The Exit 8 is an Indie game which has taken the gaming community by storm. The game by Kotake Create is a walking simulator based in a Japenese subway. You play as someone looking to leave the building by getting to exit 8 (you start at Exit 0). Advancing up the levels is done by anomaly spotting. You really have to adjust to this and keep your eyes peeled at times some of these can be very difficult to spot. It takes a very short time to realise this game is a loop. The game uses its eeriness to creep the player out which makes us really second-guess every decision we make.
Pick a side
The game essentially works by the player being stuck in this loop. It’s up to the player to notice any anomaly in the environment. These can be completely obvious, like a literal waterfall chasing you out. Or perhaps something very specific like the writing on a sign changing. If you notice an anomaly, you should go back. When you do you’ll see the number on the yellow sign go up. The goal is to get to 8. When you do not see any anomalies, you should walk forward. If you were correct in thinking there were no anomalies, you will also be rewarded with the number increasing. However, any wrong decision will result in the number resetting all the way back to 0. This adds to the desperation of focusing hard on each area desperate not to miss anything. Every time I decided to walk forward, I never felt certain that there was no anomaly.
Eerie Environment
While what I have described may not instantly sound very scary, this game is really creepy. It achieves this through various methods. For starters, the sound in this game makes the player feel on edge. It’s pretty much silent except for the footsteps of you and the man who walks past you(more on him later). This adds to the sense of wanting to escape this place and hopefully reunite with society. This stressful, lonely feeling is added by security cameras and signs which make you feel like you’re perhaps not supposed to be there. Now onto the man. While you continue through the loop of hallways, you cross paths with a man holding a briefcase. His expression is muted, he has no dialogue and, unless if there’s an anomaly, he will do the same thing every time. This is a great way to heighten the tension as it feels like he’s part of this surveillance. This game really succeeds in making the player feel a bit claustrophobic and desperate to get out of this place.
Verdict
The Exit 8 is a fun near-horror experience. This game is all about its eerie atmosphere, as soon as you boot the game up, you are in. There are no menus or anything. Its looping Groundhog Day-esque style successfully makes the player feel claustrophobic and desperate to exit. The actual environment this game creates is probably the best part, despite it being so repetitive and minimal. It boosts the high stakes from the established tension by making any errors relegate you back to zero. The game does provide a fun and thrilling experience and allows you to get right in thanks to its simplicity. However, this simplicity does limit it to being a game that struggled to entertain for more than one evening or so. Though there is still a lot of content, you can finish the game 3 or 4 times over and there will still be anomalies you haven’t noticed before. Some of these anomalies are almost too tricky to spot. So much so that players believed there to be a glitch where there would be no anomaly but they were still penalised for going forward. Things like noticing the posters have gotten bigger might be a step too far for the game’s casual audience. Though overall, The Exit 8 definitely provides a good time. It’s simplistic and minimal yet very rewarding and immersive so for its low price, it’s worth a try.
