6/10.
So... I like this game, as I tend to enjoy most Backrooms media, though it has things pulling me in opposite directions.
I wanna stress this is an early access game, and I very much have that in mind when reviewing it and doing so with the hopes it can turn out as good as it possibly can.
The first chase scene spilling over into that balancing section was excellent, and had my heart pounding as well as creating a purpose for me to quickly use the balancing/peeking mechanism, I like that.
I also really like how the entities and levels are designed, they feel significantly faithful to the Backrooms lore while shedding a lot of the PG crap that came with the 'mainstreamification' of the lore itself.
I also am very excited to try it out with friends and my sister at a later time, since we're all quite invested in the lore.
However... there's a lot holding it back. I'll start with the minor stuff. auto-equipping picked up items is a bit annoying, as I'd rather put them in my inventory and take them out if I need to. Also the inventory itself and the way you move/use items is a bit odd and could use some retooling.
The more severe downsides however, come from the unavoidable nature of some of the entities. Hiding from them, at least as far as I can tell, is not possible, and your character also runs very slowly, to the point of barely outpacing the entities. While running from danger your stamina isn't capped, but when it is capped, it is very very low, and not very good.
The sanity meter is also not very well defined and could use some extra numeric clarification as to where your sanity is at.
Apart from that, it's also just slightly janky and glitchy, most notably with the keypad in Level 1, it took a few tries for my clicks to register on the buttons.
Promising beginnings, and I may amend my score to a 7/10 depending on how fun the multiplayer is, and given that the game seems designed around it, that seems likely.
So... I like this game, as I tend to enjoy most Backrooms media, though it has things pulling me in opposite directions.
I wanna stress this is an early access game, and I very much have that in mind when reviewing it and doing so with the hopes it can turn out as good as it possibly can.
The first chase scene spilling over into that balancing section was excellent, and had my heart pounding as well as creating a purpose for me to quickly use the balancing/peeking mechanism, I like that.
I also really like how the entities and levels are designed, they feel significantly faithful to the Backrooms lore while shedding a lot of the PG crap that came with the 'mainstreamification' of the lore itself.
I also am very excited to try it out with friends and my sister at a later time, since we're all quite invested in the lore.
However... there's a lot holding it back. I'll start with the minor stuff. auto-equipping picked up items is a bit annoying, as I'd rather put them in my inventory and take them out if I need to. Also the inventory itself and the way you move/use items is a bit odd and could use some retooling.
The more severe downsides however, come from the unavoidable nature of some of the entities. Hiding from them, at least as far as I can tell, is not possible, and your character also runs very slowly, to the point of barely outpacing the entities. While running from danger your stamina isn't capped, but when it is capped, it is very very low, and not very good.
The sanity meter is also not very well defined and could use some extra numeric clarification as to where your sanity is at.
Apart from that, it's also just slightly janky and glitchy, most notably with the keypad in Level 1, it took a few tries for my clicks to register on the buttons.
Promising beginnings, and I may amend my score to a 7/10 depending on how fun the multiplayer is, and given that the game seems designed around it, that seems likely.