The Complex is a thorough exploration of the backrooms. Very atmospheric and I go VERY insane as I explore.
ARE YOU EASILY DISTRACTED? ►► open.spotify.com/show/2X40qLy...
Play The Complex ► store.steampowered.com/app/50...
Edited By ► / rad_r
And ► / lixiantv
Scary Games Playlist ► • Scary Games!
Horror Outro ► / haunted
I love Mark’s slow descent into madness about him missing something here, but in actuality that’s the exact experience this place is supposed to evoke lol
28:00 This is a moment I will laugh at forever
See -- they get it. Men are WEAK and can't handle scares, let alone monthly faux births
I can garuntee you I’m the future of KZhead come and see for yourself😎
@@yungblattt nooo
Indeed. A lurking monster would actually be welcoming in this scenario rather than being absolutely alone with your own mind.
Imagine being the monster stalking mark and just listening to him scream at nothing
"Just another one of those days"
@NO RUNNING ALLOWED what💀
@NO RUNNING ALLOWED what💀
@NO RUNNING ALLOWED what💀
@NO RUNNING ALLOWED huh? 🤨
"And you can just FEEL a cacophony of maybe hundreds of thousands and maybe millions of people that are just SCREAMING AT YOU. and your idiocy, you ever get that feeling??" Um, yeah, Mark, it's called anxiety.
@@okhhhuj how about i won't text you. Please shut the fuck up
@@mateuszweyna7309lol
I would like this comment but it's at 666 likes on a horror-esque video nonetheless. I can't ruin this
Ok
I hate that I’m better than all of you
"Is that hole meant for me? Is that my hole?" Every reminder that Mark knows about Amigara Fault is another bullet in my chest.
When does he say that?
@@stardino9475 12:00
I hate that story gave me nightmares for 2 weeks
Oh yeah that terrifying shit made by junji ito
@@cucumissativuss there's a lot of terrifying shit made by Junji Ito lol
Mark: Questions his moves. Questions what he saw, or thought he saw. Is unsure where to go, if there's a point, if he missed something. Double backing on himself. The Backrooms: Working as intended.
No need for any goofy additives it works because that's how it needs to.
Happy to provide the 666th like to this, for the darkest of ironic humor~
Is no one going to comment how horrifyingly natural everything was rendered? It was so real looking that it made the infinite construction even spookier
If you can get the texturing and lighting just right, you can make basically any inanimate shape look very realistic in a game nowadays. The structures in this game are almost all just flat boxes, aside from a few chairs and tables. Even the houses are too flat and angular if you look at them close, but the texturing and lighting make them very convincing. The film grain and the camera "lens" getting messier and smudgier as the game goes on certainly helped as well.
Yeah some of the areas almost looked like they were filmed with a camera
@@GoddoDoggo that comment is inspiring when you're scenebuilding in Garry's Mod XD
it’s because it’s real
it actually got a little too dark at times imo. you wouldnt have a dark area so close to a light area. bounce lighting takes care of that.
At my last job there was a series of backrooms built something similar to these games and when we were closed and no-one was there, it was probably the most mind-altering experience I have ever had. It's so quiet it hurts your ears, you literally start to see and hear things if you just stand in there and walk around and it feels like it takes forever to walk from one side to the other. It's a strange phenomenon.
What was the building?
Yeah, that's a person with anxiety's nightmare
@@NostalgiCrazywhat does it matter to you bro? 😂😂😂😂
@@vivianaatxxx512 Curiosity?
i think that my anxiety would still be lower working in backrooms alone vs my customer service job tbh what kind of job was it?
23:50 Holy shit i distinctly remember being in a green tiled pool room like this when I was a little kid, and for whatever reason the memory stuck with me. It had such an uncanny and.. isolated feeling to it exactly how everyone described the feeling of the back rooms. I’m so glad someone else had that experience and tied it into a back rooms game. Something about 80’s architecture man.
Me too, I have a distinct engraved memory of playing with a toy pirate ship in a white-tiled pool.
I could smell the chlorine
I dreamed about the pool rooms and the one playground
in one of Kane Pixels first vids there was that cart thing with the tree wallpaper, it was so distinctly familiar
"The funfact is the jumpscare" Dear lord I love Lixian
and the jumpscare actually got me too
I knew it was coming and the jump scare still almost made me yeet my cat off my lap.
Lixian, inventor of the "jumpfact"!
Literally got the jumpscare as I finished reading you comment
@@jamienolan8418 what is the time stamp for jumoscare
The other Backrooms games are quickly becoming a bunch of run of the mill “there’s a scary monster chasing you” games. This was the first one that I’ve seen that really *nailed* the whole “liminal space” feel. Super unsettling, no jump scares, 100% atmosphere. This was awesome!
I’m better than Markiplier
Yeah... though there's this one game called Anemoiapolis that both nails the look of the Poolrooms very well, and has a pretty scary scene where you're being stalked by a... thing in a maze of showers. The oppressive atmosphere, the pipes everywhere, the fact you don't know if you're walking in circles... I thought it was very well done. Plus, it's not cheap. Best thing is, if you want a purely liminal experience, you can disable that monster in the options!
I mean, the Backrooms is supposed to have that as well. There's atmosphere in those games, and this game is literally just dead air. How can I have fun experiencing this game a second or third time... if there's no action and I'm just walking? I would prefer their more depth, because this game is actually like a lot of other walking horror simulators.
Exactly! And it explores so many liminal spaces, not just the basic yellow office.
