The original "Backrooms" concept exploded on 4chan a few years ago, and since then it has served as inspiration for all kinds of projects, including a fascinating wiki. Naturally, video games couldn't resist the idea of the Backrooms, and one of the most recent is Pools, which adds a twist by throwing the player into a maze of swimming pools. There are no enemies, no points, no objectives to complete. Only hallways, pools, water... and your solitude.
The Stanley Parable, Dear Esther, Gone Home, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, Firewatch, What Remains of Edith Finch, Enter the Backrooms, and even Death Stranding itself. The term "Walking Simulator" was used as an insult for many years, but despite the online haters, the genre won the battle, firmly established itself among us, and found a powerful ally in the Backrooms creepypasta.
Some Backrooms and other liminal space projects bet on supernatural horror and jumpscares to send our pulse sky-high, but Pools doesn't do that. In fact, its form of terror is much more "human" so to speak: darkness, sounds, echoes, confined spaces, and above all, getting lost.
Pools: Explore, Listen, Get Lost
Pools will feature a total of six chapters, each lasting between 10 and 30 minutes depending on the explorer's pace. There is no interface, no music, no notes from other players, no navigation guides. Its developer compares it to an art gallery, where we walk and go from one detail to the next. But that apparent lack of change is a lie. The sounds and echoes are different between rooms. Then comes the light, and the humidity in the air. Ultra-narrow hallways become huge spaces and vice versa. Objects that repeat, colored tubes that invite us to slide. Impossible angles and curves...
Pools offers a free demo on Steam, and the full game is expected to be available starting in April. Its developer doesn't rule out the possibility of updates, and other secondary aspects such as support for virtual reality headsets, but everything will depend on how good the public response is. Link below!
Download the Pools demo on Steam: Click here
Found it on: PC Gamer
