Déjà vu…

Do you realize that you are in a very strange place? Everything around you seems normal and ordinary, but look closely. What do you see? Step by step, you’re back in the same place you started. Try it again. Look carefully around you. Back again? Then you missed something. Retrace your steps and find something strange in this picture of the world. Every detail and every inconsistency is important to break out of this senseless and frightening cycle. It’s not easy, but it’s important not to give up and to keep searching. The answers are always in front of you. Stop. Relax. Someone else besides you has been in this strange place and come out. So can you.

If you ever played the PT demo, you’ll remember how unique it was and it was gutting not to see it come to fruition in a full game. There have been a number of games that tried to imitate the success of it since and even a fan remake of the demo was made in Media Molecule’s Dreams.

The Exit Project: Backstreets doesn’t feature an endless corridor, but essentially puts you in an alley with a door behind you and one in front of you. The alley is normal at first but once you push forward through the first door, you’ll need to check to see if anything is different than you remember it. If you spot something out of place like it starts snowing, crows fly past or a message is written on the wall then you need to head to the door behind you to push forward.

You essentially have to get the right result 10 times in a row. One wrong door and you’ll be back to where you started, it’s a clever idea as you’ll be wracking your brains trying to think if anything is different or not. If it’s normal then you push through the door ahead, but if you see an anomaly then it’s time to turn around and use the back door.

There isn’t much of a narrative other than your character saying he needs to sort his life out, but first he needs to head to his apartment before getting stuck in the loop. Once you break out of it and go to sleep, it literally just says “To Be Continued”. Now I have to assume a sequel is in the works or additional content is to be added, but it just ends so abruptly you’ll wonder what it was all about.

I will say that the alley does look good and has some nice details to it. The anomalies can vary from subtle things that I didn’t even spot to not-so subtle things like its snowing, the number 666 is written everywhere or mannequins falling from the sky. The PS5 version has a superior framerate, resolution and load times, but I was still impressed with the PS4 version overall. If you can work out the right order well enough, you can earn a double Platinum very quickly.

The Verdict

The Exit Project: Backstreets is a curious one. It takes the PT idea but runs with a more “Spot the difference” approach to proceed. It isn’t particularly scary, but it does feel unsettling overall. The problem is the game’s length and whether or not more is coming after the abrupt ending. Time will tell with this one, but it’s a very easy double Platinum for trophy hunters.

Score: 6.0

Disclosure: I received a free review copy of this product from https://www.keymailer.co