BACKROOMS ANOMALY Review

Another Trip Down the Exit 8 Corridor, This Time in the Backrooms

BACKROOMS ANOMALY takes the "spot the difference and decide whether to turn back" formula popularized by Exit 8 and reskins it with Level 0 of the Backrooms: endless yellow-lit corridors, buzzing fluorescent lights, and the constant low hum of wrongness. Walk the loop, look for something that shouldn't be there, and choose to keep going or turn around. Reviewers were upfront about the lineage. One called it "Backrooms 8 Lite," and another put it more bluntly: "It's a re-skin of Exit 8, which is not a bad thing. Plenty of backrooms anomalies." A third summed up the whole pitch in one line: "Backrooms atmosphere + Exit 8 + anomaly horror + that constant 'something isn't right' feeling." Nobody in the review pool seemed surprised by what they were getting, the question that actually divides opinion is whether this particular take on the formula does enough with it.

Atmosphere Carries the Early Hours

Where BACKROOMS ANOMALY earns its keep is presentation. Reviewers consistently praised the visual and audio work even when they had complaints elsewhere. "I enjoyed it! Nice graphics and smooth gameplay," one wrote, and another credited the sound design specifically for keeping tension alive between anomalies: "The Backrooms atmosphere is genuinely unsettling and keeps you on edge without relying on constant horror... the occasional jump scare adds a fun surprise without becoming annoying or overused." That same reviewer drew a useful distinction that several others echoed in different words: "I wouldn't call it a horror game as much as an atmospheric anomaly-spotting experience." For players coming in expecting a slow-burn liminal-space mood piece rather than a jump-scare gauntlet, that framing lines up with what the game actually delivers, ambient dread punctuated by the occasional genuine scare rather than sustained horror pressure.

The Anomalies Themselves Split the Room

The core loop's difficulty is the most contested point in the review pool. Several reviewers found the anomalies too easy to clock, especially anyone with prior Exit 8-genre experience. "I really enjoyed it, but it did feel a bit too easy overall," wrote one, and a more seasoned genre veteran went further, calling it flatly "probably the worst anomaly game I've played" after completing all 30 anomalies on normal difficulty "without making a mistake while barely half paying attention." On the other side, several reviewers pushed back on the idea that it's a rehash with nothing new, one pointed specifically to variety and stakes: "I really enjoyed the variety of anomalies, some of which can be fatal, compared to other games in the genre. There's a nice balance between familiar Backrooms vibes and actually having to pay attention to your surroundings." A third reviewer split the difference, praising the design while flagging a real problem with the hard-mode implementation: "after 100%ing this... hard mode is just 2x than normal for anomalies and not actually harder." The takeaway is that the anomaly design is competent but not consistently well-calibrated, genre newcomers are more likely to find the tension the developer intended than players who've already burned through a dozen similar titles.

A Short Runtime That the Post-Launch Survival Mode Helps

Multiple reviewers clocked BACKROOMS ANOMALY at well under two hours for full completion, "2 hours only and i got every achievement" was typical, and one reviewer who 100%'d it called the base game "very short" and, on that day at least, "pretty boring" despite not regretting the price. The developer's response to that complaint is visible in the review history itself: a Survival Mode update landed after launch, adding a timed challenge mode requiring players to photograph multiple anomalies within a short window. One long-form reviewer who updated their review specifically to credit this described real improvement: "Since writing this review, the game has received several updates that improved it a lot. 20 new anomalies were added, including more creative and memorable ones, and the new Survival Mode gives the game much more replay value once you've learned the anomalies." Another reviewer praised the mode's difficulty directly: "The Survival Mode is surprisingly challenging, with a timer requiring you to photograph up to 2 or 3 anomalies within 50 or 60 seconds." For a game whose base campaign several reviewers finished in under an hour, that post-launch replay-value injection matters more than it would for a longer game.

Bugs, Achievements, and a Genre-Wide Price Complaint

The technical complaints are relatively minor but recurring. Several reviewers flagged achievement tracking as broken at various points ("no achievement progress is showing... just wish achievements weren't bugged"), and early anomaly detection had false positives ("there was an anomaly when there wasn't one, but the game's only been out a few days"). One reviewer reported a harsher technical issue that soured the whole experience: "the map kept flashing in and out. gave a headache trying to play." On value, opinion is again split largely along how much genre fatigue a given player brought in. Genre veterans were the most likely to call the $6.99 asking price steep for the content on offer, "the price is high for what you get even when it was on sale... there are much better anomaly games out there," while more casual players and newcomers were comfortable with it, "for the price I can't complain."

Developer Engagement Earns Real Goodwill

A recurring, unprompted point across multiple reviews is that liminal_games is visibly responsive and already working on a sequel. "Greatest part is the DEV cares about their work. Had one stop into my stream of it and asked for input," one reviewer wrote. Several others mentioned an upcoming Poolrooms-set follow-up with genuine anticipation, "can't wait for pool rooms" and "I saw you are also doing the POOLS next, pretty excited about that" were both common sentiments. That goodwill doesn't retroactively fix the base game's thinness, but it colors how reviewers frame their criticism, more as notes for the next installment than as reasons to steer people away entirely.

Verdict

BACKROOMS ANOMALY doesn't pretend to reinvent the Exit 8 formula, it borrows it wholesale and dresses it in convincing Backrooms atmosphere, competent sound design, and a handful of genuinely unsettling anomalies. What holds it back is inconsistency: the difficulty curve satisfies newcomers far more than genre veterans, the base campaign is short enough that several players finished it in under two hours, and a cluster of minor bugs, most notably broken achievement tracking, chip away at the presentation. The post-launch Survival Mode update meaningfully extends the game's legs and shows a developer actually listening to feedback, which several reviewers credited directly. At $6.99 it's a reasonable if unremarkable entry in an increasingly crowded subgenre, worth a look for Backrooms fans and anomaly-hunting newcomers, less essential for anyone who's already mastered a half-dozen similar games.