Game Review: The Backrooms: Survival

By Al

Players: 1-10 (Online)
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, PC (Steam)

A couple years ago I fell in love with a game called Devour. It was a multiplayer horror game that saw all players play on the same team. Since then I've tried out several other similar titles, and that's lead me to the game that we're looking at today. The Backrooms: Survival is a retro-themed horror game that's inspired by the internet... trend (?) known as "The Backrooms". It's out now on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and PC. We're going to be taking a look at it on the Nintendo Switch today, and see if this one is worth adding to your rotation. That's enough intro I guess, time to jump into The Backrooms!

I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone that The Backrooms: Survival doesn't have any sort of story beyond whatever you choose to place onto it. Each run of the game begins with character creation, and most games will end as soon as that character is dead. You can play through the entire game solo, or you can choose to tackle it with up to nine other players. While the single-player mode is still the full version of the game, I think it's fair to say that this is more of a multiplayer experience than anything else. No matter how you choose to play the game, each visit to The Backrooms is randomized, and this not only extends to room, item, and enemy spawns, but also which areas you'll visit when moving on to the next floor. If there is a way to "win" the game I have yet to see it, but you can play for a quite a while if you're equally skilled and lucky. I admittedly wasn't expecting too much beyond what I just laid out when the playing the game, but I was still disappointed to learn that there wasn't any story to uncover. You'll encounter all sorts of strangeness throughout the game, but you're never given any sort of explanations beyond it simply being The Backrooms. Why do the entities seem so random? Why are there phones, TVs, and radios randomly lying around? And why do those pipes let off steam every few seconds? These questions and more will be left completely unanswered.  You don't even get to exit The Backrooms as far as I know, and that is pretty much the only goal the game ever gives you. Disappointment with the lack of direction aside, the game does offer quite a bit of content, and now is as good a time as any to move the discussion towards gameplay mechanics.

While the floor layouts in The Backrooms: Survival are all random, you'll always start in a series of rooms that look like the infamous picture that kicked off the Backrooms trend. This first floor will be made up of several groupings of rooms, and these rooms will be connected by even more doors and hallways. There is no easy-to-use map to help you make sense of the labyrinth, and making your own will be near impossible due to the randomness of the floors themselves. I know I've used the term "random" a lot so far, but perhaps "chaotic" would be a better fit. Some rooms will have two doors on one side, multiple hallways that all lead to the same place, and plenty of locked doors that can easily be circumvented if you just go in and out of a door or two. Getting lost is very easy too, as everything will look the same. There are things like graffiti and furniture that can be used as markers, but they're few and far between when compared to the endless sea of rooms and hallways. The only way out of a particular floor is via a hatch down to the negative levels, or a ladder up to the standard floors. You can backtrack a bit, but the confusing maps keep this from being a viable gameplay option. Negative floors act as the game's Hard Mode, with the floors above giving a more standard difficulty increase. No matter which way you choose to go, the next floor you'll visit will either be composed of even more rooms, or be a wide open area. I'm not really sure which of these I prefer, since the open areas mean that you're easily cornered by groups of entities, while the ones made up of rooms are basically just palette swaps of each other. I can't stress enough how much smoother the game would feel if you were given an easily accessible automap, but you'll have to make do with lots of wandering in circles instead.

Considering that "survival" is in the game's title, it makes sense that it would be the core focus of the game. I mentioned character creation earlier, but the only truly important aspect regarding it is the profession you choose to give your character. These professions can be anything from cop, streamer, burglar, teacher, or even cannibal, with each of them granting some sort of skill bonus, special ability, or starting items. Once you're spawned into The Backrooms you'll pick up even more items scattered about on each floor, with still more items being able to be purchased from vending machines or shops. Many of the items you find are actually useless as far as survival is concerned, but they can usually be sold, traded, or broken down into smaller parts. These smaller pieces can be used in the included crafting system, but I'd be lying if I said I bothered with that aspect of the game very much. Not all items are useless though, as you'll also come across food, drinks, weapons, and backcoins. Backcoins are the in-game currency that you'll use at the aforementioned shops and vending machines, and weapons serve a rather obvious purpose. I guess food and drinks do too, though I typically found more food items than I ever knew what to do with. Since items are everywhere, inventory management is also important. It won't take long for you to hit the limits of your carrying capacity, and it can be hard to find a place to turn useless items into backcoins or something more useful. Then again, most runs will often be over before you're able to get your inventory looking anywhere close to neat and orderly.

Even though there are some game modes in The Backrooms: Survival that allow you to continue after dying, most character deaths will result in total erasure of your save file, and mean that you'll have to start again from the very beginning. Speaking of save files, this isn't a game where you can save scum your way to victory. Saving is only allowed when you quit the game or at certain fixed points, like entering a new floor. I've mentioned entities a few times so far, and these will most likely be how you meet your demise. No matter the entity you face, they will charge you the second they're aware of your presence. Playing online taught me that moving in a crouching walk is the best way to avoid entities, but I found that to be so boring that I just threw caution to the wind and walked everywhere normally. Your character can take damage through enemy attacks, and you can only recover damage through the use of certain items. It is possible to escape from certain types of entities that are chasing you, but most encounters will be a fight to the death. Attacking works as you expect it to, with some weapons dealing more damage than others. Most weapons also have durability, or ammo in the case of guns. Killing an entity drops a lot of loot, but getting killed by one could mean an instant game over. If you're playing in multiplayer, you can be revived by other players if they're able to reach you in time. Other than that, you can respawn if you're playing on a game mode that allows it. The thing about respawning is that you're sent back a few floors, and stripped of pretty much all of the items you've collected. I never once found it worthwhile to continue from after dying, so I often just went the permadeath route no matter what game mode I was playing on. It can be annoying to lose all of your progress after playing for an hour or two, but that's just the way things go here.

