The Backrooms 1998

About

The Backrooms 1998 is a single player and multiplayer survival simulation game with a horror theme. It was developed by Steelkrill Studio and was released on February 20, 2025. It received positive reviews from players.

"The Backrooms 1998" is a found footage survival horror game, where you explore the endless labyrinth of the Backrooms after accidentally falling in. With only a spray gun to mark your path, you must evade a mysterious entity while searching for supplies and tools to escape. Every action, from stepping on glass to knocking over objects, risks alerting the creature to your presence.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Skip User Reviews

83%

Audience ScoreBased on 424 reviews

story18 positive mentions

stability7 negative mentions

The game effectively creates a terrifying atmosphere with its found footage style and immersive sound design.
Players appreciate the unique microphone mechanic that adds tension, as the monster can hear their in-game noises.
The game is recommended for horror fans due to its genuine scares and engaging story, despite being short.

The game relies heavily on cheap jumpscares, which can become repetitive and detract from the overall experience.
Many players experienced bugs, including issues with item pickups and save functionality, which hindered gameplay.
The gameplay can feel linear and lacks the expansive, liminal space experience typically associated with Backrooms lore.

story
83 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
72%
6%
The game's story has received mixed reviews, with some players appreciating its dark and twisted narrative, while others criticize it for being poorly integrated with the backrooms setting and overly reliant on cheap jumpscares. Many found the plot engaging and filled with unexpected twists, but others felt it was too edgy or disconnected from the backrooms lore, detracting from the overall experience. Overall, the story's effectiveness varies widely among players, with some enjoying its depth and others finding it lacking coherence and substance.
- “A very fun backrooms game with a strong story and an ending that you're probably not expecting.”
- “Genuine dark story, and terrifying atmosphere.”
- “The monster design was decent (especially when you learn what happened after finishing the game) and overall the story was good.”
- “The story is needlessly edgy, has next to nothing to actually do with the backrooms, and relies almost entirely upon cheap jumpscares for the quick 'gotcha' moment, which is a shame as it seemed to build an actually unsettling atmosphere.”
- “The plot of the game is about the evil of humanity, but its terrible voice acting and use of a real-world murder with very minor detail changes makes it cheesy and grimy, undermining itself.”
- “It throws liminal horror out the window in favor of a poorly delivered plot about a little boy and how humans are monsters, which is painfully obvious and shoved in your face as soon as you start the game.”
gameplay
51 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
12%
80%
8%
The gameplay of the game has received mixed reviews, with some players appreciating the unique microphone mechanic and immersive atmosphere, while others criticize the tedious navigation, lackluster inventory system, and repetitive objectives. Many found the jump scares effective but noted that the overall experience can become monotonous and frustrating due to technical issues and a lack of innovation in gameplay mechanics. Overall, while some players enjoyed the horror elements and graphics, others felt the game fell short in delivering a compelling and engaging experience.
- “It's a pretty awesome backrooms game with a lot of crazy jump scares, nice graphics, incredible head bobbing, and super fun gameplay.”
- “The jumpscares, though sometimes cliché, are effective and work well with the audio input mechanic, which is a unique touch in itself.”
- “Great game, loved it... great graphics... horrifying gameplay, I mean... scared the life out of me.”
- “The controls are complete jank; your camera begins to vibrate oddly when you move for an extended period of time. Mouse smoothing is on by default, the jumpscares come with ear-splittingly loud noises that are more infuriating than scary, while most of the other sounds become too quiet to hear. The microphone mechanic was so broken that I could speak while streaming it and never trigger it. The whole thing took literally an hour from start to finish, and it ran like absolute garbage.”
- “So aside from the boring, railroaded gameplay, terribly ineffective horror, bloated and useless mechanics, uninspired and repetitive objective design, total lack of story, and the way the game assaults your senses whenever you look at it, it seems like it's just a trend-chasing project that was rushed out the door for clicks.”
- “The areas aren't big enough for the spray paint mechanic to matter for marking where you've been. The 'microphone input' mechanic doesn't add anything unless you're commentating, and even then you just are forced to stop commentating, which would lead to worse commentary content.”
atmosphere
45 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
40%
53%
7%
The atmosphere of the game is widely praised for its unsettling and immersive qualities, effectively capturing the eerie essence of the backrooms aesthetic. While many players appreciate the creepy visuals and sound design that enhance the tension, some criticize the reliance on predictable jump scares and a convoluted story that detracts from the overall experience. Overall, the game successfully creates a haunting atmosphere that keeps players on edge, despite some inconsistencies in execution.
- “The atmosphere is genuinely unsettling, and the developer does a good job of nailing a decent backrooms aesthetic.”
- “It feels like you are actually there, and the graininess of the game adds to the atmosphere. 10/10.”
- “One of the few indie horror games that successfully creates a terrifying and eerie atmosphere.”
- “The story is needlessly edgy, has next to nothing to actually do with the backrooms, and relies almost entirely upon cheap jumpscares for the quick 'gotcha' moment, which is a shame as it seemed to build an actually unsettling atmosphere.”
- “Random jumpscares ruin the atmosphere of this game and come off as incredibly lazy.”
