content make it a worthwhile experience.
“Even with older looking graphics, 'Enter the Backrooms' is truly the best backrooms experience money can buy.”
“This is a genuinely great backrooms game, don't let the graphics fool you because this can be scary as hell sometimes and the exploration is very fun.”
“While it may not have super awesome ultra RTX hyper graphics, it really gives the perfect experience of the backrooms.”
“What I'm most disappointed about are the graphics. When I got the game in the early beta builds, I didn't expect good graphics; I thought that they would get updated in the full release of the game, but nope.”
“The game is full of content and super fun, but I have a few pointers I think can be improved. First, the most obvious is that the graphics are poor, so those could be worked on.”
“A game with these graphics should be able to run smoothly at hundreds of FPS on my computer, but I barely hit 60.”
- gameplay122 mentions
- 18 % positive mentions
- 79 % neutral mentions
- 3 % negative mentions
The gameplay is characterized by a repetitive and grindy experience, primarily involving walking through similar environments while managing stamina and sanity mechanics. While the game features solid mechanics and a variety of levels, many players find the lack of depth and unique challenges leads to monotony. However, the atmosphere, collectibles, and some interesting mechanics, such as meditation, provide a compelling experience for those willing to overlook its graphical shortcomings.
“Solid mechanics, collectibles, events, and achievements make this game an enjoyable experience.”
“For the price, the game comes with fun and interesting mechanics and plenty of levels to explore and pillage through.”
“This game has surprisingly well thought out mechanics, decent sound design, an aura of mystery of its own, and mentally draining and genuinely unnerving levels that are unique for the most part, despite mostly consisting of hallways and dead ends.”
“Most of the gameplay involves walking and managing stamina through a monotonous series of walls.”
“The gameplay is extremely repetitive and boring; all you do is run away from the same entity constantly.”
“It's fun collecting stamina artifacts, but gameplay begins to get repetitive as you can also get sanity artifacts, and if too many are collected, the game basically turns into a running simulator.”
- story48 mentions
- 4 % positive mentions
- 90 % neutral mentions
- 6 % negative mentions
The game's story is minimal, primarily conveyed through collectible pages scattered throughout the environment, with some players expressing a desire for a more traditional horror narrative. While some appreciate the game's approach to the "backrooms" concept, others feel it leans more towards adventure than horror, leading to mixed feelings about its plot depth. Overall, the story is seen as adequate for the genre, but not particularly strong or engaging.
“This is everything I could want out of a playable backrooms story.”
“This game was a great play and I'm not even done with it yet. It has a wide variety of entities, although they all look the same, but the Smiler and a few others. I still find this game amazing, filled to the brim with scares, a good plot (or as good as a 'backrooms' plot can be...)”
“I do not like games that follow the wiki for the backrooms much as it makes me feel like the backrooms aren't a horror story anymore, but rather an adventure story.”
“There is a sort of story by collecting the pages you see on the floor.”
“The player can find a multitude of things that help them in their quest to escape the backrooms.”
- atmosphere46 mentions
- 48 % positive mentions
- 46 % neutral mentions
- 7 % negative mentions
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its intense tension, mystery, and psychological horror, effectively capturing the eerie essence of the backrooms. While some players find the graphics lacking, many believe they contribute to the unsettling ambiance, enhancing immersion for fans of liminal spaces and horror. However, the frequent encounters with certain entities can detract from the overall sense of fear and isolation, making it challenging to fully appreciate the environment.
“The atmosphere is unsettling and the psychological horror aspect of the backrooms is always present; the never-ending labyrinth of repeating walls feels empty, yet nostalgic.”
“Very atmospheric, sound design is amazing, and stays true to the setting of a reality outside our own.”
“The atmosphere is unsettling and the psychological horror aspect of the backrooms is always present; the never-ending labyrinth of repeating walls which feels empty, yet nostalgic.”
“This game is very well made and despite the graphics, it does well to maintain an atmosphere. However, the presence of dullers undermines this; I constantly have to deal with just walking and shining my flashlight at these things, which becomes tedious and sucks any sense of fear or isolation out of the experience, giving me barely any time to soak in the environment and feel alone and creeped out.”
