Backrooms: Poolrooms Review

Backrooms: Poolrooms tells the story of a nameless protagonist sent to investigate the strange deaths plaguing the Poolrooms. Bodies have come up with their face twisted in sheer terror. You’ll need to explore the dark, horrifying area in order to uncover the mystery. Beware as invisible creatures are roaming around.

Backrooms: Poolrooms is atmospheric horror walking sim where you’ll explore dimly lit labyrinth called Poolrooms; filled with, yes, pools. You’ll be able to run, duck, and hide in specific places such as lockers. As mentioned, the threat is invisible. The only way you can spot them is watching the ripples in the water.

Additionally, you’ll find dead fishes spread throughout the maze; in or out of water. If you step on them or nearby when they are sunken in the pools, they will make noise, notifying the creatures of your location. You need to constantly be moving, otherwise you’re a sitting duck.

As with other similar games, you have a trusty camera to “record” the incidents. You can use it to zoom and see from afar if you can spot the invisible threats or spotting fishes so you can plan your movements accordingly. You’ll need to find 8 anomalies and then somehow make it out alive. You can crouch in order to make as little noise as possible.

The game looks great; they really captured the liminal theme to a tee and it’s absolutely unnerving to explore the Poolrooms. The visuals won’t push the consoles to their limits, but sometimes less is more. It’s dark, omnious and creepy. On the audio side of things, it’s also top notch. The ambiant score is chilling and you really to pay attention to your surroundings for any trace of the deadly creatures.

While having invisible enemies adds a new layer of challenge and tension, it can be really irritating. Also it’s one hit kill, so no chance for survival. And when you’re nose to nose with a creature, you’re screwed; you can’t run or defend yourself. Which brings me to another nuisance. When you die, it’s back to the start. While this isn’t a very lengthy experience, it would be nice to have an automated save state every 10 minutes.

Backrooms: Poolrooms is another great addition to the liminal space/atmospheric horror genre. It’s tense, chilling, creepy and being hunted by an invisible creature just adds to the tension. But the fact thant you can’t run or defend yourself when a creature is too close is a bit irritating. While I’m starting to worry about the genre being saturated, I’ll enjoy each creepy walking sim. Highly recommend little gem.