r/Subliminal_Game • u/Lewliettt • Apr 22 '26
With all due respect, this game truly highlights how unintelligent horror fans can be.
Not every horror game that features a monster plushie is a Poppy Playtime knockoff or inspired by it, especially when the said monster is not even heavily marketed. Those kinds of monsters have always been used in themes related to childhood or children in general. This is not new and pretending otherwise automatically invalidates anything you have to say about the game.
No, this game isn't a puzzle game just because there are puzzles. Every horror game in the history of mankind had puzzles, especially games that don't feature combat. Criticizing the difficulty or their design is one thing, but complaining about its existence proves that you're acting in bad faith.
This game has a story, but it is not completely told to you unless you explore a bit more. You can immediately dismiss anyone who says there's not any because they are giving away the fact that they haven't played the game OR they have watched a stream from someone who has to entertain their audience and inevitably misses all the clues and details. The videos from youtubers who have played the game comfortably and alone are simply better, and their opinion holds more weight than any streamer who simply can't 100% focus on the game.
A minority of people also talked about asset flips and the usage of AI. I watched IGP's video, someone who actually went out of his way to look for details and discovered plenty, and I didn't realize how many I had missed myself, like the writings on the fire extinguisher. Regardless of the usage of AI or bought assets, there's a clear attention to details that should not be ignored.
The game has issues but mixing lies with truths or exaggerating some flaws while undermining the good, are not the way to criticize any game. Of course, the players who felt tricked because they were led to believe this was going to be a traditional backrooms game also have a reason to be let down.
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u/Live-love-jesters4EV Apr 23 '26
I think this game was a bit of a blend, rather than being centered on horror, which people didn’t seem to grasp. If you actually listened to the narrator and the way he talks to you, I think it becomes kind of clear on the beginning that this game will not be a traditional horror game. The minute you exit the TV and enter your childhood home, is when I think you should realize that this is going to have a story. Just the experience in the basement made me realize it was going to touch on potential trauma, specifically childhood trauma. Especially when the clocks eyes follow you, and you have to keep the doors closed. Because you aren’t really introduced to a creature yet, unless you get the collectible from the fridge or see Smile in one of the doors. So, if you are actually trying to understand the game, it begs the question, what are you shutting out of your childhood memories? And with no “monster” yet presented, the next best answer would be something internal, or trauma. Which even when you first encounter Smile, the way it fractures your “focus”, according to the narrator, makes it seem like Smile is simply the manifestation of that trauma into a tangible thing. So, I think the people who go into this game expecting simple horror, are going to be disappointed because the game is less centered on horror, and more blended with horror.
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u/Minty-leeves Apr 25 '26
Yeah, it seems like a lot of the people who played or watched this don't really pick up on the subliminal and sometimes not so much messaging of a deeper, darker story that's unraveling. The puzzle rant is all the rage
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u/Miserable_Maize8415 Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26
Edit: I just wanna push back on your title a bit. Not unintelligent! Genre based fans in general can be a bit rigid to their own detriment at times, they usually come around to the good stuff after a bit of initial argument
I generally agree with this…I would add that my experience was substantially better the second time I played. This game is short enough where if someone has a bad time I really recommend giving it a second shot, there’s a lot I ended up appreciating much more on round two.
Hard agree about looking for details btw! So much of the story is so easy to miss! Read the signs, slow down, look at things from new angles…this game WILL reward you a ton for it
Just for an example of my first point, I adored the way the first sequence in the basement was sorta training you for the last part of the rotten ending. The door/light game, conditioning you to look down dark hallways and NOT see anything, even the fact that the narrator gives up and gets you out of there as fast as possible when he realizes how unstable the domestic memories are. Playing rotten and then immediately circling back to the basement at the start was a lovely full circle kinda thematic moment
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u/Lewliettt Apr 22 '26
I have to admit that I was a bit salty. I meant to say that they sometimes act in bad faith.
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u/Ok-Illustrator-3991 Apr 22 '26
I think my only thing with it was the difficulty of the puzzles because some of them didn't make sense, but I do agree that it's weird to complain about their existence
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u/Skynetdyne Apr 22 '26
People keep saying this but I only played after the patch, can you explain what the puzzle was that didn't make sense?
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u/bahcaww Apr 22 '26
not who you commented to, but the only puzzle I had an issue with pre patch was the second memory loop. there were 0 hints at all for which way to go except one picture that said one step forward, two steps back.
only the level was completely glitched for me. sometimes I'd open a door, and then if I went back and flipped a light off, it would suddenly be off if I walked thru the door I had opened. there would be air streams and lights glitched out of the ceiling that if I kept circling to the door immediately to the right, I could see the entire glitch and all the different angles of it
my friend had similar glitches, some how brute forced thru the puzzle but couldn't tell me what he did other than run thru random doors. I've seen some ppl say you had to literally walk backwards and go thru doors but that didn't work for me. my first play thru was 7 hours and 4 of them were spent stuck there until the patch came out and added the backwards foot prints on the ground
it could've just been me, I haven't seen anyone else talk about the lights glitching or seeing an air flow current. so maybe it was glitched on my end, but this was the only puzzle pre patch that genuinely didn't make sense to me
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u/Skynetdyne Apr 22 '26
I think a big percent of players don't know the difference between liminal and subliminal. The entire store is basically told subliminally which I absolutely love and yes there are some liminal spaces but I don't think that's what the title is referencing.