The Complex: Found Footage - Lost in the Backrooms
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- Опубликовано: 16 сен 2024
- Wandering the endless halls of the infamous backrooms in this free VHS-style horror experience.
Check out the game on Steam: store.steampow...
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One thing I absolutely love about this game is the sound design. The fact that the creator managed to faithfully create that muffled rustling sound that happens when you're carrying around a camcorder is top-tier.
Agreed, it's the truest recreation of found-footage I've yet seen from a game, but visually and audio-wise.
@@TheLibrarianYT love this game! There is another backrooms game yiu should check out called the backrooms 1998
This game manages to look like a real video of a real place way too well
I really think it's the VHS bleed. I've never seen a found-footage game do it before, but it works really well here.
Oh yeah I feel like I can be there
I was surprised you had such a lukewarm reception to it. I felt like it was easily one of the most atmospheric backrooms depictions that also didn't hinge on cheap jump scares and screaming monsters around every corner, It really was just you and the backrooms. I feel like if they were to expand upon this concept, add more rooms with bigger levels and more to see it would easily be one of the best backrooms games created so far. The fact that it was free, and gave such an atmospheric experience, I certainly can't complain.
I'm pretty sure at this point that he went in with a negative bias, expecting X out of the game just for being backrooms-related. There's this talk around about the surplus of lore, yet this one game encapsulates the simplest aspects and makes great justice to the best Backrooms adaptation to date (Kane pixels). It actually hits a bunch of the same notes as naissance aesthetically with some beautiful architecture and atmosphere, but it feels as if being a Backrooms game mudded the experience just by association.
@@Foreck It also has a really subtle, and slow burning creepiness/horror to it which Librarian usually gives lots of praise for. I kind of understand his perspective though; the concept has been done to death no matter how great a take on it this may be. If he had played this a year ago I'm sure he would've felt much more positively about it.
Part of the problem is that this game was clearly inspired by the Kane Pixels videos, but:
- The Librarian doesn't seem to be familiar with those videos. The way he talks, apparently he only knows about the original wave of Backrooms content and the wiki that was created later. To him, this was just a collection of liminal spaces.
- This game lacks the things that truly make the Kane Pixels videos work. Those videos tend to feature many details that build up for a horror story, but they were mostly absent from this game (except for the sequence with the figure at the middle).
@@borico62 not every game has to be scary and have a enemy, the guy worked hard it this game and adding enemies would make the places un-explorable, It's a good and eerie game
@@borico62 the game is still in its beta stage
The spherical lens distortion and smudges on the lens, coupled with the mic-handling sounds of the camcorder just add so much to the sense of place.
What I love about this game, is that there’s no monsters. Just you(the player), and spooky ambiance, with this occasional odd sightings
the only thing you fear is your mind
I love how the game intentionally adds weird shape objects that look like people to scare you without adding actual jump scares
For some reason that's one of the most realistically mixed elevator sounds I've heard in a while like I swear I can feel the vibration of riding it that
Part of me hates how the internet takes interesting horror concepts and just morphs them into “the big scary monster screams and runs towards you” it happened to Slenderman, it happened to sirenhead and now it’s happened to the backrooms.
Internet horror dies the second it goes mainstream.
That being said, I liked the slow burn aspect of this game.
Felt this. Backrooms shouldn’t have become this huge complex weird thing it’s become now, it being that one image and just “If you see it, it’s already seen you” is perfect
Not 1000+ floors, monsters, how to survive this and that, research facilities??? Way too complex
@@thevelvetcarpet3179 well, there's not really a way to expand it past the original simple backrooms concept without making it more complex
Without the concept expanding, the entire backrooms would just fall out into obscurity like it did when it was originally created, when it originally was only that small concept.
I personally like the entire several-floor monster-filled concept, because the community has made sure that it makes sense. There are floors marked as "safe", tribes and communities that travel between floors to gather resources, and even safe monsters. The real scare factor of the backrooms is that even if you know everything things can kinda just happen, it's almost like the entire backrooms is a breathing living creature doing it's own thing
I agree with this. Fnaf the same thing too. Scp.... stalker. Yeeaaa....
@@FlooferLand not everything needs to turn into the SCP foundation.
