The Backrooms is a first-person, maze-style escape-room game inspired by 4chan creepypasta discussions. As dictated by internet stories, the player noclips outside of normal reality, or leaves the boundaries of reality, to explore a maze of "six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms." The eerie liminal office spaces feature an endlessly repeating appearance that includes old, moist, stinky carpets, mono-yellow colors and humming fluorescent lighting. The player's only goals are to find a portal to escape and earn points. That said, they might also need to deal with horrifying entities hidden throughout the spaces.
The game features three modes (Classic Mode, Deaf Mode and Free Mode). With Classic, the player wears headphones or earbuds. They receive five minutes to escape. Near the timer is a closed eyelid represented by a curved line that opens and helps direct them when they're near the portal. They use sounds, such as a young child's singing, to help guide them away from entities.
The Deaf Mode doesn't feature a timer or sounds. The player merely uses the eye and attempts to not become changed irreversibly by their journey. The Free Mode allows the player to walk through the rooms without a timer or eye. They're completely free to escape at their own pace.
The Backrooms presents the player with four difficulty levels (Easy - Dream, Medium - Sleep, Hard - Nightmare, and Backrooms). When the player escapes, they attempt to beat their last score by playing again.
