Today, the announcement trailer for The Backrooms 1998 released, marking yet another game banking on the craze of The Backrooms lore. As per usual with Backrooms-style games, my interest starts on a high note and, subsequently, fizzles out by the end. Unfortunately, this one’s no different. The atmosphere is there; the mysterious emptiness of it all, the dread that compounds as you realize you’re never getting out, and then, boo! A scawy monster busts down a door and chases the player. Sigh.
The Backrooms doesn’t need a boogeyman to remind us to be scared
The whole Backrooms theory has always interested me, ever since spawning out of its initial 4chan posting. The thought that, at any time, anyone could “noclip” through their existing world and fall into an endless, desolate prison forever. The sounds you once knew of the real world? Gone. Replaced by the neverending buzzing of fluorescent lights and the squishes of damp carpet. An unnerving maze of yellow and brown hallways that tap deeply into your buried nostalgia. You feel like something’s watching you, but there’s no signs of life around. You can scream, but there’s no one to hear you. You can run, but there’s no end. Come on, that’s horrifying.
And then, just when The Backrooms theory was at its peak, the zoomers got ahold of it and threw in Entities. Because, you know, nothing can be scary if there’s not some boogeyman chasing you around, I guess. Call me a purist, but The Backrooms is at its best without the screaming stick figures and body horror monstrosities. When it’s just you, alone, with nothing but your thoughts and the crushing feelings of eternal desolation and fear.
I get it; the people love their cheap thrills, and this isn’t a dig against The Backrooms 1998. I’m sure it’ll be a great game, and people will like it. But I can’t help but feel that monsters rob The Backrooms of its real horror potential. It’s the easy way out, and it sacrifices what makes the nightmare so terrifying in exchange for what’s essentially a jump scare.
Backrooms-style games have potential to be horror hits
The Backrooms are liminal spaces, they’re surreal and don’t make sense. They aren’t bound by the laws of reality – and that’s what makes them so intriguing. Capitalize on that. You don’t need a threat to be in your face to be effective. Take indie horror Dead Letter Dept. for example. There’s no spooky creatures with big teeth or slender gentlemen in suits chasing you. And yet, it’s one of the creepiest games I’ve played recently. Why? Because it understands atmosphere. It knows how to build dread and keep players in constant suspense.
And that’s the key to fear, right? It’s why the Xenomorph isn’t constantly visible throughout Alien. It’s the fear of the unknown. Not what you see, but what races through your mind when you’re down one of your five senses. I hope The Backrooms 1998 is successful, but, man, I also hope more developers explore The Backrooms theory before it was lost within itself.
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