The horror in the backrooms concept comes from a lack of information and the fear of the unknown. The more you explain something the less scary it becomes and that’s why the popularity of the backrooms has ruined it. What’s scarier, someone pointing at a dark room and saying “there’s something in here” or someone explaining exactly what is in there?
Everyone wants to write a “new backrooms level where it’s an empty shopping mall and mannequins chase you” but no one wants to put the work in to make an original concept. It’s lazy and hurts the original concept.
Yes the original was just a small post that left a lot to the imagination but that’s why it was so popular. It was never going to fall into obscurity, it left it’s mark and was heavily referenced and joked about in horror communities but now it’s just become cringe to the level of SCP and FNAF. It’s lost it’s original purpose.
@@thevelvetcarpet3179
My problem is not with the community being there, but with how this community rigidified the concept, stomping out any other interpretation.
It's not that I hate rulesets, I hate when an open, vague concept is forcefully shaped into one shape and locked out from being interpreted in any other way
A game that I wish that had more attention was 'Locis', it's basically a procedural horror game, the game locations itself are like liminal places and the soundtrack is amazing. If you, librarian, see this comment, plz give it a chance
You can't sell books and trading cards unless they spin their lore. The real horror in the backrooms: cold wet carpet. Think about it, You can't even lay down to sleep on the floor.
From what I understand there is no passing of time or aging in the backrooms, that means, no hunger, no thirst, no sleep, no past, no future, only present, that means it's really just you being trapped in an endless maze forever slowly losing your mind.
Fuck it, I love them wet
Some people are probably into that if we look at the ripaid thread tho?
Tfw no musky carpet smelling NEET bat gf.
Turns out the real horror in the backrooms was the sticky stains we stepped in along the way.
@@CardinalSinner Given how insanely diverse the Backrooms is in terms of interior layouts this is probably not that big of a deal lol.
@AllYouNeedIsDan idk why but clean office dry carpet scares me more. A weird artificial perfectness. It boggles me. Makes me dizzy.
"When things are the same, I get nervous; and when things change, I get nervous"
The most real comment about life ever
I'm glad they specified the game takes place in the 80's. Finally, a game that justifies the silly VHS static and low definition effect.
and does it extremely well
90's would be justifiable even.
Yeah they're all levels of the backrooms the classic yellow one is just like level 0 I think but there's thousands I agree expanding the lore and making it complicated sort of takes away the dread caused by the simplicity of the original concept. The original vibe was just that it was uncomfortable with harsh buzzing fluorescent lights and wet carpet and monotony embodying that awkward feeling of silently sitting in a waiting room and how really uncomfortable that gets after a while, and I think it's gotten away from that. an environment that isn't outright hostile but just slightly uncomfortable enough to very slowly slowly wear down your sanity over a very long time is much more horrifying to me than some crazy alien hellscape! And that original concept kind of goes so well with the intersection of creepy and comfy like sitting in a waiting room reading a magazine is kind of serene and peaceful in a way but it's also exhausting you just wish you could be done with it and go home!
Hundreds* The official lore only has less than 999 levels
I may be wrong but idk, there is a level 3999 from what I know but idk if the levels are numbered in order or not but im just saying
@@RainBulletGaming the rest levels that are above 1000 are from the fandom, it's like scp, they have an official wiki and that has all the approve levels
Adding unnecessary lore to a simple but effective concept seems to be one of the biggest issues with a lot of modern horror.
@@booleanreturn3206 They try to make the lore dark and edgy to appeal to the fanbase when the original concept was much scarier without human sacrifices.
The flashlight isn't weak, the darkness is just very strong.
Horrifying, will incorporate this into my thoughts about darkness from now on and will be worse off for it. Good day.
*In Soviet Russia--*
the flashlight is weak, the darkness is just very strong. in both outcomes darkness is strong. solution? bring stronger flashlight.
This game peaks my anxiety.
