The Backrooms is a remarkably unique horror concept, and Inside The Backrooms captures its terrifying tone and atmosphere incredibly well. Each level of the game replicates well-known aspects of the Backrooms lore, placing players in seemingly familiar environments designed with just the right amount of disturbing imagery, unusual emptiness, and unnerving noises that will keep even the most hardened horror fans on edge. The constant buzzing from the lights of the first level makes things particularly chilling, and it’s hard to describe the absolute terror of opening a door and coming face to face with an entity for the first time.
Inside The Backrooms revolves primarily around solving a series of puzzles to progress, while also avoiding various entities roaming around the Backrooms. Things aren’t made easy for the player, however, and successfully avoiding the entities will require care and probably some trial and error. Make sure to keep these tips in mind in order to survive and escape the Backrooms.
8 Move Cautiously, Don’t Rush Around
Inside The Backrooms has fairly harsh movement mechanics, and players can sprint, but only for a very short period of time before the stamina bar is exhausted. The walking speed is admittedly a little slow, but it’s better to be cautious when progressing through the levels. The environments will be very unfamiliar and strange, and things may not always go as expected.
Entities can often be found in surprising places or may appear suddenly with little warning. In these cases, running will likely be the only thing that will prevent death, and a player having no stamina because they got too impatient will almost certainly mean a death sentence.
7 Use Your Supplies Sparingly
Inside The Backrooms gives players two main forms of supplies, those being almond milk to replenish health and anti-anxiety meds to manage sanity. Both are a real necessity, as it’s easy to lose health, almond milk will keep players alive. Similarly, should insanity become too high it becomes extremely difficult to continue, as high insanity blurs the screen, impairing vision and movement significantly.
Players will find that these two items will quickly become very valuable, so make sure not to waste them. Try not to use them unless necessary and preserve health and sanity as much as possible to ensure success.
6 Explore Areas Thoroughly
It’s important that players take their time and explore the levels fully when playing. The levels are extraordinarily well-designed, and it’s worth looking around to get fully immersed and appreciate the environmental design and terrifying but impressive levels. Investigating in detail the areas that are available to explore helps add to the atmosphere a great deal and makes the game that much scarier.
Additionally, there are things to find hidden around parts of levels, often in corners and spaces that are easily overlooked. Most often, these will be supplies to replenish your health and sanity meters. The supplies found by exploring might be extremely helpful and could very well save players from death.
5 Stick Close To Friends
Though Inside The Backrooms can be played solo, playing cooperatively with friends is great fun and just as terrifying as everyone collectively attempts to evade the entities. The enigmatic and maze-like nature of many of the environments players will be exploring means that getting separated from friends is easier than one might think, especially in the first level, where it quickly gets hard to figure out exactly where you are, or even where you’ve been.
For those playing in coop, extra care must be taken to not get separated from each other. Being split up will make things much harder, and the chances of an entity picking off isolated players are much higher than if everyone manages to stay together. Should players get separated, make sure to retrace everyone’s steps to find each other as soon as possible.
4 Listen For Unusual Noises
The first sign that an entity is nearby will often be a distinct noise of some kind that they make as they roam around the Backrooms. It is vital that players keep an ear out for these noises, as there is a very small window to escape from entities once they’re nearby. This can be somewhat tricky, given that the game constantly plays ambient noise to keep players on edge, but the noises made by entities are fairly distinct and shouldn’t be too hard to identify.
3 Examine Puzzles Rigorously
Some of the puzzles that players will have to solve in order to progress can be somewhat tricky, but none are ridiculously overcomplicated or difficult. Each can be solved with some logic and a few minutes of thinking, made easier if playing with friends. Most importantly, the game gives players the information needed to solve the puzzles – they must simply be looked for.
Thoroughly examining the areas surrounding the puzzles should reveal the clues that will help players figure out the answer. For example, the elevator puzzle may seem odd, but the answer isn’t hard to figure out if players look a little closer at nearby walls. Additionally, during puzzles entities are unlikely to be an issue, so players can relax a little.
2 Read Notes Carefully
Dotted around the levels will be various cabinets, usually filled with supplies, but also with notes and files explaining various aspects of the game and detailing information about the entities. Make sure to read these notes carefully, as they will undoubtedly make a difference when it comes to surviving the Backrooms.
For example, many files on the entities contain descriptions of how to tell when they’re nearby or guidance on how to deal with certain entities. Some entities behave very differently and respond to player actions in various ways, so it’s important to try and learn as much as possible about them.
1 Run If Spotted
Though it may sound obvious, keep in mind that players cannot fight back against the entities in the game. For most encounters, the best option is always to run and find a safe spot to hide. The good news is that this shouldn’t be too hard if players are able to see or hear entities coming before they get too close. There are some exceptions – the entity that crawls on all fours can be scared away if players stand their ground, but there are no real ways to hurt or kill the entities.
Inside the Backrooms is currently available on PC.