Liminalcore
Shadow Owl Studios · 2024 · Walking Simulator, Psychological Horror, Atmospheric, Exploration, Adventure
PC
Very Positive83% · 705
Compare prices in Official Stores
Screenshots
About Liminalcore
Descend into the Depths of the Unknown
A man gasps for air as he surfaces from water—only to find himself trapped in a room of white tiles and endless pools. This is Level 37, the Poolrooms, a place where the familiar dissolves into the unknown.In this surreal journey, you will explore spaces that exist between worlds—hauntingly empty, disturbingly quiet, and yet strangely familiar. As you traverse these liminal spaces, fragments of a life long gone begin to surface: objects from a forgotten past, memories of a home now lost, and moments that echo through the corridors of time.But this is no ordinary journey. It is the final journey—the descent of a soul lost to water, drowning in both regret and uncertainty. The further you explore, the deeper you’ll plunge into the uncanny, until finally, you reach the ultimate destination: Hell itself.Can you maintain your sanity and escape the surreal nightmare?
Mechanics
- Minimal Entities, Maximum Atmosphere
The focus of the game is not on battling monsters, but on immersing yourself in the eerie, liminal environments. Entities are rare—what you must confront is the unsettling emptiness, the echoes of your past, and the strangeness of these in-between worlds. - VHS Filter Toggle
For an added layer of surreal horror, players can toggle the VHS filter on or off, transforming the game's visuals into a distorted, analog nightmare reminiscent of old found-footage tapes. - Exploration-Focused Gameplay
You will be piecing together fragments of the protagonist’s life and death, all while navigating eerie, transcendent spaces that blur the line between reality and nightmare.
A Journey Through Liminal Spaces
The game will take you through four haunting locations, each one more surreal than the last. These spaces are not just backdrops but represent stages of the protagonist’s life, memory, and descent into madness.- Level 37 (Poolrooms)
The journey begins here, in a place of endless, reflective water. Pools stretch infinitely, white tiles gleam under harsh lighting, and the sound of distant water echoes throughout. - Faded Memories
An in-between space that serves as a bridge between different levels, filled with fragmented memories of a life once lived. Here, you’ll encounter glimpses of a home, an old neighborhood, and other key locations from the protagonist's past. - The Infinite Stairs
An endless descent into the dark. The further down you go, the heavier the air becomes, and the more claustrophobic the space feels. Each step takes you deeper into the unknown. - Hell
The final destination, where twisted visions of the past collide with the horrors of the afterlife. Dark, fleshy walls pulsate, the air is thick with despair, and shadows seem to watch your every move.
Inspiration
This game is heavily inspired by Jared Pike’s Poolrooms, a vision of liminal spaces that blend reality and nightmare with disorienting tranquility. We've also drawn influence from the Backrooms mythos, particularly the eerie depictions from creators like Kane Pixels and The Librarian, whose work with liminal spaces and unnerving voids shaped the atmosphere of the game.- "The familiar becomes unfamiliar, and the deeper you go, the more you lose yourself."
In this game, there are no clear enemies. There is only you and the places you once knew—now twisted, empty, and eternal. Each step forward is another step down, into the depths of the unknown.
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
Decently enjoyable poolrooms/liminal space exploration game. Took me 4 hours to get all the achievements. I think there are better alternatives out there but if you like these kind of liminal exploration games then I would still recommend it. Some thoughts [light spoilers]: - Some of the levels were huge so I think you get decent bang for your buck. - Has some hilarious assets. - Has a bunch of decent jumpscares and creepy areas. - Some of the levels featured huge open rooms with playplaces. To me personally they didn't work that well as uncanny playgrounds, because they felt like they could be real. I think the poolsy level did a better job at feeling liminal. - Some of the levels have very basic wall colors. This can work when used in certain areas, but when repeated too often it then felt like rushed design. -The overall graphics could have been better, I've seen similar games that I found more impressive in this regard. The lighting often came out of nowhere and had reflections that didn't make sense. All the while video card was working very hard. - Got very confused when chapter 5 came after chapter 3. - I got stuck and used the unstuck option and it put me in th…1 found this helpful
It's decent but somehow less enjoyable as the levels go on. Could definitely have gone without the Pepe frogs also. Really hated the setting in most of Chapter 4 since it felt out of place for this type of game. Still, the first couple levels and parts of the rest are pretty great. Graphics are fantastic but it really works the GPU. No real entity encounters or jump scares apart from some environmental movement and creepy statues. Achievements are pretty straightforward and you're likely to get them all if you play to explore and not to rush to the finish line. Lots of adjustable settings to make it your own experience, which is honestly what pushed this from "I dunno" to "recommend" for me. VHS grain, fisheye effect, head bobbing, movement speed, etc. It's all there. Worth it especially if it goes on sale. 3/51 found this helpful
frog nice and flower
10/10 An incredible backrooms experience! It has a lot of twists and turns that I didn't expect and many areas that I never thought we would visit... I'll leave it at that. It is more on the linear aspect of backrooms games, so don't expect total and full exploration. Think of it more as a "moving art exhibit". Highly recommend if you are a fan of backrooms content. Bonus points if you take an edible beforehand.
Starts strong but loses direction towards the end. Perhaps I am biased as someone who prefers Poolrooms content over any other liminal spaces, but this game's levels seem to become less and less compelling the further in you get. Of particular frustration was chapter 3, which involves big wireframe mazes. Not only are they not terribly fun or interesting, but they also obliterated my framerate, which was otherwise fine in the rest of the game.
Feels like a very lazily made game, to be honest. There's tons of texture seams caused by automatic texturing processes that would have been easily fixed, and their presence tells me that this wasn't playtested well at all. It feels like very little care was put into the smaller details, or even the medium sized details. The movement, even on its maximum setting, is excruciatingly slow. I genuinely can't imagine why someone would play on the lowest setting, unless their only other option was to watch paint dry. This is made entirely worse by each area being large and having nothing to do in it except walk through it. The architecture isn't interesting enough to make the very slow trek through waist-high water, which for some reason you're incapable of sprinting in no matter what, and any landmarks feel small compared to the rooms they're in. Any points of interest are usually separated by minutes of walking through a big ass room with water that prevents you from going any faster than a snail's pace. Then when you do find something that looks interesting, it doesn't do anything, because it's just there to look at, I guess. There's a weird lack of sound effects, too. Where you wo…
Community reviews
—
0 reviews
Sign in to write a review.
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this game.