Much prefer the backrooms concept WITHOUT all the stupid factions, almond-water(wtf?), a-9-year-old-designed-this monsters like the smiler... the concept is so much more interesting when you DONT see the monster, but you see its machinations exacted on the world (like the knocking and the chairs pushed up against the elevator door). It's always just beyond your sight, yet it simultaneously manages to impart the sensation that it is constantly observing you. The wiki has all these organizations, these items, creatures and characters catalogued that it just sort of cheapens the mystical, cosmic dread of this unknowable nether-realm.
bro literally like i saw this youtuber say that there’s multiple fuckin full cities in the backrooms like wtf? ruins the entire point of the loneliness the backrooms is meant to give you
@@andrewe165 those are false videos, the actual backrooms lore is on the original fandom website
"Much prefer the backrooms concept WITHOUT all the stupid factions, almond-water(wtf?), a-9-year-old-designed-this monsters like the smiler"
This times infinity.
That shit is the opposite of interesting, nearly ruined the concept honestly.
Yeah, I agree 100% with you guys. I'm glad this game exists, it's such a treat. It captures the whole concept perfectly and throws in new places to explore to keep things fresh and interesting. Literally THE Backrooms game.
Also, I suppose this over exploitation (and eventual eye rolling obnoxious spooky stupidity) is just inevitable when a scary/mysterious concept happens to be *very* interesting. Same thing happened to FNaF (just to name one example). From spirits possessing animatronic characters to sci-fi fantasy-dystopian weirdness and whatever Security Breach is supposed to be.
I'm glad there's some variation in this game instead of "2 hours of yellow hallways". Always nice to see a spin on an old formula.
Edit: I totally agree with you about the Backrooms lore getting out of hand though. The Backrooms are inherently scary, there's no need for offbrand SCP monsters running around.
A lot of backrooms content is anything but the yellow hallways these days. Its honestly refreshing to see them instead lol. To me at least
The backrooms has always had an "offbrand SCP monster":
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Photo_Backrooms.jpg
If you don't like monsters why do you need to make the backrooms into something it isn't? Just make your own backrooms.
@@SecuR0M The Backrooms were never about shitty, poorly designed scp monsters 💀
@@Slipperyslab i literally posted the original Backrooms image...
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Photo_Backrooms.jpg
here it is again
look, there's a monster in the post
cry about it idk
@@SecuR0M I literally never said there wasn’t a monster
This is is based of Kane Pixels series and his interpretation of the backrooms. It is worth checking out
Yeah Kane's interpretation is much more than a filter and some creepy atmosphere. You can't just slap a filter on a story that takes place in the backrooms proper only like 40% of time and expect it to suddenly become good.
@@goldend791 Kane actually runs his videos through an actual VHS tape to give it more authenticity. Kinda cool in my opinion.
Just in terms of presentation alone, this one is probably the best Backrooms game so far. Captures the original feel perfectly. So many low-effort games out there that just slap on a VHS filter, have a monster chase you around and call it a day.
Agreed, its kind of an underrated game compared to other... "abominations"
Yeah I don't like that people try to make the Backrooms a survival horror game
Frame rate is a little too high
@@Lisanicolas366 the thing that was eerie about the Backrooms was that monsters were a rarity. You could wander for days, months, and not encounter anything but the same rooms. I'm not a fan of how the Backrooms has been horror-fied and turned into something more scary than it needs to be.
@@kontrabanned Old video cameras with their other issues, tended to be a solid 60 FPS.
I honestly expected you to have a much more positive reaction to this one, but oh well.
In my playthrough, I went in completely blind, only having background knowledge of the backrooms' existence and the fact that there is an entity lurking there. After my first playthrough I was so off-put that afterwards I had to do a double-take because I had no idea if there was even a monster or not...
It was so effective for me, and I suppose the same can't be said for others like yourself, but given your tendency to be so analytical and appreciative of the environments I was a bit disappointed at your reaction. Although, given that you don't have much interest in the backrooms, I can understand why it would be rather underwhelming.
Great video either way, I'm glad you played this. Keep up the great work man :)
Still not too sure why he wasn’t all that fond of this game. I mean, its kinda like those Gmod liminal space maps or the Cement Mixer games.
I can only guess that the slow movement really killed it for him.
I probably would have liked it more if it was my first exposure to the backrooms. As it stands, it was a lot of things I've seen before, and a lot of things that probably make more sense if you're into the greater lore and ARGs and stuff. I didn't hate it, just didn't feel like there was much for me to talk about that I haven't said before. Though I did really like the environments I hadn't seen, particularly the mall.
