The Exit 8 review

Long term fans of PC gaming will be more than familiar with shorter experimental games that pack a whole load of creativity into less than an hour. These games have been how many a YouTuber make their money for years, showing off something very cool that you just wouldn’t think to play otherwise. I’ve enjoyed watching my favourite online personalities play everything from Five Night’s at Freddy’s (which it might be hard to believe started as one of these games) to Buckshot Roulette for years now, but as someone who tended to prefer playing on consoles I rarely got chance to experience these lovely little curiosities myself. Well The Exit 8 has burst free of its PC shell and is now available on Switch, and it simply demands to be played.

The premise of The Exit 8 is rather unique. Your character finds themselves in an underground passageway in Japan, which would be fine if it didn’t keep looping every time they wandered down the same white tiled tunnel. To finally make your way to the titular Exit 8 you’ll need to walk down this same tunnel eight times, while spotting anomalies along the way.

The Exit 8 is all about spotting the tiniest changing details in the tunnel you find yourself in, which is much easier said than done. Sometimes when you enter the tunnel everything will be totally normal, but every so often something will have changed and an anomaly will have been created. If everything is fine you should proceed down to the end of the tunnel, if not you need to turn back the way you came pronto. Each time you correctly walk the right way you’ll get one stop further into the underground, and one stop closer to The Exit 8. If you get it wrong, however, you’ll get sent right back to zero and have to start all over again.

Although the corridor that makes up the entirety of the game looks fairly empty at first glance, there are tons of tiny details that could be different that you’ll need to check. Five advertising posters line the left side of the tunnel, three doors are on the right, alongside various posters, light fittings, and of course the commuting businessman (who I never truly trusted). You’ll spend your time in The Exit 8 constantly second guessing your memory of all of these elements. Were there always that many lights on the ceiling? Is that text different? Are the posters always that big? The paranoia this game pumps through your brain is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

As well as the tiny anomalies that will make your brain squirm, there are also some anomalies that are incredibly hard to miss. These changes might make your life a little easier when it comes to beating the game, but they’re very impactful and often downright scary. I won’t spoil a single one of them in this review, but rest assured that these moments are the best thing about The Exit 8, and range from unsettling to full on scream worthy.

After a few failed attempts it’s likely that you’ll succeed on your quest to escape the loop of The Exit 8 and will see the credits of the game. That’s a perfectly fine place to stop playing The Exit 8, but if you want to see everything there is to offer you can try and hunt for all the anomalies you didn’t see the first time around. A notice lets you know exactly how many more unique differences there are left to discover, and it’s definitely worth searching for them all in case you missed out on some of the best ones.

As a fairly realistic looking and fully 3D game that originally released on PC, I must admit I was a little concerned about how The Exit 8 would perform technically on Switch. It turns out that worrying was for nothing, and if anything I’d say the ideal way to play the game is tucked in bed in handheld mode on a quiet night.

The Exit 8 is a truly unique experience, and although it doesn’t last long, it’s well worth the few pounds it costs to buy. The paranoia, tension, and mind bending moments within this tiny package are simply spectacular, and I won’t forget my adventure in the underground any time soon.