“The atmosphere is legitimately terrifying and gives the real backrooms experience.”
- optimization28 mentions
- 14 % positive mentions
- 71 % neutral mentions
- 14 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant optimization issues, leading to poor performance on lower-end devices and frequent crashes, especially when streaming. Many players report struggling to achieve stable frame rates, with some experiencing as low as 7 fps even on decent hardware. While the game is enjoyable, it is recommended primarily for those with high-performance systems until these optimization problems are addressed.
“A game with these graphics should be able to run smoothly at hundreds of fps on my computer, but I barely hit 60.”
“I will come back and play this once the performance issues are fixed, but for now I only recommend it if you have a beefy computer that can run this.”
“(By the way, the game's performance tanks when streaming the window on Discord; you can fix this by switching off a certain setting for streaming.)”
“Great game, but not recommended for lower-end devices due to a lack of optimization.”
“The only problem I have with the game is performance issues. I bought the game for my friend to play, and even with the lowest settings on this decent laptop, he was still experiencing around 7 fps. Sometimes when I play, the mouse would freak out and I would lose my direction. Lastly, when I try to stream the game on Discord to friends, the game immediately crashes.”
“Updates after updates and the game just gets more 'content' and no optimization or love shown to what already was there before.”
- grinding28 mentions
- 11 % positive mentions
- 54 % neutral mentions
- 36 % negative mentions
Players consistently express that the game involves excessive grinding, often requiring significant time investment to progress, particularly in earlier levels. This grindy nature detracts from the overall enjoyment, making gameplay feel tedious and repetitive, especially when trying to collect artifacts or keys. Suggestions for improvement include adding NPCs for trading and incentives to explore lower levels, which could alleviate some of the monotony.
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“You'll need a second life for grinding.”
“The gameplay is super grindy though, spending an hour in level 5 just to get 30 artifacts and be overpowered for the rest of the game is no fun.”
“The game's progression is quite grindy, especially if you grind for level keys/artifacts and all the different endings.”
“But when they're at their worst, which is the earlier levels, especially level 3; exiting all these levels can get extremely tedious at times, which is the point of the backrooms, but still.”
- music14 mentions
- 43 % positive mentions
- 36 % neutral mentions
- 21 % negative mentions
The music in the game has received positive feedback, with players highlighting its ability to enhance the atmosphere, particularly in levels like 5 and 18, where specific tracks create a compelling and immersive experience. The inclusion of AI-generated music adds a unique touch, contributing to the game's "out of reality" vibe. Overall, while some players express concerns about the game's current state, they appreciate the effort put into the soundtrack, which encourages replayability and enhances gameplay.
“My favorite level is level 18; that music box playing throughout the level is perfect.”
“Level 5 made me realize just how much I needed the caretaker's music in a liminal setting like this, and level 6 was genuinely a terrifying experience, more so than most horror games I've played.”
“Some levels even feature AI-generated music and artwork, which I find to be incredible.”
“I've always resonated with this 'out of reality' vibe that the backrooms give out, and the music and artwork really drive that point in further.”
- stability10 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game currently experiences some bugs and glitches that can disrupt gameplay, but the developer is proactive in addressing these issues with regular patches and updates. While stability is not perfect, the developer's responsiveness and commitment to improvement have been positively noted by players, contributing to an overall favorable experience.
“The game otherwise works fine, but these glitches make it really annoying to play.”
“Buggy in its current state, but the developer is quite fast to patch anything.”
“The only thing I'll say is the game stats page seems to be a bit buggy.”
- humor4 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is highly praised, with players finding it genuinely comedic and laugh-inducing. Many express astonishment at the game's unique and unexpected comedic elements, highlighting its ability to entertain in unconventional ways. Overall, it is described as a funny experience that leaves a lasting impression.
“I'm at a loss for words; it was comedic! I started laughing. I have never in my whole life witnessed something like this. I've never even heard that a game can have the power to crash other programs.”
“Funny little game, played it for a bit.”
- replayability2 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 50 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The game is praised for its high replayability, featuring a wealth of levels, entities, and items that encourage players to return for more.
“Extremely underrated game, has tons of levels, entities, and items with lots of replay value.”
