A liminal spaces photography game about navigating familiar spaces with eerie atmospheres.
I first played this game very shortly after it released, and it was very much an experience like no other for me. For as many games as there are that play around with the liminal, only one other game has ever really toyed with the idea of making photography the main gameplay adjective, and that really sucks because both of these games are incredible.
Unlike INFRA however, you don’t have to worry about any form of resource management. While you still have to crank the film in your analogue camera, you don’t ever have to worry about running out of film or batteries. The whole game is about exploration and taking pictures, and I’m honestly thankful that they let those elements take the main focus instead of having to gather and manage resources. Technically you do have a limit in that the game can only store 10,000 photographs, but considering the bare minimum to complete the game is somewhere in the range of 150, and the achievement for taking way too many photos pops at 1k, this limit does not matter.
You start the game driving somewhere. Don’t know where, donesn’t really matter where. All that matters in this instant is that you need to refuel, so we’ll pull into this service station and… uh… there is nobody here? Well, lets look around.
After finding the camera, you find yourself in a parking garage. It’s very run down, the pipes are droopy, entire chunks of the concrete structure is breaking. Just another normal day in Stalberg I suppose. This time though, we aren’t looking for infrastructural failures (though you can still take pictures of them if you want.) We’re looking for points of interest. Curious things that are worth taking pictures of, marked by a ghostly dust cloud and a heartbeat sound. Everything you want to find is cued by a visual effect and sound, which is very nice, since that was not a feature when I played the game early on.
There are 4 different tasks to do on each level. The main goal, and only required task is to find all the POIs and reach the exit. The other optional tasks include finding all the secrets (which are aliens, cued by glitching effects nearby), finding new filters for your camera (cued by letterboxing), and delivering the tape to the tape player (cued by analogue artifacting.)
Mechanically describing this game does not do it justice. This entire game is built on that feeling of liminal tension. That feeling that you’re in a horror game, despite there being nothing out to get you, and basically no way to die. I’m less of a fan of the new spooks they’ve added, such as people walking around and disappearing around corners as you approach, but those don’t put me off how compelling the rest of the atmosphere is. The locales that were chosen fit absolutely perfectly into the theme of the game, most of the levels are inside spaces. A closed down mall, school after dark, an empty airport, hotel hallways.
They are all so run down. They feel like they’ve not been lived in for decades, yet the lights are still on and the water is still running. It’s such an eerie dissonance, and I am all here for it. What is the story of these places. Why is the ramp to the second floor parking collapsed, and how did a van get to the second floor despite that? Why is there one classroom that is just an empty room with jailbars and a single desk? What is the FBI doing in this suburb? There are so many interesting questions asked by the environment, and almost none of them get answered, and there is kind of a beauty in that. You’re here to explore and take pictures, not to investigate and look for answers you have no hope of finding.
Once you collect all your POIs and reach the exit, you’re taken to the next place. There isn’t really any coherence on how you get from place to place, but there doesn’t really need to be. You can also back out to the menu and visit previous levels if you missed anything, or just want to take more photos. You don’t need to beat the level to save any extra collectables you find.
The game has a hint system in the form of a compass that points towards the nearest uncollected POI or the exit if you’ve found them all. It can be handy if you’re lost or just missing one or two, but I’d recommend not using it until you’ve fully explored the place yourself. There are also a lot of easter egg rooms and puzzles, which require finding codes in one level, and using them to open the door in another level. I won’t judge you for looking up those codes though, all the gated areas are just easter eggs and achievements, not actual progression. Up to you.
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2207970 £8.50 (Demo available)
Itch.io: https://sodaraptor.itch.io/interior-worlds $9.99
Leave a Reply