Overview
The Backrooms 1998 is a psychological survival horror first-person discovered footage game that centered on a terrified adolescent who accidentally visited the backrooms in the late 1990s! The game is played from the first-person perspective and uses found film. While dodging a scary monster and striving to escape, players in the game explore the terrifying labyrinth and put together a weird narrative.
Gameplay
The Backrooms 1998’s main goal is to get away! Navigation is challenging even with a torch (batteries required) and spray paint because the player’s position is mysteriously altered as they move through the maze-like rooms and passages. In order to finally escape, the player must accomplish a number of objectives while exploring, including discovering specified artifacts and following blood trails—both of which can be extremely nerve-wracking tasks with an adversary nearby and plenty of jumpscares!
The presence of a scary and gruesome enemy that prowls the backrooms does not make things any simpler. Players should avoid running unless absolutely necessary because they are highly sensitive to noise. Instead, they should hide in closets and crawl spaces, seal doors behind them, and keep an ear out for enemy footsteps. Although a note on a wall in the early stages of the game claims that the opponent has no eyes, they do appear to be able to see because I was discovered while standing still and being silent from across the room. Making use of the spray paint to mark trails can help the player avoid getting lost and doesn’t appear to be seen by the adversary. But, audio input adds another layer of dangers to be aware of. Yelling at a jump fright or inhaling heavily into the mic will instantly alert the opponent.
There are televisions scattered throughout the game where you can save your progress, but there are only a few of them, and you can only use each one once. If the player loses after using all of their save points, they will be trapped in the back chambers for all time. This increases the difficulty of the game as well as the player’s feeling of anxiety.
Narrative
The Backrooms 1998 consists of a found film of a teenager who is trapped in the backrooms, a creepypasta that began with a picture of a corridor with yellow wallpaper, and a narrative that describes how one enters the backrooms by no-clipping out of reality. The creepypasta began with a picture of a corridor with yellow wallpaper. As the small boy makes his way deeper into the labyrinth of rooms and corridors, the gruesome and horrific story of a young child named Tommy who was kidnapped unfolds before his eyes. The narrative is pieced together piece by piece when various artifacts, such as radios, newspaper articles, photographs, and other images, as well as other areas of interest, are discovered during exploration.
Styling
The Backrooms 1998 is visually similar to a slightly damaged VHS video when it is being used as “found footage,” complete with film grain and a 90s camcorder overlay. This creates a kind of visual handicap that makes the total experience feel more creepier, especially with the poor lighting. The plain yellow wallpaper that is typical of the backrooms will also be covered in frantic scrawls and discolored by the weird red lighting. Other scary and well-known horror images include mannequins, a tricycle, bugs, blood, and a ton of gore.
The soundtrack of the game is jam-packed with footsteps, labored breathing, hurried heartbeats, creaking, and other standard horror noises that combine to create a spooky soundscape. The sounds seem louder and are perceived as being more dangerous because they echo and reverberate. The game is made more difficult and has an added layer of eeriness thanks to the audio input.
Conclusion
The Backrooms 1998 is a quick game that may be completed in as little as an hour and a half of play time. It takes inspiration from a variety of gaming subgenres, such as walking simulators, survival games, and horror, among others, to create a gameplay experience that is uniquely unnerving. The game has a unique appearance thanks to the vintage VHS images, however after a while they can be a little taxing on the eyes and cause some headaches. The combination of obnoxious visual elements and annoying sound design produces a powerful impression when used in tandem with one another. The jump scares are effective and mesh nicely with the concept of auditory input, which is in and of itself an original touch. Despite the fact that they can be cliche, the jump scares are effective. In general, it is a solid example of a short horror game that has a unique visual, a place that is well-known, and a good degree of difficulty. Despite the fact that it may have room for improvement in terms of refinement, I strongly recommend this to fans of horror games and urban legends.
