POOLS

Playing in VR while stoned is the definitive way to experience POOLS.

POOLS is not a game for people who are afraid of darkness, tight spaces, silence… or suspiciously large amounts of indoor water. You wander through a bizarre collection of flooded rooms, corridors and impossible architecture heavily inspired by the Poolrooms side of the Backrooms universe. And despite the name, very little of it actually feels like a normal swimming pool. Instead, you find yourself drifting through places where nobody can hear you, nobody can see you, and every room feels like something your brain assembled during a particularly strange fever dream. If you're into atmospheric games or already enjoy Backrooms-style experiences, you probably know the feeling: every corner looks like it's about to contain something horrible. But nope. No monsters. No jumpscares. No creature chasing you through the hallways. Just you, the water and an increasingly questionable amount of tiles. And honestly? That's exactly what makes it work. POOLS is almost weirdly relaxing at times. It's basically the perfect evening game if you want to switch your brain off for a while, but Farming Simulator still sounds like too much responsibility. Despite its surreal envi…

I liked going down the slides, that was the best part. Also, the furniture, and wasn't expecting all of that in level zero. It was cool. I did my best to explore every area before going to the next level (I'm pretty good at navigating). Not a huge fan of the shifting perspectives. but that's just me. On the postiive side, the shifting perspective did remind me of the old cartoons. Which is cool, but this game is both spooky, but more mysterious, and I love finding things I didn't expect to find. Also, I'm convinced the duck is alive.

If you want to shut off your brain and explore, then this is the game for you. I've only played through the first two chapters right now but it's nice to put on some liminal music and hop into the VR mode and just roam. It's calming, relaxing, and not boring because you still have an objective despite not really having to try for it. It's obviously not for everyone, but if you really do just want to check out some cool areas, then you'll surely enjoy this game.

It's hard to say why I like this game. Nothing much happens. There are no monsters. I generally enjoyed walking/running through and looking at everything. It's a vibe. There's more to see than what I saw, due to branching paths, but it would be hard to take alternate paths on a new playthrough, as the room sequencing doesn't make any sense to begin with, so it's hard to remember which path I took last time. Let's see... last time I took the path that had tiled walls and pools, so this time I'll....I'll uh.... There's exactly one time in one level when the branches are labeled. Despite this, it's also somehow difficult to get lost, even in one of the handful of grid-mazes. I would actually recommend this more to people who DO get scared easily, as you'll have more of a thrill than anyone else.

Game is exactly what you expect it to be. No superflous gameplay mechanics.