An actually OK game about the Backrooms, I'm impressed. The Backrooms sadly are just being destroyed by "content creators" that do not understand the Backroom's Concept. I share your opinion and think that trying to complexify the "story" of the Backrooms makes the Backrooms less creepy. I am defending the "old" / original style of the Backrooms since Kane started making his videos about the Backrooms. The first few videos were nice but then it derailed. What's even more hurtful to the Concept of the Backrooms are the Fan-Games that are spreading over the internet like a disease. Except this game, all of them just slap creepy monsters on top, make it darker and more ghost-house-like and call it a horror game, completely missing the point of the Backrooms.
Nice to see a game that is trying to go for the liminal and original feeling. Thanks for playing.
In terms of appearance, this game is phenomenal; It perfectly captures the empty feeling of the Backrooms, and the uncertainty of whether you're alone or not. The sound design is amazing too.
However, as a game? It kind of falls flat. It's not really a "game", because there's not really any lose or win conditions. It is, at most, a pretty walking simulator, that you can just as easily watch someone else play rather than play yourself in order to get the exact same experience.
I know you said you're not all too interested in the Backrooms and the overcomplication of them, and I agree. However, there is one youtube creator by the name of Kane Pixels that I think you should definitely check out. Kane takes the initial premise of the Backrooms and creates his own underlying story and worldbuilding on how it works- without turning it into simply "traverse 500 levels and run from a billion monsters that are explained in detail".
Would love to potentially see reaction or analysis/insight videos from you on Kane's series (As well as potentially other unrelated horror series in the future?). Your commentaries and thoughts on horror content never cease to be interesting.
I do also kinda agree the more lore you give to the backrooms the less scary it is. I really hate when stuff like this loses the fear of the unknown as people recycle old liminal space images and try to make sense of something that shouldn't have logic applied to it but speculation. The whole point of these spaces is to be kinda recognizable but when you see the hundreth recreation of liminal hotel in a liminal space game is does take me out of it a little. Also I think most of this game was recreations of Kane Pixels liminal space video locations which was very well done but to anybody who hasn't seen them they are just random hallways and areas. I do get the frustration about just wandering around as it would get very tedious. With all that being said I liked this video keep it up! You have become one of my favorite youtubers because of the longer unedited format and commentary in your videos makes it very relaxing to watch :D
42:00 Now that is really cool and dream-like. That's a feature I have experienced in some nightmares myself - the outside lit up in unusual colors like green or red, as if there is some kind of apocalyptic anomalous weather.
As a Californian, red is just a usual sky color as the hills burn.
I'd think it be really fun to see The Librarian play a game called LABYRINTH: DERELICT ABYSS. It's an exploration game where you wander this vague and creepy, but sometimes comfy, place collecting relics.
Nice callback to gm_voidspaces
I watched that entire video from start to finish in one sitting and not once was I unentertained. That is my favorite Gmod map of all time.
The scares in this one are very subtle, especially in the first level. They're usually accompanied with a rustling sound.
Yes! Waited for this!
It's mostly inspired by Kane Pixel's EXCELLENT series about the Backrooms, that forgoes the lore and build one of it's own - a scifi story about an ambitious company meddling with forces they do not know, and an uncomprehensible layer of reality slowly merging with our own...
This is based on the Kane Pixels story. It’s not just a creepy filter there’s a lot small bits of lore that allows for fun ways to express stories.
Your commentary makes watching an hour of nothing happening (mostly) very enjoyable.
I agree that the expanding of lore for something like the back rooms really takes away from it but at the same time, I understand it. People want something new to take and run with. They want their own thing that they can spin things from that originate from a simple picture. Like their own SCP, or like with Siren Head, things like that.
And that idea is what ruined both SCP and sirenhead stuff, lol
Seems like the librarian is only familiar with classic backrooms, but no, not all backrooms related media looks the same, there's 3 common interpretations, the classical ones that you probably refer to when saying they all look the same, the backrooms wiki interpretation, which places that classical yellow wallpaper limbo as level 0 out of thousands more, and the recent kane pixels interpretation which explores how a company/research laboratory have broken into the backrooms and the stuff that's happening to the real world as a result of that
Thank you for realizing some of us easily get simulation sickness. I appreciate your help in reducing the motion.
