Let’s face it, it feels like more often than not the indie horror game scene on the Switch has been scraping the bottom of the barrel. Whether the core problems revolve around threadbare core gameplay with jumpscares thrown in, funky controls, a lack of real content beyond a plain mazelike area to get lost in, or all of the above, the lack of overall effort has begun to show far too often. Now with Backrooms: Poolrooms it feels like the formula has been even further diluted than before, failing to even deliver on a scary antagonist to run from.

If you’ve played a few games like this over the years, the formula should be pretty familiar. Dropped into an odd environment, and provided with pretty minimal instruction, you’ll be wandering around looking for [insert item here] while trying not to get killed by [insert monster here]. Aided by some odd notes you’ll run into while wandering around as a bare bones story, your main objective will be simply staying alive by avoiding your enemies and trying to get to a locker to hide in when they do manage to find you.

The one thing you can usually at least look forward to is some sort of scary monster roaming the area and looking to get you, but as little as Poolrooms offers, you won’t even get that. While the creatures hunting for you do at least sound creepy and perhaps a little scary, they also happen to be invisible outside of the moment they’re ready to strike and kill you. As low as my expectations for this sort of game have become, I find it shocking that a title has managed to come along and sink even lower.