@@cawareyoudoin7379 And the creator of the game made their own liminal spaces for it
Every time Mark was paranoid: 0:00 - 37:19
ah, thanks for the timestamps
Every time Mark wasn’t paranoid:
11:23- I just realised the backrooms would be a great laser tag arena
Until you try to end the game and can’t find anyone
Or an introverts' best dream.
It goes to show that Mark is just a top tier creator that I literally watched him walk around for 40 min and didn’t regret a second of it
goes to show that it’s subjective cause every time he started ranting i was like come on. like just play the game bro. but it’s okay i love mark and i come here for him.
Thats to much, I enjoy longform content at 1.5x
Hearing Mark's voice is enough of a treat to me. I watched him make the weirdest videos and I would do it again.
Same 🤣🤣
What does he create tho
Markiplier: Thinks this game is complex Also Mark: Thinks losing his mind scares him more than the actual horror game.
@fours04 🇬🇧 (the second account) lol what
Mb missclicked on the dislike button
@NO RUNNING ALLOWED despite the toxicity, you literally have zero videos. So what r u talking about.
@NO RUNNING ALLOWED that's cruel
@NO RUNNING ALLOWED WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? WTF
I'm so glad a backrooms game finally used more than just one setting holy shit. There's tons of liminal spaces to use and it's only ever the yellow rooms.
This is my FAVORITE backrooms game adaptation. This one really hit me, maybe for the same reasons it hit Mark 😂 With nothingness, nothing but silence and walking....it makes me wonder how long I would last in this environment. It'd be rough
What I’ve learned from the comments: 1. This is what the back rooms were meant to be. Pure nothingness. No silly monsters. Just you and your increasing level of insanity. 2. The mind plays tricks on itself. When it’s bored, it makes things up. 3. It’s the fear of nothing that’s more scary than the fear of something. It makes you uneasy and longing for something, anything. 4. The point of the back rooms is displacement. Feeling like you’re the only thing in a supposedly man-made place, but also feeling as if you’re not supposed to be there. Like nothing in there should be living, yet there you are. 5. Our brains will betray us more than help us. It will fill in the voids and come up with theories other than the truth. 6. Mark gave the perfect reaction and is quite simply entertaining in stressful, seemingly boring scenarios. We love you, Mark!
7. There is a lot of interactions with the game showing you that there is something out there, lurking/creeping onward and towards the player, but Mark literally overacted the few times he noticed and so, it now makes it a chore to notice/tally up each other/separate times a moving/implied "monster" is definitely/explicitly in view. Or basically: handful of things had been implemented for a player to notice, eventually, that there *is* "something else in there with us", classic horror style, but Mark legit acted circles around most of it. Lol
I love how loving mark became like rome because every path leads to loving mark
@@amanibob1416 the "monster" we saw was actually a hallucination, same with the noises. as the og comment says, the brain will get bored and will start making things up, or "fill in the voids"
@@almondwater4280 In the game, there's a core gimmick. The point is baiting people into adding a layer onto the basic "there's something making itself known" trope. Since that's in the game, I trust that this version of the story, as a game, is made to be more than "ya basically you go insane, the end". Like, in-between the video that game was built around and the version you'd get if there was actually nothing in there. It's not me saying you ain't got a point. I'm just arguing that the gimmick goes beyond the original concept. Since, as a meta, if there's a creature in the game, legit baiting you...
@@amanibob1416 you have a good point ! im just saying, logically and from a lot of sources, there are zero entities in Level 0
*actually yawns* Mark: _“Lixian, I think people are getting bored, hit them with a jump scare”_ NO WAIT!!
I can garuntee you I’m the future of KZhead come and see for yourself😎
@@yungblattt bot
and then they hit you with facts
You made me yawn by talking about it Edit: I saw true notification that someone liked the comment and it made my yawn
Fun Fact: the fact is the jumpscare
0:57 the only jumpscare that got me
Can we just appreciate Mark running around for the first 20 minutes lost and then all of a sudden he's smashing out the quickest plays for each level.🤣🤣🤣🤣
personally, i much prefer the interpretation of the backrooms without a monster or some weird creature, since that makes it feel kind of just like a supernatural labyrinth with a different minotaur, whereas the idea of an endless maze without any real destination or threat makes it a much more compelling concept in my opinion, with the explorer's own mind and will being the only real limitation
This game still used darkness to create fear. The original post described them as very bright, and the fluorescent lights should be loud. However, even the original post didn't quite _get_ the concept they were creating. Because there was still mention of monsters. The backrooms work best when they follow the concept. Expanding it to other types of areas for a game like this is fine by me because it gives us more to explore, though it does violate the true horror of the original concept. The monotony is part of the horror. Never finding anything interesting, just more of those yellow rooms with loud, too-bright fluorescent rods and moist carpets. But that doesn't make for a very interesting game, you just get bored.
The way this game utilised the monsters with small black silhouettes moving just out of sight of the player was a great way to make them second guess themselves in a, "Did I really see that?" kind of thing And then because of those encounters the player's paranoia is increased and puts them on edge more
It needs those little “Did I see that?” Type monsters. Just things that make you ask if you are sane or not. I’d love some monsters in dark rooms, but instead of huge things that eat you, maybe just creepy noises. A snap of a branch behind you, a piece of plastic crackling, knocking/tapping, or whispers. Pretty much just threatening asmr
Lol, people take the backrooms too seriously, it's just more engaging when there's actual stakes involved.
@@michaliskossyfas5862 in a video game, sure, it's more engaging to have an antagonist chasing you, but as a pure concept, it kinda just makes it less interesting overall
I love how the game doesn’t contain any monsters, it’s just the ambiance and fear of not being alone crawling on your back. Just like how backrooms were meant to be.