I ultimately found The Backrooms: Survival to be a very mixed bag as far as its gameplay goes. It's surprisingly deep for what it is, but there's really nothing rewarding to be had in its core loop. Most rooms are empty except for a single item, all entities attack the same way with the same battle cry, the maze-like layout of the floors make exploration a chore, and losing all progress via a single bad encounter gets old after the third or fourth time it happens. The game isn't even as scary as you'd think it'd be. Those expecting anything beyond a jump scare from a steam-releasing pipe will be sorely disappointed, as the only scary thing you'll encounter is the amount of time it'll take you to find the ladder to the next floor. I think the developers were going for an atmospheric horror vibe, but the music and graphics don't really allow that to happen. Neither are particularly bad, they're just not up to the task at hand. It also doesn't help that the controls are also extremely wonky. I can only assume that this was created as a PC title first, as menu and inventory management does not feel like they were created with a controller in mind. It can even be hard to simply select an option in a menu as the directional buttons are very sensitive. Thankfully the controls are a bit tighter when it comes to combat, but just barely. Also, while the multiplayer mode is very fun, it can be hard to find anyone playing online. You'll most likely have to arrange games beforehand with friends or acquaintances you already know, and the only real bonus there is that you'll have others to watch your back, or to share in your pain when things go south.

Fans of the PS1 graphic style might want to give The Backrooms: Survival a pass, but its randomized nature means that everything has an extremely generic look and feel. I can't say that this is the case for sure, but all the in--game models feel like they came from a pre-built asset shop. There are some filters you can add to make the game look like a scratchy VHS tape, but I'm not a fan of such things. The options are there though, and they do hide the blandness of some of the locations. No matter what you do though, it's hard to miss the fact that each and every floor is made up of the same few graphical elements cut and pasted dozens of times. I'd have preferred if the game wasn't such a sprawling mess if they were going to go that route. Things aren't really any better when it comes to music, and there are even several parts of the game where I don't think there's any at all. The game does run pretty quiet throughout, so I guess I could be mistaken on that front. An 80s-style synth soundtrack would've really helped this game's presentation, but the near silence we get instead just adds the overall meh feel when playing solo. I guess I can at least give the game credit for running smoothly on the Nintendo Switch, but that's not really all that impressive when the game looks as simple as this one does.

Besides multiplayer, the one big saving grace of The Backrooms: Survival has to be its price. At just $10.99, it might be worth picking up if you have a group of gamers who like to try out new multiplayer experiences on the regular. There definitely is a lot to see and do here, but it doesn't really lend well to a standard single-player experience. It's not even feasible to use the single player as a training ground, since the random elements mean that you're better off just throwing yourself into the deep end right from the beginning. I'm willing to accept that there will be people who have a blast playing this on their own, but I'm sure that they'd be in the minority. I will say that it's somewhat odd that this game was released on consoles at all, since their online services leave a lot to be desired when compared to the PC. My advice would be grab it on PC if you're serious about the multiplayer mode, and only get the console versions if you absolutely must experience this game solo.

At the end of the day, I have very mixed feelings when it comes to The Backrooms: Survival. I did have some fun with it, and there are some parts that are so over the top that they circle around to becoming entertaining again, but it's really not that great of a game. I'm not even sure I can give it a full recommendation on the multiplayer front, since I think there are several multiplayer horror games that are far better than this one. I guess this can be an option if you've already exhausted those game, but I'd only go for it as a last resort. Having said that, I don't think I can recommend picking it up on consoles at all. It's not the worst game I've ever played, nor is it broken in any way, but there are just so many better uses of one's time that I can't bring myself to recommend it. If you do choose to get it though, hit me up and maybe we can put together a full 10-player game someday. Until then, I'll see you in the next one!

Check Out The Backrooms: Survival on Nintendo Switch:
https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/the-backrooms-survival-switch/

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Story: N/A
Gameplay: C-
Graphics: C
Music/Sound: C
Value: B

Overall: C

Pros:
+ An interesting take on The Backrooms that features several deep gameplay mechanics.
+ Features several single player modes that include a sandbox mode that allows you to spawn in whatever you want.
+ There are some parts of the game that are so over-the-top that they become silly and amusing. (In a good way!)
+ The multiplayer is a lot of fun, and can support up to ten players at once.
+ Features a graphic style that's very reminiscent of the PS1.
+ Decently priced at just $10.99

Cons:
- Each floor is huge, mostly empty, full of similar-looking rooms and objects, and feels like filler.
- There isn't any story to be had at all.
- Playing solo can be quite a boring experience that's full of encounters that end in permadeath.
- Even when judging it on a retro scale, this isn't a great-looking game.
- Could've used a good soundtrack, since the game mostly plays in silence.
- It's criminal how not scary the game is.
- Can be hard to find anyone playing the game online, so you'll probably have to arrange multiplayer runs on your own.

A copy of this game was provided to us free-of-charge by the publisher for the purpose of this review. This did not affect our review in any way.

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