Recent reviews by Orion™

Escape the Backrooms Review: A Dreadful Experience

Escape the Backrooms has quickly become a prime example of how a chilling concept can be completely wasted with poor execution and uninspired design. Based on the viral creepypasta about the endless, eerie maze of yellowish rooms, the game promises a terrifying and immersive experience. However, from the very beginning, it becomes painfully clear that this game does not deliver on any of its promises. Instead of inducing fear and suspense, it quickly becomes a frustrating and tedious exercise in suffering through broken mechanics, unintuitive gameplay, and a lackluster atmosphere.

One of the first issues that arises in Escape the Backrooms is the absolute lack of cohesion in the game world. The setting, meant to be an endless, surreal maze, feels more like a half-baked collection of rooms slapped together. The environments are not only repetitive but downright uninspired. Rooms that are supposed to feel unnerving just feel lazily thrown together with minimal effort. The oppressive, claustrophobic vibe you’d expect from the concept is replaced with a sense of monotony and annoyance. The game fails to establish any real sense of place or purpose in its environments, leaving players to wander aimlessly through a series of poorly lit rooms that don’t make much sense thematically or visually.

The gameplay itself is equally disappointing. The controls feel stiff and unresponsive, making it a chore to navigate through the maze. Rather than focusing on atmosphere and tension, the game seems more concerned with frustrating the player by offering obtuse puzzles and nonsensical objectives. This, combined with the unpolished mechanics, makes it hard to stay invested for any extended period. The horror elements, which should have been the game's strength, feel slapped on and incoherent. There’s nothing to get under your skin; instead, you’re just left wandering in poorly executed spaces, wondering why you’re still playing.

Then there’s the issue of level design, which is perhaps where the game falls the hardest. Level 3, in particular, is a standout example of bad design, and it feels like the developers simply threw in random elements hoping that it would result in something scary. This level is inhabited by dog-like monsters that are so poorly implemented that they serve to only irritate players instead of inducing fear. The creatures are not frightening in the slightest. Their design is amateurish at best, and their behavior is predictable and repetitive. What was supposed to be a tense encounter becomes nothing more than a frustrating obstacle as players are forced to avoid or outrun these goofy enemies.

The problems with Level 3 don’t stop with the dog monsters. The level itself is a convoluted, illogical mess of corridors that feels intentionally frustrating. It’s as if the game is trying to punish players by making them endure long stretches of repetitive design, only to throw in a dog monster that seems more like an inconvenience than a threat. The poor AI of these creatures makes the whole encounter laughable rather than terrifying, as they stumble after the player with no real strategy, easily avoidable and not at all engaging. Rather than building tension, the level just drags on without any real payoff, testing the player's patience more than their ability to strategize or survive.

Worse still is the way the game handles the monsters in Level 3. The dogs, despite their supposed ferocity, are often stuck on walls or behave erratically, making the entire chase mechanic feel completely broken. When a player encounters one of these beasts, it's not a matter of skill or strategy—it’s simply a matter of waiting for the glitchy dog to stumble in the right direction or take an unexpected detour. This lack of polish makes the level seem more like a bad joke rather than an intentional horror element. Players are left confused and frustrated, wondering how something so critical to the game’s experience could be so poorly executed.

The rest of the game fares no better. The pacing is all over the place, with moments of nothing happening, followed by bursts of disorienting chaos. These transitions are so poorly handled that they completely break any sense of immersion. The sound design, which should have been an effective tool for building tension, is instead either non-existent or off-putting when present. Whether it's the muffled noises of the monsters or the random environmental sounds, nothing feels purposeful or well thought out. The entire experience lacks the precision and attention to detail necessary to create a truly scary game.

The few puzzles in Escape the Backrooms don’t do much to elevate the experience. They’re more of a tedious distraction than an actual challenge, often relying on the same few mechanics repeated ad nauseam. There’s nothing particularly clever or engaging about them, and they often just serve to break the flow of the game. This lack of meaningful engagement leaves the player feeling like they’re simply going through the motions without any real sense of progression or achievement. It’s hard to feel invested in a game that offers so little to reward the player’s time and effort.

It’s clear that Escape the Backrooms had potential, but it squanders it at every turn. The lack of polish, the broken mechanics, and the uninspired design all contribute to making this a forgettable and frustrating experience. The game’s creators seemed to have no real understanding of what makes horror games effective. Instead of focusing on creating an atmosphere of dread and unease, they have chosen to throw together a series of disconnected ideas that fail to come together as a cohesive whole. What should have been a tense, immersive experience instead becomes a trial of patience.

In conclusion, Escape the Backrooms is a terrible game that fails on almost every level. Whether it's the repetitive, uninspired environments, the broken mechanics, or the poorly designed levels, there is little here to redeem it. Level 3, with its broken dog monsters and frustrating design, is the perfect example of how the game squanders its potential. It’s a game that promises much but delivers almost nothing. Fans of horror and survival games should steer clear, as this is an experience that is more likely to leave you frustrated than scared.

Balling

my name is deez

o

I AM DEAD

♥♥♥♥

I pogged irl

Game is unathletic to hell. No speed, no violence, no momentum, and they got rid of the old map.

I chased down a guy for 30 minutes and he had nothing.

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