Watching horror games at night has an incredibly much stronger effect than during the day, much more so than I expected. I already watched this game, as played by a different RUclipsr (I think it was Markiplier?) and I thought I could handle watching this at night, but I can't. I'll have to finish watching this tomorrow.
After watching people on youtube play horror games, or any video game with a flashlight really, it always amazes me how bright and useful real flashlights are. Even just the tiny one built into my phone just floods the place with light so I can see easily. And dedicated flashlights are just so much better than that. It makes the frustration of useless flashlights in games even more frustrating.
I think this is my favorite BR adaptation so far, I really liked the camera movement and audio, not to mention the UE sorta lighting.
"It's like we're walking through some kind of Ikea showroom... *of doom!*
Or, you know, just a regular ikea showroom."
love the backrooms. This and Complex: The expedition are the most accurate backroom to the The Kane Pixel lore and videos. Firm believer the less entities the better. The backrooms should have a half comforting and half terrifying feeling. Not horror. Playful but spooky. Encounters with entities should be few and far between because it makes them even more terrifying. I wish this version and The Expedition worked in VR. I could wander the backrooms for hours. Absolutely love it.
I LOVE THE BACKROOMS, CANT WAIT TO WATCH!
This game and its look is a tribute to Kane Pixels backrooms lore and videos.
I feel like a lot of backrooms media gets hostile entities wrong. The most horrific danger in the backrooms would be an enemy that is completely incomprehensible and unknowable
I also feel like backrooms is a fitting setting for anxiety horror, especially for a video game. Until it hits you with something, you'll be wondering what may or may not be with you in the same space, and I think no actual monster would be as scary as the image you create in your mind over time.
@@Yveldi I feel a good combination of the two sides of the coin would be a force that can do harm but you cannot see. I’ve got no idea how this would be executed well in a game, but the idea of your condition worsening in odd ways, strange things happening to your body, sickness, is way scarier than a monster to me. Also the idea of the backrooms itself being an enemy somehow, hostile constructs that harm you and incomprehensible geometry that unravels your psyche.
12:14
I love when he said this, it rlly rlly made me think that what if the backrooms is just some kind of imitation or somehow smth made it clutter together and form this kind of thing with monsters and creatures
Haven't finished the video yet but the initial yellow backrooms space is such a fantastic recreation of the original video! I've never seen a game come so close to replicating "real footage", although I suppose that's possible since the original backrooms video was certainly computer generated too. The motion blur is probably less pleasant to play than watch though.
Love to see you playing the game!
30:05 IT'S THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE, HE'S COME TO RESCUE YOU FROM THE BACKROOMS!
I love your videos. Thx automatic youtube translator for translating your video because i from Russian and my knowledge of English is bad.
Yes! I love this game! Thanks for playing it :)
I don't know but, the lost footages are highly detailed to match the real life version like it was actually happened in reality and sometimes i feel like Backrooms are real, having a monster chases you around and no way to escape, you're just stuck there
Ive been wondering if you would play this and im really happy you did, I enjoy your commentary of liminal spaces a lot and knew you would have some stuff to say about this
glad to catch an early video again! Love your stuff, amazing commentary
Even though it's 86, I get more of a like ~2000 DV camera look than a VHS look but less artifacting is less distracting so I don't dislike the stylistic choice, and those definitely had a lot of motion blur indoors.
Maybe the backrooms as a space beyond our dimension is so uncomprehendable that we just perceive it as human architecture because it's the only way our brains can process something so unknowable
What if the way the backrooms look depends on who noclips into the backrooms. Humans would get the backrooms we know but an alien from another world may get something drastically different.
@@funni_noises the more lore you add to the backrooms, the less scary it is.
this is a meme, and yet, has so much potential to be a full fledged movie
As far as how footage would escape the backrooms, there is (bad) wifi in the backrooms.
Theoretically, somebody could have uploaded footage of their travel, recorded on an older camera, and who's to say what kind of person found it, or in what context.
It's kind of funny to imagine that the video distortion was added by someone outside, who wanted to add some extra spooky vibes before showing anyone else.
Was excited to see you covered this game!! I was hoping you would. Love it!! Keep up the magnificent work
Really love that Langoliers reference, because that's my first "liminal space" feeling series/tv movie that I can remember, the first one that I knew of that evoked that concept that the backrooms ultimately follows.