- “[spoiler] I'm not overstating when I say 'abundance' because if you choose to play on normal mode, you'll be jumpscared approximately every 2-3 minutes by random 'boo' scare things along scripted sequences you encounter, ruining the tense and suffocating atmosphere.”
graphics
44 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
45%
48%
7%
The graphics of the game receive mixed reviews, with some praising the realistic and atmospheric visuals that enhance the horror experience, particularly the retro VHS style that adds to the unsettling aesthetic. However, several users noted issues such as a lack of graphics options, frequent glitches, and eye strain from the visual effects, which detracted from the overall experience. While the graphics are generally considered good for an indie title, many feel that improvements are needed to fully realize the game's potential.
- “The graphics are top tier, and I felt like I was being watched the entire time.”
- “Beautiful graphics.”
- “The graphics are phenomenal and I got really spooked a few moments (especially the legless, really long-armed doll thing lol).”
- “Unfortunately, the frequent fullscreen graphical VHS-style glitches, along with the sudden jump scares, where an image would appear on screen followed by a shrill scream, ruined any atmospheric tension the game was building.”
- “There are no options in the graphics settings, so I couldn't tinker with those.”
- “The mix of disturbing aesthetic elements and invasive sound design work together to great effect and the retro VHS visuals give the game an original look but do strain the eyes slightly after a while.”
stability
7 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is notably compromised by frequent graphical glitches, including fullscreen VHS-style distortions and unexpected freezes during gameplay, which can disrupt immersion and frustrate players. While some users report that these bugs are not game-breaking, they significantly detract from the overall experience, with hopes for future fixes.
- “Unfortunately, the frequent fullscreen graphical VHS-style glitches, along with the sudden jump scares, where an image would appear on screen followed by a shrill scream, ruined any atmospheric tension the game was building.”
- “Unfortunately, it is very buggy right now and any noise from the computer causes the gauge to be in an area that the monster can hear - it makes the feature unusable.”
- “Every 6 to 7 seconds, or after doing something as basic as turning around, sprinting, or accessing the inventory, the game freezes up or pauses (while the background noise of the game still runs) and it is very, very frustrating. I have messed with graphics settings and video effects just in case it was that.”
grinding
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
50%
Players find the grinding aspect of the game tedious, often feeling lost in the environment, which can lead to repetitive gameplay. The need for extensive grinding is emphasized, with some suggesting it requires a significant time investment, making encounters with monsters feel monotonous.
- “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
- “So the monster becomes really tedious to avoid.”
- “The bad thing is that it's really easy to get lost (which makes sense since it's the backrooms), and it can make the gameplay tedious.”
music
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
60%
60%
The music in the game elicits strong reactions, with some players finding it annoying and memorable for the wrong reasons, while others appreciate its ability to enhance the creepy atmosphere and heighten the fear factor. Overall, it contributes significantly to the game's horror experience, though opinions on its effectiveness vary widely.
- “The music makes the gameplay even more frightening.”
- “You can see right away that the game has its own atmosphere; the creepy music gives you chills. The player at the very start can have a lot of questions about the knuckle we are watching. For fans of horror movies, I think this is the right game.”
- “One thing that always creeped me out in horror games was disturbing-looking monsters (like in Silent Hill) and a disturbing soundtrack, as well as tight spaces, atmosphere, and unpredictability.”
- “It's like 2 hours long and the music was so annoying. I'm writing this years later and I still remember the annoying music.”
- “The music makes the play even more frightening.”
- “My suggestions for developers: one thing that always creeped me out in horror games was a disturbing soundtrack, as well as tight spaces, atmosphere, and unpredictability.”
humor
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game is characterized by a mix of predictable jump scares that often elicit laughter, alongside darkly comedic elements such as unsettling sounds from the monster, including gushing blood and eerie baby noises. Overall, players find it to be a unique blend of horror and humor that stands out in the genre.
- “There's lots of jump scares and funny moments.”
- “At least the jump scares were funny when they were so predictable.”
- “Better than any other scary/funny game out there.”
replayability
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50%
25%
25%
The reviews on replayability are mixed; while some users find the game lacks replay value and feel it's a one-time experience, others highlight its high replayability, suggesting it offers significant value for repeated playthroughs.
- “Replayability is very high and definitely makes it worth your time.”
- “Infinitely replayable.”
- “I don't find any replay value in this game, so once it's finished, adios!”
optimization
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
100%
Overall, the game's optimization is praised for its smooth performance and impressive graphics, with dedicated teams ensuring that it runs efficiently.
- “The graphics look great and the game runs smoothly.”
- “Big teams have dedicated personnel who focus on optimization.”
- “Big teams have people who work on the optimization side.”
- “The game runs poorly on mid-range hardware, making it frustrating to play.”
- “There are frequent frame drops and stuttering, even on high-end systems.”
monetization
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Reviewers express that the monetization strategy feels exploitative, likening the game's reliance on cheap scares and cluttered environments to a cash grab rather than a genuine gaming experience.
- “This place is filled with bugs, mannequins, furniture, and apparently demonic entities that only serve the jumpscares, feeling like a cash grab on the location more than anything.”