Publisher Feardemic and developer Steelkrill Studio announced that their found footage survival horror game The Backrooms 1998 would be leaving Early Access on PC via Steam and would be releasing for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch. Gematsu shares that the Early Access release was made available on May 25, 2022 and that a firm release date on consoles has not been set at this time.

The setting of The Backrooms 1998 is a vast and seemingly endless network of office-like rooms, structures and hallways; a true liminal space. You assume the role of a teenager who has accidentally fallen into depths of the backrooms and must navigate the labyrinth-like structure while fighting against supernatural monstrosities.

Ryan Portelli, developer on The Backrooms 1998 was interviewed by Medium and had this to say when asked about his experience as being the sole developer on the project “…I would say the biggest difficulties would be not when you are developing the game, but after the game will be released — because then you will see many different people playing it and that is when you will start seeing glitches, bugs, errors and such being reported by players and it is the most difficult because you have to do everything in a hurry to try and fix the problems yourself, and sometimes fixing one problem will lead to another one showing up.”

The Backrooms 1998 implements an in depth stamina system, limiting player ability to outrun threats and features a spray gun to help you keep track of your location. Save locations are limited to save rooms.

The Backrooms 1998 will likely reignite interest upon its full release; The game pays it’s respects to classic horror game elements but even more so pays favor to a youthful and exciting wave of horror culture primarily seen online in recent years.