Escape the Backrooms is a cooperative horror video game developed by Fancy Games and Blackbird Interactive and published by Secret Mode. It was officially released on 23 October 2025, for Windows, after an early access version released on 11 August 2022. The game was released on PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series on 28 May 2026.
Development
Escape the Backrooms released in early access on 11 August 2022, on Steam. The game left early access on 23 October 2025. After the full release of the game, a separate release for Xbox and PlayStation would come out on 28 May 2026.
Gameplay
Set in the Backrooms, a fictional liminal space location, up to four players can explore the 30+ unique levels in the game.
Players begin in the yellow-colored level 0 and explore to find exits of it and each subsequent level. Players can sprint and find items such as flashlights and food on most levels. Players can use the food items to manage sanity, a tracked stat that results in the death of the player if it drops to zero.
Players encounter entities throughout the game, most of which are a threat. The most common entities are "smilers," which are found in the dark, "skin stealers," which resemble the player, and "hounds," which are dog-like creatures with human faces. Most entities can be avoided or fought off.
Reception
The game received a largely positive reception from players, with it being praised for its amount of content, sound design and enjoyable multiplayer experience. It was described as one of the six best horror games that may have been missed by players in 2022 by Luiz H. C. of Bloody Disgusting. After the full Windows release, the game surpassed 30,000 concurrent players in under two days.
Mark Delaney of GameSpot rated the game a 6/10. He described the gameplay loop as "sparse," though enjoyed the appearance and experience of finding new levels.
However, many players have criticized the game as being too repetitive, having animations of poor quality and are frustrated by the lack of communication from the main developer, Fancy.