@@MbitaChizi actually do if you wanna get RICK ROLLED 😡😡
*insert 5th bot comment here*
really like backrooms games without entity’s
The video came out three minutes ago and you already finished it?
@@Chanceogal don't read my username or your balls will be cut off at 3 am😱😱😱😱😱😱😱
25:27 MatPat's reaction was so dang similar "This was a bad decision, I regret my decision. This is one of those moments where oh- I regret nothing, I was right the whole time! I knew what I was doing, this was entirely within my planning."
Okay there was definitely a head that peaked out down the hall in the dining hall level
I’m glad I saw this comment idk how mark missed that
Timestamp?
@@NaritaS a moment after 28:32
I hate that I’m better than you all
You can actually tell Lixian is a good editor because I actually thought the "The Backrooms 2" at the start was part of the game.
I came here to look for how to spell Lixian and I also found out this.. they are so funny I swear
Wait, you mean it *wasn't* part of the game?
I got a bit suspicious at that when I noticed the "Backrooms 2" popped up at *exactly* when Mark was supposedly reacting to it. It typically takes the human body a few frames after something happens to show its reaction.
So it wasn't?
bruh
i love the way the backrooms are portrayed in this game. no threats, just making you make up crazy stuff. One time I got lost in a bookstore and I couldn’t find my mom. This game gives me the same feeling i had then. Unsettled, distressed, and having a longing to go back. I also love how this game makes you want to turn your head and look behind you every second.
Lol getting lost in a book store- Powells City of Books strikes me as the type of store to get lost in since its literally a block- largest book store in the world
there was something there tho did you not see the head in the hotel area?
@@thanbord4213 oh no i didn’t. can i have a time stamp? and even then, it didn’t jumpscare Mark or chase after him like any typical horror game.
@@whamzap about 28:30 when he turns the corner
@@thanbord4213 omg that’s really funny 💀 right when he was talking about tentacle man too lol
28:34 Mark suspected, I saw. This game has a lot of great little moments that make you question what's going on and Mark likely spent much longer in these rooms alone than we did with him in this video.
I was so hoping there'd be no monster and when there wasn't I was so happy. The monsters always make Backrooms stuff less scary. Just the isolation and thinking that there *COULD* be something inhuman there with you is so much more terrifying. Loved this
There's more than a few shadowy figures in this game.
They kinda make things scary to me. The fact you might see the eyes of a smiler in the darkness will make you wish you were dead instead.
I love how Mark is going through all of the emotions that the backrooms is said to inflict. It's super interesting to see what the brain does in times of panic and confusion
I can garuntee you I’m the future of KZhead come and see for yourself😎
@@yungblattt Bruh than let your content speak for itself dude.
@@themythicalnut7989 it's a bot.
@Superman beating Stephen wolf 🗿 ...it's usually a bot. Also, the channel might be from a human, but I doubt it. Likely has stolen content (things bots do) and that gained them subscribers. People could also buy subscribers for an account (for some reason)
@Superman beating Stephen wolf 🗿 he bought subs and views
Edit: I didn't expect to get top comment, it never happens to me lmao! This comment contains spoilers for the video, so read at your own risk if you haven't finished yet. This was such a good representation of the original backrooms concept. It's empty. There's nothing. No stupid monsters. You wander and wander under the humming flourescent lights and you think there _must_ be *_something_* here. You're so desperate for anything to break up the monotony of endless wandering and the incessant hum of the lights that you trick yourself into seeing and hearing things. It happened constantly to Mark throughout this video, and it's proof of concept that the backrooms never needed monsters. Edit 2: I'd like to amend a few things. Firstly, yes the original greentext does say something along the lines of "god forbid you hear something because if you heard it, it certainly heard you." This is not explicit confirmation of a monster inside the backrooms, it is an implication at best. Remember that the backrooms are based on "liminal" spaces, at least according to how the aesthetic has changed the meaning of that word. These images are of public spaces that should be teeming with people, but are empty and usually taken with dim lighting to give them an abandoned or dilapidated appearance. They're supposed to invoke unease and loneliness. This game achieves that same feeling by not having anything truly threaten you. Second, I had not seen kane's videos before this, and I do like his monster, but you'll notice he spends a lot of time building up to them and they aren't the only source of horror. There are the disappearances and strange events, anything could happen in kane's backrooms! Lastly, yes, there are a couple instances of an appendage of some kind disappearing behind a pillar in the video. But still, nothing happens. To me, it seems to be presented as your mind playing tricks on you, as I said above. I don't think every horror experience needs to be an adrenaline pumping sprint away from a screaming monstrosity that wants you dead. Sometimes isolation and hopelessness are all you need, and that's what I was trying to praise in this comment. Thanks to everyone for their likes and replies, whether you agreed with me or not!
I think it needs monsters, but not the big loud ones that chase you or are obvious, perhaps a stalker type where it just watches……
But something where you can never really pin down if it’s real or not, this might be hard to implement in a correct way
@@egorsdeimos3523 four words:Kane Pixels Backrooms series
@@connorcornwall1404 been subscribed for a few months now, I meant it would be hard to implement correctly in a game, my bad.
This. Sad that many don't see the appeal of the backrooms and just want to turn it into another SCP series.
Mark turning around after 7:15 has the same vibe as SpongeBob turning around going “I feels like somebody WANTS TO SELL ME SOMETHING!” 😂
This was pretty interesting. You thought there was going to be something, but it was nothing. You thought you saw something, but it was really just your brain trying to fill in holes with -something-, anything.
Mark: I don't like the darkness Also Mark 5 seconds earlier: *heads straight for the darkness*
That's Mark for you.
