Having played and reviewed so many indie games on the Switch, I’ve really tried my best to avoid becoming too jaded. My goal is to approach every new title with fresh eyes and positive expectations, but in some genre spaces that has continued to be more of a challenge because so many titles are simply too much alike in them. Survival horror, unfortunately, has proven to be one such genre, and while The Backrooms 1998 may have a slightly different setup and setting, its overall style of play simply feels all too familiar.

One thing the game does do pretty well is to establish a visual style and then stick with it. Starting out with your character taking some video of a friend skateboarding, anyone who grew up in the 80s will immediately recognize the general look of home movies shot on video. What’s smart is how that visual style then carries over into the active game’s overall aesthetic, still having that imperfect shot-on-video look complete with scan lines, periodic specs of dust, and sometimes distorted light. Of course that’s also a convenient way to try to cover for the fact that most of the game’s spaces are quite empty and mostly identical, but we’re trying to find the wins where we can here.

What survival horror fans will also quickly recognize are also, unfortunately, a host of elements that can feel checked off of the genre checklist. Concerns with making too much noise and being found, periodic spots where you can try to hide, an abundance of maze-like hallways that look almost entirely the same, and a variety of creepy messages or items that try to amp up a sense of unease. The puzzles that you need to solve are also generally in line with your average title in the space, with some being better implemented than others, and some that will leave you scratching your head a bit. Granted, collectively these things do work, and you’d be challenged to not start feeling more tense as quick glances in your periphery and sudden sounds around you increase, but while the specifics may be different there’s still no escape from the feeling you’ve done this a few too many times before.

In the end, this is the sort of game where the fun is what you make of it. If you’ve only dabbled in survival horror titles, the experience should at least feel a little more fresh and fun, though undoubtedly on the unrefined side overall. If, however, the genre is old hat, you’re much more likely to get hit with a sense of familiarity that you can either embrace like a worn but warm blanket, or cast away as you look for something new. It’s stuck in the space of not being a terrible game while not being very inspired either, so depending on what you’re looking for, it could be a hit or a miss.