I'm no expert on the subject, but as someone who's been interested in the backrooms since they blew up and subsequently watched how they morphed into what they are now, i can try and clarify a few things.
At this point, there is no longer a single version of the backrooms.
When they first got popular, it really was just the image on reddit (i think?) and the ominous caption that made that post go viral. It got stale very quickly cause there was literally nothing else to go with it (a "vibe" can only hold interest for so long) so many people who felt like there was more to explore started to expand upon the concept. Kane Pixels and the other RUclips series, along with the "leveled" backrooms have expanded the life span of the backrooms as a whole by giving them a story (that people become invested in and want to hear the rest of) and rules (that add depth to the space as well as get people thinking up ways to adapt/ overcome the environment). But like Librarian said, all of these additions take away something inherit from the original concept, namely the mystery/horror that comes from not knowing everything about the space.
Personally, i love that a single image has resonated with so many people and inspired them to create whole worlds from a single concept, but i can also see how it takes away from the psychological fuckery of what the backrooms started out as. I think arguing over "which version is better" is ultimately pointless cause it limits how people can enjoy something. If you think the backrooms should stay as a liminal space, that's fine, but letting people be creative and using the idea as a base for a cool story doesn't hurt anybody either.
Thanks for coming to my TedTalk, I'm going to take a nap zzz.
(like i said I'm not an expert so if i flubbed the history feel free to correct me thx)
Oh hey! Thanks for taking the suggestions! Can't wait to watch this gameplay of yours!
The field of view here is so awful that is makes me feel sick. I will never understand why _any_ game developer would ever go for these ridiculously small and narrow FoVs for their games. All I can think of while watching is that the character accidentally zoomed in a bit on their camera which also has blinders on it.
42:00 I was like, "oh shit, the devs turned a scene from Kane Pixel's video into a game".
24:12 It's nice to see the game touch (however briefly) on the most memorable motif in _my_ dreams: really terrible bathrooms.
Was never sold on the idea of the Backrooms as inhabited, but this game handled it really well, giving us just a few hints of something else sharing the space with you, but nothing concrete. The lore has all these monsters that feel like they're trying too hard to be scary, so I was worried this was going to be more of that. I was happily surprised by its restraint, though. Feels less like a bunch of Discord teens "yes anding" and more like study on what made the Backrooms so unsettling in the first place.
as soon as i heard about this game i knew it would appear here, looks like i predicted correctly
This game is phenomenal, it manages to get that found footage effect just right, it's so realistic.
The area you looked at, where the hall ended in a space where you could look around seeing the end of seemingly endless other halls, with that gap between, that had the train like ambient noise, is lifted, almost directly, from the movie Cube.
Are you telling me the backrooms can't have a JCPenney's or a Macy's, librarian?
In terms of copyright law? No. In actuality? To complete the feeling, it NEEDS to have a JCPenney' or Macy's.
I just came here from a video about glitch Pokemon, and that's given me an idea about the backrooms. Maybe it's "junk data", the missingno of the universe. Like how the old Pokemon games pull up a glitch Pokemon when junk data is accessed and brought up in an encounter
this game needed you to play it.
While many backrooms inspired pieces of media can be very similar I find that I just cant get enough despite the similarities. I LOVE liminal spaces in particular for the same reason I love high fantasy, Slavic myth, witches, and the woods in winter. I am inexorably drawn to things that are at once wonderful and dangerous, beautiful and unknowable.
You speak like Hanatarō Yamada from Bleach and I agree with all of your points. Cool video
Very entertaining thanks!!!
Those crunchy noises are new. I didnt had these in my playthrough
This was such an atmospheric game. Really well done.
10:13 bro isn't prepared for the poolrooms.
Of all the backrooms related games I think this is the best looking one by far.
I feel like the true horror to The Backrooms has been forgotten. The horror to it was the desolate and unwelcoming environment, nobody around to help or comfort you in the world, and your imagination to do the heavy lifting. The entities are fine, but the levels have made it just another thing full of whatever.
Just a thought, but hearing your footsteps reverberate through the chambers is eerie. Yet it makes it easier to tell if something is there with you. When carpet is added into the mix you can only tell if something is there with you once it gets close
This game is inspired by the Kane Pixels Backrooms series. Most of the imagery in this game and other games comes from that series.