Classic Mark, like no looking at the back but looked anyways😆
The cool thing about Mark doing this is that it literally simulates actually being in the Backrooms, and at first he was like "Hey, I'm playing a game about the backrooms, yeah, lets do that" and his emotion changed, just as if he actually no-clipped into the Backrooms. Eventually, he would expect to be jump-scared by the thing he saw at the beginning and was waiting for it and when that didn't happen he started to doubt that he saw anything at all, just like if it had actually occurred. He started getting frustrated with the fact that he felt like he was going in a loop, and even stated that he was seeing a whole lot of nothing and was exited over scared to just to claim to be hearing a clicking sound, and responded negatively instead of positively went it went away. And he barely even noticed. Just like if it actually occurred.
30:58 to about 31:20 esp felt realistic imo. i think that’s def how I’d react
There're two camps. Meditation and Disorientation. And Mark is definitely lost, both in and about.
I had a stroke reading all that
Hahahahaha🤣🤣🤣
I guess but mark missing the point of backrooms, (even this one that says experience not game) the whole in the back of simulated reaitly is such an interesting idea but it's missed because the backrooms wasn't a creepy pasta or SCP but just from memes and videos now that there games and people only want to start this games but don't know it. try to give someone the SCP game without them ever knowing anything on SCPs.
There's just something about the area at 34:26 that makes it my absolute favorite liminal space aesthetic. The idea of being at a decrepit house in the middle of an unforgiving, endless tundra, while under a dark and starry sky fills me with equal parts dread and awe. I can't really explain it anymore than that, but this exact combination of atmospheric elements that intrigues me more than any other Backrooms-esque aesthetic. Not every Backrooms level needs some sort of entity to make it interesting, and sometimes it's just the idea that you're all alone in a desolate and foreign environment that makes it special. It's such a simple and open environment, and yet to me, it ends up being so much more than that.
I worked in security a long time ago, in a massive office building under construction. All the walls were in, the flooring down and this lighting installed. I was told by my supervisor that doors and furniture would be arriving soon but in the meantime all I had to do was keep an eye on the place to make sure nobody was breaking in to rob building equipment ( which was all stored in one room anyway) So every night for 9 days straight I would wander around the " backrooms" and get feckin lost every time because without doors and furniture it all looked the exact bloody same. Keep in mind this was in the late 90's, long before the Backrooms was even a thing. I can promise you it is every bit as scary as the games make it out to be and god help your underwear if you hear a single sound.
I do night security for an abandoned building too. Some man owns the building but won't sell it. So I just make sure nobody breaks in. It's empty of everything except huge machines that have been bolted into the ground. Because they are the only things remaining, the layout seems random and it always gives me backrooms vibes lol. I like to think of it as my own personal video game every time I'm required to do rounds inside.
@@FlipX100 Man, I thought for a second you were doing a Five Nights At Freddy's joke-what with the "man owns the building but won't sell it" 😛My bad
Yes! This is how the backrooms is done. Just emptiness, ambience, and your own imagination driving you crazy. This was way more disturbing than any of the other dozens of games that just throw monsters in for no reason.
well backroom has creature in it, you can look at the wiki about it, like smilly and more, backroom are considered a fanger not because you can died of hunger but because your not alone :o
@@jimdiesel2831 the wiki is fucking dumb.. the backrooms isnt supposed to have 500000 different levels and creatures. it's not meant to be a level game where "ooh run from monster and climb up stair to complete level, you win!"
I agree with the op, the memories these spaces bring back in me give me more uncomfortable feelings than most horror games. A very slow-burn unsettling feeling, being in a space that Should have people, Should have life, but is eerily empty yet immaculate
@@jimdiesel2831 different levels though, level 1 is pretty harmless with nothing in it.
Boring is how hm...
"If you're not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you'll end up in the Backrooms, where it's nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in *God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you"*
The original text for the original picture... :0
whats noclip
@@helix9049 noclip is a term for when an object goes through another without deforming either object (typically)... Think of a wall as if it was a doorway... But 'solid'... You noclip through it and are on the other side of the wall...
@@autobotCRSHR oh thank you that was a lovely description
I think the backrooms at the start was simply made to be this place where you would feel like you’re being watched, and you get that feeling of existential dread, as if there is something there with you, you think u see something but there’s nothing there.
The sound Mark makes between 6:11 - 6:18 could honestly be used as a horror sound effect in its own right. Imagine in a horror game you walk through some dark abandoned place and you hear something is approaching you making that sound but you can't identify where and you need to run. I think it would be damn creepy 😅
I like how Mark is upset that he isn't getting jumpscared when he chases the weird silhouette, it is like a dog hearing a loud sound, he isn't used to it so he doesn't like it
Everyone's saying that 1998 is scarier than this, but I think this is perfect. Maybe a little more from the wavy-tentacle just to really make you think it's following you, but even that might be too much. People add monsters to this world that actively chase you and are a constant threat, but the _fear_ of something _watching_ you without your explicit knowledge is terrifying. The fact that there's nothing here when there feels like there should be is terrifying. The near impossible to follow architecture that makes you constantly wonder if you've already been here is terrifying. This is a great game. Not to mention the camera effect on it. It's just perfect.
I kinda disagree, the thing is it's not like we don't know, we know that there is nothing in the game. That sorta ruins it for me. It would be so much better if instead there's some very hidden subtle stalking scares, but still without chases or jumpscares.
@@kenz2756 That's why I suggested maybe a bit more of the "monster" moving from behind things. For the first little while, it really felt like there _was_ something, and it was only a matter of time until it did something. It kinda died off later as it quit showing up, but I still think this format is better than actual monsters in there, regardless- at least for the Backrooms as a world.
