Pools Spiel

by Rian

There is a new subgenre of horror which most horror lovers would have already seen one way or the other — liminal horror. Some of the liminal spaces went viral online, such as the Backrooms, for invoking sense of eeriness or uncanniness to the space itself. It is an acquired taste, even in the world of horror.

I happen to have soft spot for 70s to 90s aesthetics (e.g. Stranger Things). As liminal horror is ‘make it or break it’ type, it roughly translates the aesthetics of Pools worked to certain degree: the tiled floorings and walls I often saw in old university buildings, the doors that either led to nowhere or looped back, the spaces that are either empty or unused for no reasons, the furnitures and aesthetics that are unreasonable, and etc. It matches the questions I’ve had. In fact, a lot of them happen to match what I had seen in South Korea back in the 90s.

If the aesthetics did not do the trick, — hopefully the demo established the general idea — it is simply best to stay away. Pools focus on escaping each levels, total of 7, including the one unlocked after the ending. There are no enemies or jump scares, at least not the level that are hostile toward the player.* As a protagonist who is trapped in a surreal world, the gameplay primarily focuses on studying and admiring the level design.

* I put in the asterisk, because I’ve seen some streamers do get jump scared even on the slightest cues.

The game tries to avoid rehashing the same elements as much as it can per level — from being a mere indoor pools, it shifts to slightly different colored pools, adding different pool slides, adding a sauna zone, and etc. But it ultimately led me to become accustomed to the design language of the labyrinth too quickly after the first level. I can’t quite put a finger on what caused it, perhaps it’s the level layout itself, but it felt as though the first level was the largest or the most complex. And all the other levels that came after felt linear in some extent.

I won’t say much about the optimization issues, as I understand it to be an indie game. However, there is something to be said about the layout for the keyboard. There is no reason for the player to walk as slow as s/he does in the game. There is no stealth against an enemy, and there is no puzzle. The sheer volume of supposed architecture is intimidating enough to become its own symbol. And running speed is quite slow in the scale of these architectures. The fact that I have to hold down shift at all times, which I later switched over to space for my finger got tired, makes me wonder how it was meant to be.

Conclusions: First-Level Wonder

If the first level of Pools peaks your interest, I can recommend giving it a go. Liminal space being an acquired taste, if the demo passes the bar of “playable”, the rest of the horror language would work. The parts I have problem with, the later levels being easier, are not necessarily game breaking; for a walking sim horror, easier simply means less intense. However, it does mean the game becomes less enticing; eeriness and uncanniness in the environment are becoming comprehensible pattern. If you are shopping for a liminal horror that is not a Backrooms, Pools would make a contender.