backrooms Mainframe - REVIEW
LOOK, LISTEN, before I even start this review, I want you to understand that somehow the developer has managed to get it so that the “high quality” graphics look better than the “cinametic” graphics which is 2 levels above of it.
On top of that, the game has also managed to make my pc sound like it’s streaming ark to a 16k stadium screne while still looking “just alright” Like, i’m not kidding if I say that bitcoin mining is better for my fans than this game. This should set the tone for the review….
Into the backroom menus
To be completely honest, the main menu looks pretty damn nice. The animations are fluid, and the sounds and changing backgrounds are all nice touches.
But my man HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO FIT IN 50 SETTINGS MENUS WITHOUT HAVING A SINGLE AUDIO SLIDER??? Like you clearly know how to code in setting menus (Perhaps not working ones, but the idea is there) So what exactly is going on here?
Someone call nasa for their pc
If you're anything like me, you probably started the game with the cinematic settings, and jesus christ, I have never had a game lag on me that much. The most recent Call of Duty on ultra with ray tracing runs better than this dumpster fire.
This would be somewhat understandable if the game looked good, but it really doesn't. So we go down to epic, and while it feels significantly better, it now looks absolutely terrible. Let's go one lower to high to see how that does, and oh wait, it now somehow looks the best it has so far (still just alright) How does that even work?
Skinny demon is chasing you and mr Smiley has made you dinner.
On to the monsters we go, and my god are they BAD. Like, they are just the normal monsters featured in every backrooms game which makes sense, but why the hell are they so unfair? Got spotted by the tall black one? boom your done for, no way to outrun it or hide from it, and Mr Smiley? Oh he randomly can spawn inside of you and kill you without giving you even a single chance to avoid your faith, look I enjoy a challenge as much as the next person, but this is just a joke.
How is the gameplay?
Let’s see if we can find a positive, and yes, yes we can. The game, like most other backroom games, is quite scary. It has some good scares, such as when Mr. Smiley appears or when Fast McGee chases you out of nowhere, and the levels are quite nicely designed and show some potential, but aside from that it really is quite unrewarding, and a lot of the potential immersion sadly gets ruined by the terrible performance and unfairly programmed backroom creatures.
Aesthetic
Okay now the “backrooms aesthetic” In this game is in no way bad, the sound effects are quite nice, and while as I said earlier, the graphics are nothing impressive, they still manage to capture the backrooms aesthetic, and while wandering the endless corridors of the backrooms, you truly feel lost.
I however also mentioned that the immersion gets broken quite a bit by the unfair AI and the performance issues, so as you might expect, the aesthetic is having a hard time keeping you immersed, even though it isn’t bad in any way, it’s just being held back by all the other problems.
Conclusion
Fix what’s going on with the settings, add an audio menu, add some hiding spots or a way to outrun the creatures, add an audio menu, and work on the general immersion, and we have something going here; but at the moment you won’t run it more than once sadly. The developer does look like he is actively updating the game, however, so perhaps with a few more updates this game will be worth your money.
2.2/10.
We at NLM received a key for this game for free, this however didn’t impact our review in any way.