Thats why we should recommend markiplier to try out 1998 so he can see for himself which he likes best. I think 1998 is more scariest but this one is more realistic
@@kenz2756 You know now, after watching the video. Playing through it the first time, like Mark did, you wouldn't know. That's why it was so effective. Doesn't really lend itself to much replayability this way though. Don't think it needs to though.
Isn't 1998 related an actual murder case? That's what makes it scary to me...
Mark literally went through the exact essence of what The Backrooms id all about. Just the empty infinite halls of rooms, ambience, no monsters, and just the eerie environments that makes you go crazy as time goes on and you start to see things that aren’t even there. This has got to be the closest thing you get to the ACTUAL original backrooms post.. well done to everyone that made this!
The crazy thing is this was made by one person
Tbf the later levels of the backrooms have monsters
@@cain3576 If you go by the wiki, but the wiki is kind of bad in my opinion.
i’m gonna admit I honestly like the wikidot stuff, I like stuff too, I like all the stuff people do with the backrooms and to be entirely honest it’s a bit…annoying(? yeah annoying I guess) that every comment I see on these types of videos are basically copy pasted statements which jerk off Kane’s backrooms off and flip the bird to the wiki stuff. I mean I understand that they’re opinions but when every comment is the same thing it doesn’t feel like actual opinion and more like a circlejerk, reminiscent of the whole “Minecraft good Fortnite bad” thing a little while ago
@@apersoniguess_ That's understandable and I've seen a lot of stuff I liked on the wiki. However, some of the stuff on there seems to have no quality control.
As a backrooms enthusiast who has played every backrooms game known to man, they NAILED the vhs feel. the square camera that warps the sides, the blurry camera and the darkness. They also nailed the weird shapes of the pillars and walls
I even went into this knowing that there was no monster and i still got so tense. The developers did such an amazing job with this, its horrific and so unbelievably well made.
Now THIS is what backrooms was actually meant to be: a limbo of nothingness. It all looks man-made but no man resides here, no sign of life, as if nothing alive is meant to be here and yet here you ARE. The real fear isn't the monster because that would mean death, that would mean you're not alone. The real fear is never dying, never seeing anything ever again, never getting anywhere but within these yellow walls.
👍👍👍
To be honest, I was already feeling... maybe even a bit disgusted, after watching so many gameplays of backrooms-esque kind of games where there's always a monster chasing you, when the true horror about the backrooms is precisely supposed to be the fact that there isn't absolutely anything or anyone there. I think this is one of the games that actually know how a liminal place is supposed to be and how it's meant to make you feel
I also enjoy it like this, but there's definitely some signs of life beyond just tricking yourself there might be something there. Like at 8:40 for example.
@@Maximo2204 Do you think the surface of mars or any lifeless planet is a sort of liminal space? When you see the photo's from the rovers the landscape is featureless in all directions, no being ever lived there.
@@47nrubreddew usually what makes liminal space is a sense of transition. Like you're stuck in a moment that you would normally walk out of. Liminal is an endless corridor, for example. I'm not sure Mars would really be as liminal.
Mark mixing up giving someone a "reach-around" and the "run-around" killed me. I didn't think about how similar those sound but how different the meaning is until now
Wait I don’t know what either mean I’m dumb
Like rimshot and rimj*b lol
I can garuntee you I’m the future of KZhead come and see for yourself😎
oh the part I found the creepiest was when there was knocking on the elevator . Marks expressions there was great aswell.
I almost DIED at the jump scare at 21:37
That was actually a jump scare? I just randomly timestamped
Other people: run away when they catch a glimpse of the monster Mark: walks towards it
He I walk tore it and close my eyes in real life
Mark is secretly a joestar
"Nobody is _that_ stupid in horror movies to just walk up to the killer and scream." Markiplier in horror games: "Finally a friend! Hello!"
I’M BETTER THAN MARKIPLIER
Like that australian wildlife guy... "Look... that animal is really dangerous... I gonna touch it..."
Before the backrooms became popular and mainstream, before it was converted into all of these horror games/stories, all the backrooms were was a concept of “the inbetween.” It was because people reported that when they died for a short amount of time, they were in “beige, bland, never ending rooms.” Like a large waiting room. This is why it was scary- Imagine if you never were revived? You were just endlessly stuck in rooms that had no rhyme or reason. No monsters, no people, no.. anything. Just stuck. With nothing. Forever.
I love the idea that the backrooms is sort of like limbo. A space for souls or beings to just... be, until they move on to the next space. Inanimate objects find their way into this limbo space sometimes, which explains the phenomenon of people randomly losing things and never finding them again, and that's what gives the backrooms this slightly but not quite populated feel. Like there *should* be more there but there isn't, because nothing stays for long. I like to think that people glitching into the backrooms is maybe due to them being meant to die but managing to avoid it, so the limbo in this instance claims them anyway. I'm not against the scarier interpretations of the backrooms, but I do prefer the actual silent emptiness og backrooms. And oddly enough, I find the poolrooms soothing.
Man a lot of people don’t like the monsters in the backrooms.
Backrooms was originated from a 4chan post, not death experiences, if that's what you're saying.
It all makes sense now, people who got "noclipped out of reality" means being dead, the missing posters were people who actually died, the "found footage" where the camera is found after it noclipped away from the backrooms meant people who died and came back to life to tell what they saw.
@@FUNKY_KETCHUP No, backrooms does not work like that.
My favorite thing about The Complex is that it knows subtlety. Like how you keep seeing shit in the distance and then it turns out it's just a light or something? I've never seen a game do that so similar to when it happens IRL. The game knows the vibe it's going for and NAILS it.
