Pools cover art

Pools

2024TensoriPlayStation VR2, PC (Microsoft Windows), SteamVR, PlayStation 5, Mac, Nintendo Switch

Liminal space game with focus on eerie exploration and immersion instead of typical horror. Navigate through endless alike rooms. Explore, orient, get out.

What it feels like

The core design explicitly invokes uncanniness through familiar yet disturbingly wrong liminal space architecture and an eerie, surreal atmosphere. The game emphasizes exploration, observation, and immersion in atmospheric spaces, inviting reflection rather than action. Despite unease, the game is framed as relaxing with no threats, offering a calm, meditative quality to the wandering experience.

Uncanny95%
Contemplative75%
Serene65%
Lonely60%
Oppressive55%

What it's about

Solitary navigation through an endless maze of alike spaces centers on the experience of being utterly alone in an incomprehensible architecture. Horror rooted in uncanniness, disorientation, and the fear of getting lost rather than external threats—a fundamentally psychological dread. The surreal, liminal backrooms setting operates by dream logic rather than physical plausibility.

Isolation70%
Psychological Horror65%
Dreams & Subconscious60%

How it plays

As a walking simulator, core interaction is movement and observation of hotspots and environmental details rather than combat or puzzle-solving.

Point-and-Click45%

How it looks and sounds

First-person perspective is definitional to the immersive liminal space exploration and the player's direct embodied presence in the world. Endless alike rooms and backrooms-inspired architecture create dreamlike, impossible spaces that defy normal logic and topology. The game strips down to essential exploration and observation, with sparse narrative and design focused on space rather than ornamentation.

First-Person90%
Surreal Visuals80%
Minimalist Visuals70%
Minimal Audio40%
Monochrome35%

How it's structured

Explicitly designed for solo play; the isolation and solitary exploration are central to the experience. The player chooses their path through endless similar rooms with no prescribed order or mandatory progression. Navigation through procedurally-alike endless rooms creates a non-linear, continuously explorable space without fixed boundaries.

Single-Player95%
Nonlinear Progression55%
Open World50%
Procedural Levels50%
Bite-Sized Sessions35%
Yume Nikki70% match

Shares Uncanny, Surreal Visuals, Dreams & Subconscious, Psychological Horror.

Both lean into Single-Player, Uncanny, Surreal Visuals, Dreams & Subconscious.

Single-Player95%Uncanny85%Surreal Visuals95%Dreams & Subconscious98%

Shares First-Person, Uncanny, Surreal Visuals, Isolation.

Both lean into Single-Player, First-Person, Uncanny, Surreal Visuals.

Single-Player95%First-Person90%Uncanny70%Surreal Visuals65%
Visage59% match

Shares First-Person, Uncanny, Psychological Horror, Surreal Visuals.

Both lean into First-Person, Single-Player, Uncanny, Psychological Horror.

First-Person95%Single-Player90%Uncanny85%Psychological Horror92%

See all games like Pools

A lesser-known kindred — First-Person, Uncanny, Minimalist Visuals, Psychological Horror. 90% positive across 4,526 Steam reviews.

Both lean into Single-Player, First-Person, Uncanny, Minimalist Visuals.

Single-Player95%First-Person90%Uncanny70%Minimalist Visuals75%
Summer of '5842% match

A lesser-known kindred — First-Person, Psychological Horror, Contemplative, Minimalist Visuals. 89% positive across 4,904 Steam reviews.

Both lean into First-Person, Single-Player, Psychological Horror, Contemplative.

First-Person90%Single-Player85%Psychological Horror72%Contemplative55%

A lesser-known kindred — First-Person, Psychological Horror, Uncanny, Minimalist Visuals. 91% positive across 4,453 Steam reviews.

Both lean into First-Person, Single-Player, Psychological Horror, Uncanny.

First-Person95%Single-Player70%Psychological Horror90%Uncanny50%
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