Hey —

I don't usually write about games I'm mixed on. There's too much easy negativity out there. But Subliminal has been stuck in my head since I finished recording the video, and I need to sort out why.

The video is about 12 minutes. It covers the Backrooms origins, the light‑as‑physics mechanic, the Unreal Engine 5 visuals, and why the game stumbles in its second half.

But here's the shorter version – the one that didn't fit in the script.

The first hour is genuinely great

You wake up in a basement. Something is wrong with the walls. The lighting is off in a way you can't quite name. You find a lamp and realise you can pick it up, move it, cast shadows that change the geometry of the room.

That moment – when you first sculpt the environment with light – is magic. I haven't felt that kind of "oh, this is something new" since Portal.

The water park level is stunning. An enormous indoor complex, completely silent, everything slightly wrong. The game trusts you to be unsettled without throwing a monster at you. For about an hour, Subliminal is one of the best liminal horror experiences I've ever had.

Then the puzzles stop communicating

At some point, the game stops teaching you how to think and starts just expecting you to know.

You'll stand in a room for fifteen minutes, moving a light source one inch at a time, waiting for something to happen. No feedback. No "you're getting warmer." Just a wall that won't open and no way to know why.

The fear drains out. You're not scared anymore. You're just frustrated. And for a horror game, that's a death sentence.

I cut a whole paragraph about the checkpoint system from the video because it felt too nitpicky. But honestly? Dying during a chase sequence and getting sent back ten minutes – not because it was hard, but because the game didn't communicate what it wanted – made me quit twice.

The chase sequences are the wrong kind of hard

There's one in particular – a bounce house sequence – that feels completely at odds with the quiet, atmospheric tension of the first hour. It's loud, repetitive, and unforgiving. I watched a streamer fail it seven times in a row. Not because she was bad. Because the game's rules weren't clear.

The developer, Sven, has been reading every Steam review and patching aggressively. That's commendable. But some of the design friction feels baked in.

Why I'm still thinking about it

And I get it. When the light mechanic works, it feels like you're breaking reality. The visuals are extraordinary – real‑time ray tracing in an indie horror game, and it actually runs well. The story of Caleb, pieced together through fragmented memories, is genuinely intriguing.

This is a first episode. Episode 2 is in production. And Sven is listening.

Subliminal isn't a failure. It's a flawed beginning. And sometimes those are the most interesting ones to watch.

What's next

Next video is already in the works – another nostalgic deep dive. The Slender Man doc is still coming, I promise.

If you've played Subliminal, hit reply. Did the puzzles work for you, or did they drive you crazy?

– Respwnz

P.S. The Subliminal video is here: Subliminal