Mark's jump scares are getting better I almost screamed
when is it
There are apparently A LOT more endings and puzzles, so I really think mark should play this again
Yeah there's a new update now
@@plexyglass429 yeah but there's still only one ending
there are no puzzles really
Fr
I played this last night and I'm watching his play thru now and I'm amazed that there biomes I never even saw
I was just thinking to myself “could someone make a horror game without any tangible threat” and then this video dropped
You should watch Markiplier's playthrough of Anna
Backrooms lv 0 is just this but with loud lamp sound, you go insane or starve there with no enemies or friends multiple ppl can exist in the first lv but never meet
Watch Mark's vid on Superliminal for more of this type. A bit long, but definitely the "Suspense without Threat" sub genre if you like this video
haha chicken.
The first couple hours of alien isolation is like that too
For the first 10 minutes it just sounded you were going crazy bc you kept expecting things and we're imagining things
25:43 Lol I think he was so open mindedly his brain fell out.
You should play ‘backrooms 1998’ one of the few scary games that legit gave me nightmares also the fact that is uses your microphone adds to the fear factor
Hell no
no play escape the backrooms
YES
There is also escape the backrooms
I agree
Honestly, this is the first Backrooms game that FEELS like the Backrooms... at least the version Kane has created. There is no monster chasing you and the "lack of progress" and mindless wandering makes you feel like something is following you and that you aren't doing something right... that psychological horror that makes up the Backrooms!! Love it
Absolutely thats the backrooms i like, with no monsters just creepy af, I love psychological horror things
In my opinion, it's different from kane's in the sense that whatever creature is there with you is not mindless and not senselessly hostile, but rather curious, quiet, observant, and stalking you- just like how beings in this space would probably adapt to be like
28:36 a monster lol
I hate that monsters were added A monster chasing you, is less scary than just permanent damp floor, bland walls, and endless hallways of a maze A monster gives an objective, escape the monster And a sense of control. if it lives, you can escape it, you can outsmart it, you can maybe even kill it But if its just endless hallways. With no exit There's no objective, no way to outsmart it. No way to escape You'll *feel* like you can get out. But never actually find an exit no matter what
Absolutely. I also hate how people try to “make new levels” like that mr kitty bs.
this game gave me a vibe of like those long hallways to the bathrooms in big shopping centers or malls. they're always so eerie for no reason at all, as if there's just gonna be a random zombie apocalypse that'll happen at that exact moment.
Imagine if you could play this on VR 😃
THAT would be AWSOME! Great idea
@@tilkikiz The thing is, how would you be able to make it in VR
Let's not and say we did. Millions would get heart and panic attacks.....Screw it the population needs culling anyway
@@uzziisrael Not a lot of people care about each other nowadays unless friends, lover(s), or family, but oh well
absolutely not id be shitting myself
When I clicked on this I thought Mark would run into entity after entity, but if he did meet anything it just stalked him. Which is exactly how some entities of the backrooms work, plus he experienced the exact paranoia that is said to be experienced in the backrooms. Really realistic, really creepy without anything but you in there, and altogether an amazing game.
Entities ruin the idea of isolation and the dread that something might be out there but never seeing it as you plunge into insanity
@@jackraiden1304 exactly
@@jackraiden1304 it can depend, being hunted definitely ruins it, but maliciously watched, always just out of sight so that you think you see something, chasing after some sort of interaction and sign of life? it can add to it and definitely kindle the insanity if done right - even if not every developer wants to go down that path or use that image
The game has no actual entities that chase you. Only some slight hints of something watching you
its a backrooms but instead of focusing at the monsters , it is focusing in another part: insanity
I saw someone recommend you the game backrooms 1998 and I think you should really try that out mark would love to see you play it
1000th like
im ngl backrooms 1998 has literally nothing going for it.
Veeeeery different type of game and really has nothing to do with the Backrooms other than piggybacking off it's name and is just another indie monster horror game.
I can garuntee you I’m the future of KZhead come and see for yourself😎
@@yungblattt bruh
Just having the camera facing the Backrooms with nothing happening is more scary than more horror games for me.
The relationship between Mark and Lix we see in Mark's videos is always funny to see.
As someone with anxiety, i didnt like the whole monster immediately being present in most backrooms games but the anxiety this game gave me with the lack of anything but tiny things you cant tell are your imagination or something else, it was terrifying, and i loved it.
Your mind, if unstimulated, will create its own things to get scared about to be stimulated
From what I've read from other comments, its worse. There are monsters, subtle in the shadows and such. They just don't chase you.
There's like 5 comments here, 2 are legit lol
bro what are the replies on this comment
@NO RUNNING ALLOWED if anything techno's most likely ruling the underworld
Imagine the Laser Tag potential in these backs rooms.
dude i was watching my friend play it through discord and when he reached the "backrooms 2" area i said this exact same thing i said "dude this looks like an indoor airsoft field"
True. True.
There's 3 types of people. The one that wants monsters in the Backrooms, the ones that don't, and the ones that want to play laser tag.
Oh. My. God. That would be the perfect theme for a laser tag arena just use level 8 (I think) instead of a darkened level 0 I wish there was a backrooms laser tag arena
@@synangelis Level 77 may prove an electrocution hazard.
"FUN FACT: The fun fact is the jumpscare." Ha, good one Lixian.
This game was so nauseatingly empty that it terrified me to my core. There is something so WRONG about those places, especially the other floors we don't see as much media about. The pools and the mall, the mall especially, made me shrivel up with anxiety. There HAS to be something there. And the fact that there's not anything to be seen?-- somehow that's infinitely worse.
