The Exit 8 is the most boring and terrifying video game I’ve ever played – Reader’s Feature

As Backrooms enters cinemas it’s not the only horror film based on liminal spaces, as a reader gets to grips with the game that the movie Exit 8 is based on.

I did things the wrong way round. Recently I went to see a Japanese horror film called Exit 8. Afterwards I found out that the movie I’d just watched was inspired by a video game, and so I decided to try it.

The Exit 8 begins with zero fanfare and no title screen. Played out in first person view, the game puts you in a white-tiled passageway with six billboards on the left side wall and three doors to the right. A yellow dividing line runs along the floor. On the other side of this line, a man in a light blue shirt carries a briefcase while he calmly walks towards you. An overhead sign provides direction by means of an arrow. Go straight ahead for Exit 8. Footsteps and the faint buzz of electric lights are the only backing track to your journey.

Play this game and you’ll get to know every detail of the location that I’ve described above. The Exit 8 presents a well-rendered impression of the Tokyo subway system. Primarily a walking simulator with basic controls, here you can look around, walk and run, and that’s about it. After completing three laps of the same passageway the real game begins and you’ll happen upon a new sign on the wall.

The Guide dispenses the following advice: don’t overlook any anomalies. If you find anomalies, turn back immediately. If you don’t find anomalies, do not turn back.

Further on there’s another sign that says Exit 0. After that you return to the same bland thoroughfare that you’ve negotiated three times already. But from now on you need to spot differences. Is the walking man behaving exactly as he did before? Those adverts, for the dental clinic, for the dog salon and for the photo exhibition. Has their size or content changed? Spot any differences anywhere along the passageway and you must turn back.

If you’ve been attentive, if you’ve rigorously followed the Guide’s advice, the next time you see the Exit sign the number on it will have increased. Overlook a change/anomaly and the Exit sign resets to 0. Initially starting over feels disappointing. However, as you ascend to the higher numbers, seeing Exit 0 after what you thought was a lengthy period of careful observation proves heartbreaking.

The Exit 8 messes with you in other ways. Because the gameplay here is fundamentally dull, specifically walking down the same passageway over and over again, you relax. You drop your guard. You wonder what the point is. There’s no interaction here. No stimulus, apart from the soft buzz of electric lights and the tapping resonance of footsteps. But just when you’re half bored to death and not entirely paying attention, an anomaly occurs.

Some of the deviations in The Exit 8 are fairly innocuous. A missing door handle. A weird smudge up on the ceiling. Other differences are sinister and creepy, and they make you want to turn around at once and hit that run button. A nearby door might creak open on its own. Those buzzing overhead lights could flicker and abruptly fail. Distant and indistinct figures appear and bring very real concerns. Are those onlookers ghosts? Can they hurt me?

Every so often The Exit 8 does its best to shock and disturb you. Every so often. That’s the key phrase to remember here.

Effective horror, in any game or film, needs moments of pause. You could argue that The Exit 8 has too many moments of pause, but the game’s repetition and banality does help to intensify its scares.

One of the anomalies in The Exit 8 scared me cold. A legitimate chill is the sort of pay-off every horror fan hopes for. That being said, this is also one of the dullest games that I’ve ever played. The Exit 8 probably works because of this duality. The game acts like the harmless, dopey labrador that you’ve reached down and patted countless times. And then, without warning, that same labrador shows you the whites of its eyes, bares its teeth and growls.

Exit 8 the film, directed by Genki Kawamura, adds an interesting narrative that the game doesn’t have. I found Exit 8 engaging and well directed, but more disturbing than scary.

If you’re interested in Japan and the horror genre then I’d recommend watching the film Exit 8. The game is definitely an acquired taste. I can imagine that this nightmarish outing on the Tokyo subway has ticked a lot of people off, while intriguing plenty of others.

At least the walking simulator is cheap and possibly worth a try if you fancy a gaming experience that’s utterly different. Finally, to offer up hope to anyone who’s just rounded a corner only to find their Exit sign back on 0, the game isn’t an infinite loop or an exercise in sadism. The Exit 8 does have an ending, and if you watch out for those pesky anomalies you might reach it.

By reader Michael Veal (@msv858)

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