Backrooms:
The Project

Backrooms: The Project is a traversal puzzle game within a horror setting where you must escape from a bizarre building. You explore the seemingly endless corridors and rooms for items and clues on how to use them, and must gradually figure out the way out. It stands out for the unusual, uneasy setting, and how this adds an underlying tension to every interaction.

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The game is inspired by the Backrooms internet trend popularised by videos on YouTube, where people create CGI clips of endless office complexes and monsters that you never quite glimpse. You explore the bizarre building, all the while looking over your shoulder at the shadows, always unsure if there's something there or not. By finding items scattered around, you must figure out a way to escape back to your reality.

Play is like an escape-room puzzle, where you use the items you find and clues written on walls to help you figure out the way to escape. Many of the items you collect at first seem useless, but by paying attention to your surroundings you can figure out the use of each one. Moving a box to a new location may allow you to jump on it to reach a new area, or a tape played on a TV may help you understand what to do next. All the while, creatures in the shadows appear to move and follow you, and you need to ensure you don't get caught.

The result is a game that uses its setting and influences to underpin every interaction with a sense of unnerving tension. Solving the puzzles before you is a challenge that rewards careful thought and patience and makes for engaging fun for those who love horror films and scares.

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Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Backrooms: The Project a year ago. It was re-examined by Ellen Robertson and updated 5 months ago.