YES! I was really hoping you'd make this vid!!!!
I wish the game was more of an outlast type, with the camera being in your hands and allowing you to zoom in looking at the monitor. The end piece could have the camera zapping out of your hand before cutting to black.
I like to think that the Backrooms are a connective network of our unconscious, remembering things more like buildings and areas that we remember growing up. The areas are familiar, somewhat comforting but there is also a hint of haunting and it's that unknown of whether or not we actually experienced this in the past. We challenge ourselves with the unknown territory and are left with disconnect form the rest of the world. That slight little tingly feeling in the back of our minds; almost like an itch you need to scratch.
Let’s gooo I was actually gonna request this LMAO
I love that librarian man brought up the langoliers.
Also, curious, what was playing on the radio that had to be removed?
I have a feeling that last cut-scene after the elevator falling was some ACTUAL live-action footage.
Yeah so about the pools, I believe it is a back rooms level and every one calls them the “Pool Rooms” but I don’t know if they just appear somewhere in the backrooms or there’s a elevator like in this game. And I’m… not sure about the trees either. BUT Great game and I wish I had a PC of my own to play but I suck with keys I just can’t do WASD like you guys can because I’ve been a console player all my life but That Giant industrial area with the gap after the liminal hotel is STRAIGHT Outta Kane Pixels First back rooms found footage video and my mouth was wide open when I saw that along with the art gallery because that’s also a place in Kane pixels’ video. Anyway great video!
I love the architecture at 12:34, reminds me of an indoors airsoft or paintball arena.
Saw this after the one you did of the remaster. I agree, v2.0 is superior, tho this is a not a bad little start.
The thing about the Backrooms is there is no way Out, only a way Through. To my knowledge, the only way to exit is to clip out of them just like how you got in, this usually means waking up and/or "dying" being metaphorical or literal.
I disagree that the creatures added have ruined the back rooms as most aren’t inherently aggressive. Most just seem curious and tend to stalk you with their motives unknown which adds much more tension than knowing there’s definitely a creature that you must avoid at all costs. Though there are some in different levels I enjoy that the initial concept of the back rooms is kept while adding entities for additional spooks
I've been mostly interested in the backrooms as a fusion between survival, and surreal horror. For the reason that it makes your own safety a lot less certain. Even with methods of survival, and maybe pseudo-guides left behind as scratchings on the wall by past wanderers. The fact that you have to manage your own survival, puts that survival into question, and leaves death, or whatever alternative as a very real threat.
I really dislike the expansion of the lore into huge factions which cheapen survival by allowing for herd survival. Or things like overly friendly entities which give you free stuff all the time. And I also dislike the external organizations exploring the backrooms since it's basically SCP done all over again.
For me it's far scarrier when it's you, with zero inclination of how you got there, leaning against a wall to catch your breath after a jog. And when you lean against the wall you fall backwards, and boom you're in this alien environment with architecture, and geometry which doesn't make sense. And you are left to walk around for what must be weeks, but you find yourself getting hungry much, much slower. Making it a hazard, but a much slower danger to pester you over time. And ofc the possibility of entities as hinted at by maybe someone who scratched a message into the wallpaper with a knife, or a piece of paper left behind with feverish scribbling on it. And all you have is yourself, alone, for an indeterminate amount of time, in the alien world of the backrooms with repetitive architecture, and the general liminal vibe, and a looming feeling of being watched, or even a forewarning of danger which causes you to question every single thing you see out of the corner of your eye, or every noise you hear which sounds very slightly different.
This is my vision of the backrooms, and I dislike that it's being covered up by the more explained, lore contrived version.
I also want to add on, that I feel less threatened by some horror that happens in your house, or in someplace not isolated like a school. Since I can just run to someone else's house, I don't feel threatened. So unless a level of social isolation is added like in IT, it's not that scary.
But this is more unique (not saying it's the only one) in how isolated it is. And in fact I'd say it's more isolating than something happening in a space station. Since this is essentially a pocket dimension, which has a method of exit which is as unknown as its entrance.
Food is even less certain, because it's based entirely on the mercy of the backrooms, and what level you're on, or what you find. And I like the levels which are far more cruel in this way, or rather don't have food just laying at your feet.
