I am 39 years old, so given my age, Liminal spaces as a meme and viral horror theme didn’t hit me like it has for younger generations. So I was pleasantly surprised by Liminal Exit, which is highly themed around Liminal spaces, but provides familiar, creepy locations along with fun logic puzzles to entertain. The game offers you no UI overbearing your view, the game wants you to focus on your surroundings and try to find “anomalies”. The game is played from a first-person perspective and utilizes the body cam fisheye distortion effect, as well, to provide a realistic tilt to your first-person movement.
There are no NPCs or characters other than your goal that is communicated with you at the start through the levels on a screen by someone or something called S.A.M., asking you to either find all anomalies or be stuck here permanently, or as the game says, your reward will be permanence. You select a floor on the elevator, find the anomalies on that floor, and avoid the “Entity” that is following you. Now, while there is much to do here, the game’s focus is on you being aware of your surroundings and is a walking simulator at heart. However, this does not mean the game is linear like most walking simulator-type games; the story is non-linear, and how you make it to the end is apparently up to you, although I only played through the entire game once.
You must closely watch each floor, and you will return to it and be asked if anything has changed, is out of place, or other oddities you have seen. Once you return to the elevator, you must make a choice: Is there an anomaly? Have things changed? Or not? If you choose incorrectly, you might be brought back down a floor; if you choose correctly, then you will move on as S.A.M. tests you again and again on each floor. S.A.M. also makes it clear there is no use in trying to communicate with them, or it, their only purpose is to observe you.
An Immersive Experience
As I mentioned before, there is no HUD or interface, no dialogue, and each floor has the perfect type of music in the right spots to immerse you even further. There is a very nice focus on sound design that helps you find anomalies and keep tension high. I don’t get scared in games and movies much at all, but I can definitely see those who are easily scared having some fun jump scares with this one! Different locations also change your movement speed, like obvious things such as walking in water, but also the anomalies, gravity, and more will affect things. I don’t want to spoil things, so I will leave it at that.
Looking at the game’s history, it provided a demo for people to play and provide feedback on through development, and I can see a lot of fantastic community feedback that was implemented. The team at LittleRedDread seems to have their ear close to the community so I fully expect further improvements and additions from this indie team. The team also opened early release testing to anyone interested in the community, showing an open approach to launch and beyond. I did not have any major bugs or issues with my time from start to finish, taking me just over 2 hours to finish the experience. It seems to be running on Unreal Engine 5 and ran fine on my system, but check the requirements just in case you don’t reach them.
Liminal Dread
I found it interesting that the game begins outdoors, in a foggy, almost industrial setting that feels like an entirely different game, and as you explore each floor of the building you enter, I found these locations becoming more colourful and vibrant than where we began. Each floor was unique and their sometimes colourful and bright nature made some almost unsettling to be in. While I may not be easily scared, I do enjoy immersive, creepy, and atmospheric settings, and this game delivers that with each floor or “level”.
I found the game to be a fun and immersive experience. If you are all in on Liminal Spaces as a horror or creepy setting, then you will definitely enjoy this experience when it releases on August 7th on Steam! On Steam, the game has achievements, cloud saves, controller support and more integration with Steam that you enjoy with most of your games.
Check out our video review here for a closer look at Liminal Exit:
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