The fucking way my heart sank whenever I'd turn a corner to see a big fat Zero.

Don't want to handwring, because this is far too specific, but I think there's something to be said about the magic of a truly blind playthrough, and how a game's delivery process can be the be-all and end-all. When I first learned of The Exit 8, it was because I did my daily poorboy due diligence by browsing Skidrow for new games to pilfer from the back of an unmarked van. (I'd honestly recommend people to do the same, I've discovered so many games this way, but I'm a psychopath, so sink to my level if u dare.)
The Exit 8, unassumingly, only sells itself on the Skidrow listing with the description - "The Exit 8 is a short walking simulator inspired by Japanese underground…". Kinda boring pitch, doesn't jump out much - I didn't have any expectations or pretence because I had no way to create any. why I gravitated towards it instead of Trucks and Logistics Simulator is anyone's guess.

Frankly, I was only expecting one of those lusciously-rendered mundane locale tech demos, and the initial hump of The Exit 8 practically delivers that. I did a few runs on its recursive subway underpass thinking little more than how I was experiencing essentially a student's little Unreal Engine flex or something. The texture work, lighting, reflections, modelling - it's all on point, a still captured from any angle could be utterly convincing as a genuine photograph of a real-world location. Then I stopped sprinting around the map and finally took in the finer detail on offer - instructions! In English! Unwinding into (- and I hope you've played the game before reading this -) a game of non-Euclidian spot-the-difference. It doesn't feel like the floor falls out from under me very often these days, man. I kind of sunk into this and was enraptured, pouring over every loop's details in a desperate fervour to reach Exit 8 - gaslighting myself countless times and getting genuinely spooked at the prospect of unknowingly missing anomalies. Loved it all the way to the end, very cool lean little thing.

THEN I looked at the Steam page and how it fucking spelled the whole thing out. At some of my pals already having it in their wishlist, knowing for god-knows-how-long what the gimmick of The Exit 8 would actually be. The first screenshot on the Steam store page is the END of the game!! You should spend the whole playthrough wondering if it even has one!! I'm sure the coming few days will be plastered w/ thumbnails of gormless Youtuber faces, setting people up for The Exit 8 being something far more TERRIFYING than it really is. It's kind of crushing and I know that's a bit unfair but like. I think this is the kind of game you should just put in front of people to see what they make of it. Place it in an unlabelled USB stick and slide it across their desk or something. And stop calling everything 'liminal' ur gay.