Platform 8 Spiel
I remember when Platform 8 came out, the indie market was already saturated with Exit 8-likes, especially with trains, trolleys, subways, and tubes — any kind of public transit that would be remotely reminiscent of liminality. In essence, Platform 8 is late in the game; subways and trains are already tried ideas as Exit-8 likes.
For reasons unknown, or maybe to avoid being compared against the predecessor altogether, the game is not at all like Exit-8. I would argue Platform 8 follows more traditional liminal horrors but with smaller environment. The player is supposed to survive and escape familiar yet eerie place. There is no mechanism such as turning back. The player must proceed forward and only forward. Studying an anomaly is crucial to survive its rules, but it is not anomalous in a way that is different from a “normal” car. It is simply a different game per car, much like the Squid Game.
With the help of the DualSense and the home theater system hooked up to the console, it was enjoyable to see lifelike anomalies, an area other indie games often chose not to venture into. However, as a standalone game, the gameplay has stalled to the point where I would call it a walking simulator with mini games in it. Some anomalies have high octane interactions than the others, and the game made sure to add more actively involved anomalies than the predecessor. Platform 8 works great as a tech demo or a portfolio, but at the end of the day, the player is merely walking through each cars.
Platform 8 is not perfectly optimized for consoles either. Though it takes advantage of the current generation technologies, one thing I noticed is its loading. Every time I move to a next car, there is a slight lag before the second sliding door opens. It wouldn’t be a problem in any other games, but Platform 8 runs on moving from one car to another. Considering the size of the game, I don’t understand why it couldn’t take full advantage of seamless loading.
Conclusions: Back to Car 0
Though Platform 8 is a prequel to The Exit 8, I wouldn’t put them in the same category. Ultimately, the player is not identifying safe or anomalous cars. The game builds a liminal horror with the established materials from The Exit 8, thus majority of the anomalies are no longer fresh. It is not to say the game has poorly executed the work, the execution itself is undeniable. As much as I enjoyed Platform 8 as the prequel to The Exit 8 and as a satisfying liminal space horror, I do wish the game had made more developments in either the genres or the series itself.