I like to think of the Backrooms like, an entity from another dimension that had no idea what our dimensions is like, had to create a reality, and the only motivation they had was 45 seconds of flipping though an Architecture Digest magazine from the 1980’s
Have you by any chance watched wendigoons video about the series
I be making entertaining videos as well🤠
did you watch film theory's video about this? cuz this is very similar to his theory
That’s some Marvel cosmic gods shit
Jesus Christ died for our sins, rose from the dead, and gives salvation to everyone who has faith in him. True faith in Jesus will have you bear good fruit and *drastically* change for the better! Those led by the Holy Spirit do not abide in wickedness. God is three in one; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit! Bless him! As I am led by the Holy Spirit, nothing I state is a lie, but the truth of God. Anyone who tells you differently is misinformed or a liar. They do not know God, nor led by him. Anyone who *claims* to be a Christian and is against what I am doing, and where I am doing it; the Holy Spirit does not dwell within them, they lack understanding. They know not God, read his word, and their religion is in vain. Do not hear them, they will mislead you, the lost cannot guide the lost.
The game looks way way realistic, can't believe its a game finally. The game is made by a professional developer
@mikea hiooi I wouldn't support the devs of that one, they just straight up took a real life murder and Ctrl+C Ctrl+Vd it into the game, not even changing the name of a kid. So much potential in plot writing, yet they chose to use a real case without changing it and make profit off of it. It's at very least disrespectful and sordid.
@@tantrumane Really? God that’s terrible :(
this sort of thing happens to any D&D player that steps on a teleport trap. what if it actually cast the spell Labyrinth on you then it would be exactly the same
It definitely helps me watching mark play video games based on the back rooms, I experience a lot of derealization and it makes me feel like I’m in the back rooms if I’m inside of a building, and watching these with mark playing them makes me feel a lot better about it tbh.
The funny thing is that Mark's "shortcut" in the pool section actually just took him like 5 steps forward if he didnt enter the small space
im really impressed by the graphics. It looks like actual footage with the way the walls warp at the edges of the screen, the filter over the screen, the way the lights blur when Mark moves the camera, the way things in the distance or out of focus are blurred, its SO well done.
The only comment that talks about how realistic it looks
Seriously, it sells the atmosphere so well, you feel like you're watching footage cause there's this really human like motion to the camera the way it jerks and there's some REALLY good lighting here.
Really?
@@capsyy nice pfp
This is the quintessential back rooms game for me. The look, the vibe, the soundscape, the subtly of the scares. Friggin brilliant.
11:24 i genuinely like that effect/soundclip, Kudos, Lixian!
I think that soundclip is from a game but I can't quite remember which
I am incredibly impressed with the ambiance and the look of this game. It genuinely felt like a tape recording and I was really surprised when you could move around and it still look exactly like the videos.
and it didn't have the cliche vhs filter that other backrooms games have
@@goblinbabe6664 True. It just somehow felt like a real recording without it.
I love that this perfectly captures the backrooms' first level, no monsters, no nothing, just you and your thoughts in an unsettling abyss for an indefinite amount of time
Well, there was a monster, it just didn’t do anything
@@StealthViper212 why
@@StealthViper212 TECHNICALLY THERES A MONSTER but yeah
I'm a world wide rapper i am known every where
Level 0. Level 1 has things like smilers, hounds, and facelings.
The one time markiplier thinks we’re all yelling at his stupidity we’re just as confused as he is
Mark "talking" to Lixian is really fun to watch tbh, Lixian is a great- uhh FANTASTIC Editor
We need an interactive backrooms series from mark
awesome idea
@Beluga True but honestly, I wouldn't mind the wait
That'd actually be cool
would watch every single one of em
@Soundwrath shut up
Other people when seeing something scary: running the other way Mark seeing something scary: *runs towards it*
fr he gets ready to fight that thing
@@val328 bros squaring up with the boogie man
@@Loserlover I'm dead 😂😂😂
Masochist at its finest
I can't believe this is free. it's so atmospheric and beautiful!
28:34 ACTUALLY GAVE ME CHILLS y'all see that head peeking out from around the distant corner???
This. This is the most accurate representation of the original backrooms concept i have ever seen in my life. It's just you, the buzz of the lights, and the fear of being or not being alone. I've never seen ANY media that makes you feel like you're actually into the backrooms, as if you're actually in there, and Mark's reaction seems to reflect that.
Kane Pixels' series gets pretty close
I agree although I would say this is a close second to Kane’s
@@pdrt2377 not to me IMO, he tells a cool story but the original concept was just you, the endless rooms, and that’s it
I've always wanted to make a complete backrooms game that covers as much of the lore as possible while being absolutely terrifying. It's probably gonna be my first game because it's pretty simple map building and maybe some kind of generation procedure.
@@pdrt2377 not really because in his backroom Univ is different than the original one Originally the backroom doesn't have any monsters and is an endless maze without exit and you can't get to it by choice In different versions it is just the lvl 1 and other lvls are the ones that have monsters ( lvl 2 , 3... )
The visuals of this game are seriously impressive.
My eyes certainly widened when I saw the camera look around and move as mark started to play. I thought there was more to the cutscene but it turns out that they just had amazing visuals!
it looks almost identical to kane pixels backrooms videos
@@chimpedout True tho. Like if that dude plays this and upload it there, there won't be a difference.
Right? they're gorgeous.
While it isn't a bad looking game I wouldn't call it impressive...that just seems a little ridiculous. It's a filter over a generic level layout. I doubt without the filter it'd look anything like what it looks like right now. Simply put, no it is not impressive just you not understanding what's going on with the style and graphic manipulation.