Love the content, not for the game, but for you!
Really good video! You should play antichamber next
And on the look of these itteration- they seem inspired by Kane Pixels approach, which I like more than the Backrooms Wiki approach
*me, full-on sprinting at anything that moves in the backrooms* WAIT NO PLEASE COME BACK I NEED ENRICHMENT I DONT EVEN CARE IF YOU KILL ME JUST GIVE ME SOMETHING ELSE TO LOOK AT
This game is basically just the worst part of the Slender the 8 Pages game, isolated and put on repeat forever: the bathrooms. All the sharp corners give me so much dread and anxiety just to watch... waiting to see if something will be around this dark corner...or the next.. or how bout this one... or this one..? I thought for sure something was guna briefly appear for a split second glimpse as a vague sort of jumpscare just before those elevator doors finally closed though.
35:40 - "when things are the same, I get nervous. When things change, I get nervous." But that's... all the things..? But I totally feel ya though oh my god
Despite this game essentially being a neat lil 'create-your-own-panic-attack'-walking sim, I still really enjoyed watching your playthrough, not only because I am not cut out to play these types of spooky-not-spooky liminal slow-burn horror games, but also because your commentary was really genuine and refreshing! I found myself really enjoying hearing the ongoing thoughts of someone sorta "new" to the backrooms and as someone who is interested in what's going on and trying to make sense of it all by noting new locations or asking questions or posing cool thought experiment hypotheticals! It was just so freaking refreshingly nice to encounter someone engaging with a game about liminal spaces and not being mean and cynical about it, and sounding so genuinely intrigued! Made it excellent and fun for me to listen to what you had to say and what ideas you brought up!
Also, I wholeheartedly agree with a topic you touched on briefly (around 9:05 or so) about the true horror of backrooms themselves being somewhat diminished or changed by this format (i.e. by adding to the lore or by creating media content for it, or by making games based on it - but games espeically since they often need monsters or objectives, or at least some tangible scary threat) - cause I think the horrifying thing about the concept of these infinite backrooms was always about the impossibility of it all, the incredible scope of the space and the sheer magnitude and insanity, which makes it so starkly and instantly recognizable as something so very wrong and something beyond uncanny... And then in all that endless space... it's just you. The "horror" about that isn't the possibility of something malevolent lurking in there with you, maybe even stalking you, but that you are so hopelessly and irreversibly lost and alone and you're stuck and trapped and screwed! Plus that level of an unreal amount of isolation mixed in with the mindnumbing repetition of the scenery, nevermind trying to fathom the mechanics of such a space even existing! There's so much there within that original concept alone that's entirely intangible (maybe even incomprehensible) and if you put all of that together, it is daunting in ways that conventional media cannot even fully convey to a third-party viewer yet! It's just so wild to spend any amount of time thinking about...
But I do think it's also a unique concept that could've only been invented by this specific current generation of young people. Cause it actually speaks to how we're all currently feeling: endlessly overwhelmed by ever-present problems and looming feelings of doom and gloom and/or that our own personal dreams might be ultimately unachievable, all while living in an era that is theoretically the pinnacle of human achievement, yet also feeling like the loneliest generation yet...
The fact that the backrooms don't have an end, or a goal, or a purpose, or an answer, or even any explanation *is* the point and purpose and reason for the backrooms.
A big shout out to Kane Pixels, the teenage genius who's channel inspired a lot of these games.
I think you would love his videos.
🙂🎈
Also reference, The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Short story from 1892.
i really wonder what that face-looking thing is at 45:03 for one frame is. Kinda looks like one of the houses, but idk
If you notice the end in the last room, the brick arches directly across from the elevator are being mimicked from the real world on the other side of the street from where your camera lands
Another certified hood classic
A lot of the areas are either inspired by, or are a direct use of, the same maps used in Kane Pixel's recent backrooms videos (the street, the gallery, that wall of exit signs) are all exactly as shown in their videos
10:43. You missed it. Nevermind it was the blast door going out of view
This game is made for you, this oughta be awesome
"the most useless flashlight in existence"
Looks like the chillas art flashlight has a competitor
Wasn't sure if you heard the game got a huge update with tons added and changed, also the dev is working on a sequel already.
16:22
Best part