The Backrooms are certainly one of the most surreal stories to have graced readers’ screens for a long time. The urban legend is based on a simple question: given that there is a human simulation, what if a person clipped out of reality and into the unloaded areas of the map? The “Backrooms” refer to those unloaded, subliminal areas that seem oddly familiar to viewers as if they’ve explored them in a dream. The Backrooms are often depicted as endless maze-like hallways that are tinted yellow from floor to ceiling. That said, since the popularity of the urban legend has skyrocketed, fans have built on that setting and created other subliminal “levels” of the Backrooms.
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Inside The Backrooms is just one of a handful of indie horror games based on the concept of the Backrooms. Since the game’s release, it’s quickly become one of the most popular games based on the Backrooms. With four-player co-op and decent graphics (given the game is still in early access), Inside The Backrooms also sheds its own spotlight on some of the chilling entities that are rumored to stalk those unfortunate enough to be trapped in the Backrooms.
5 Entity 110: The Carnivorous Balloon
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Entity 110, known as the Carnivorous Balloon, truly encompasses fear in what is familiar. While it may appear to be a harmless balloon at first glance, if players get too close to it, it latches on and attacks with a gnarly jumpscare.
Although the entity’s jumpscares are sudden and jarring to players, at the end of the day, Entity 110 is just a hostile red balloon. While it might be unnerving to see something so familiar amidst the fear of the unknown within the Backrooms, the Carnivorous Balloon’s simple design doesn’t have the same scare factor as some of the other entities hidden in Inside The Backrooms.
4 Entity 8: The Hound
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Entity 8, known as The Hound, is one of the entities that players run into most often within Inside The Backrooms. This entity resembles a disheveled humanoid figure that walks all on fours, similar to a dog or a caveman.
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In-game, players need to maintain eye contact with The Hound in order to put distance between the creature and themselves. The entity is intimidated by the eye contact and won't bound toward players if they're staring straight at it. Being forced to look at this creature, not knowing if it'll run towards the player staring at it anyway, builds more terror inside the player than the humanoid entity's eerie but plain design.
3 Unknown Entity: Bacteria
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If players were unnerved by the mechanical Siren Head, they'll be just as frozen in fear by the lanky, wiry creature known as the Unknown Entity. This entity, dubbed "Bacteria" by its creator, Kane Pixels, is tricky to come across within Inside The Backrooms if players are relying on proximity chat or even just being in the same voice call as others to communicate while playing.
This entity is attracted to radio signals, meaning that players who are using the in-game walkie-talkies to communicate have to limit their communication or suffer the consequences. While this entity may be easy to avoid, the paralyzing fear to players who are communicating using walkie-talkies as to if and when Bacteria will spawn around them is chilling, especially in those dark hallways.
2 Entity 10: Skin-Stealers
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Entity 10, otherwise known as the Skin-Stealers, are tall, seemingly skinless, humanoid entities that peer through the darkness with two beady red eyes. Their mouths are long and horrifying, decorated with tiny sharp teeth built so that they can wear their victim's skin as a disguise.
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The concept of this skinless entity is horrifying in and of itself. However, being stalked by the tall entity within Inside The Backrooms and attacked with its jarring, chilling jumpscare only adds to the fear, particularly for those who already know the eventual fate of those the entity catches
1 Entity 3: The Smiler
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Entity 3, known as The Smiler, is by far one of the most horrifying entities in Inside The Backrooms. Not only is the twisted, toothy grin that the entity dons enough to give even the most fearless of players nightmares, but the way the entity spawns and lurks around each corner within the game makes its appearance far more chilling.
Players need to turn corners carefully and look down hallways before taking off, because Entity 3 could be right around the corner or further down the hallway, staring and smiling with its eyes and grin that pierce through the darkness. More than any other entity within Inside The Backrooms, Entity 3 will both terrify players and make them feel as though there truly is no escape from the monsters inside the endless maze in which players find themselves trapped.
Inside the Backrooms is currently available on PC.
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