The fact that the graphics look so realistic makes newer video games look like they were released in 2001.
this game and concept is very intriguing especially for those, like myself, who love horror and love to be scared, because you're always in suspense waiting for a jumpscare, or some maybe some big chase scene. its really interesting how over time you're playing/watching this you're really starting to question things like, is this actually happening, will I be able to figure anything out, and is there a threat here. or maybe just the simple things; did that light just flicker? did I hear footsteps? is something watching me? did I just see something behind that corner? just the complete feeling of suspense frightens you at every turn, the anticipation of where is the scare here?? for me, its well designed and I love this trope, the uneasiness, the unsettledness, the suspense, the paranormal/supernatural, the dead silence, that's what interests me in horror (tropes and you see it happen to mark, and especially in the backrooms, the discomforting feeling of, have I been here before? am I going in circles/loops? will I ever find an exit? is there even a way to escape this place?? or even, how long have I been here? at some point it seems you would be relieved to be scared, to hear a noise, or to actually see or feel something, or any confirmation at all. but yet again, was it real? could you have just been imagining it? or perhaps you have been doing anything or gone anywhere. may be its all in your mind.
"The fun fact is the jumpscare" actually killed me lmao
I got so scared 😭😭
I can garuntee you I’m the future of KZhead come and see for yourself😎
Never thought white text would scare me
it made me laugh so hard bc right before it I said "what if the jumpscare is the fun fact" LMAO
Markiplier : honestly I still don't know what the backrooms are Also Markiplier: The backrooms are a series of rooms in the back
I mean, that’s like the simpler version of what the backrooms are. There’s still not much we know about it.
@Audrey Jones same as ur mom
@@rcl4737 true
I’m better than Markiplier
He isn't wrong
I never realised Mark played this !!! I absolutely love this game. The way it genuinely makes you feel like youre going crazy and the way it actually similates what its like to be in scary liminal like situations alone. The way your eyes and ears can actuallly play tricks on you. Its great
I found this video about 4 months after it was posted, and it has made me laugh so much! Mark is hilarious as per usual, but Lixian your editing this time was chefs kiss Bravo
28:34 for those of you who missed it (including mark and me at first playthrough lmao) look down the hallway here. Also it was not a flappy arm it was a trapdoor opening up from the wall which introduces the horrirfying truth that the walls of the backrooms are inhabited.
It's actually a head, or what is supposed to resemble a head. The new update is cool and It adds more encounters along with its massively expanded map
I AM IN YOUR WALLS
i thought i saw that but i thought i was going mad 💀
Isn't that what backrooms normally are irl? Cuz wouldn't that mean there are backrooms for the backrooms?
Oh god... That's not good...
I think there were parts that turned out to be more monotonous than terrifying, although for the most part I was really unsettled- but I think if a backrooms game like this was somehow put into VR, I would lose my MIND from how scary it would be, even *knowing* nothing was there. Fantastic concept either way tho.
But you would lose the way you can zoom in and zoom out, the distortion effect (fish eye lenses) and the fact some headsets has wires, which making turning around annoying. Other VR games might have some way of making a better horror experience.
@@robertsandlin366 Wireless VR headsets are common nowadays, you know?
I played one in VR Chat with my friend, we didn't know if there would be monsters. After what felt like ages of exploring the backrooms we got cocky about there being no monsters, we were quickly humbled.
Ya, I always thought it was unfortunate that the vibe that actually made the backrooms as terrifying as it was could ‘never’ be put in a game and executed well, because the things that makes it so suffocating and scary is the monotonous, eerie atmosphere that seems to go on forever, and the solitude, with the slight concern that you might run into a monster. This game excited that feeling pretty well!
ever played the backrooms all seeing in rec room? probably the best backrooms game in vr rn unless this comes to vr soon...
The big spooky face made me swallow an entire ice cube. My through hurt from cold🧍🏼♀️..
This game recreates the layout and feel of the actual backrooms videos on KZhead incredibly well. I’m impressed. Hopefully there’s more content released down the line, I’d love to see it.
Honestly the backrooms is 10x scarier without a monster. Not everything needs some scary jumpscare demon. The scary ness is the endless rooms filled with nothing but your own insanity
A horror game is way scarier in the beginning because you don’t know what the monster is and the scariest monsters are the ones your mind creates when given too little information.
What I like about it is it represents the literal definition of insanity, doing something endless times expecting something to be different, going through endless rooms waiting for something to change or start chasing you but it’s just your own mind.
Yeah but the point is that ur not suppose to know if there are monsters of not, that’s what makes it truly scary, not knowing if ur completely alone or if something will come up behind u and attack, that’s why the dark is scarier than the light bc Atleast u can see it
This game's gold, honestly, gold. Instead of giving you spooks of scary monsters like a load of horror games do. This one gives you psychological horror, it tricks you into thinking that there's something with you in these... BACKROOMS of reality. Those black figures? Could they be a part of the game... or just your imagination? And that you play as the found footage is a splendid idea, like in the end of the recording, the elevator you use breaks and falls, and when you reach the bottom, you drop the camera and it clips through the floor without you, into an alleyway next to some trash bags... waiting for someone to find it. This game NEEDS more attention than it already does!
This game is honestly so genius in its execution. It is quite literally the embodiment of the backrooms found footage, and it plays to the classic liminal space horror so well it's honestly frightening. This game deserves more praise.
Exactly
he could've "escaped" and appeared/died in a completely different time/universe/location
its nice to see games that understand the feel of the backrooms. the horror really comes just from the endlessness of it, just how your alone, not even the release of death or attack from a monster to keep you company. just YOU which can be the worst thing to happen to a human.
I remember playing this on steam and thinking, "is there something more here? There's no monsters...is this normal?"