The Complex: Found Footage
Experience the liminal world of the backrooms through a VHS camera, immersing into a mysterious story and wandering the dream-like structures... Might there be something following you? The Complex: Found Footage is a walking simulator with the world being viewed through a VHS camera. Uncover a mystery that lies in the world of "The Complex", though it may leave more questions rather than answers...
What it feels like
The core appeal is unraveling an enigmatic mystery within The Complex with answers deliberately withheld or ambiguous. The sense of something following the player and the unsettling liminal atmosphere build slow anticipatory fear throughout. Liminal spaces and the dream-like backrooms evoke subtle wrongness in the almost-familiar made disturbingly off.
What it's about
Uncovering a hidden truth within The Complex is the central narrative driver. The dream-like liminal structures of the backrooms operate on surreal, illogical dream logic. The player navigates alone through empty, vast liminal spaces cut off from the outside world.
How it plays
Walking simulators typically involve examining the environment and clicking hotspots for interaction, though minimally implemented.
How it looks and sounds
The entire game is experienced through a first-person camera viewpoint, literally framed as VHS footage. The VHS camera aesthetic creates a deliberate low-fidelity, degraded 3D look with artifacts, distortion, and analog decay central to the experience. Found-footage aesthetic typically relies on sparse, diegetic sound design that heightens the sense of isolation and unease.
How it's structured
Explicitly single-player experience designed for solo immersion. Wandering through the backrooms offers exploration freedom rather than rigid linear progression. Walking simulators typically offer contained, finite experiences completable in a few hours rather than sprawling campaigns.
Kindred games
Shares First-Person, Mystery, Dreams & Subconscious, Mysterious.
Both lean into Single-Player, First-Person, Mystery, Surreal Visuals.
Shares First-Person, Dread, Psychological Horror, Dreams & Subconscious.
Both lean into Single-Player, First-Person, Dread, Psychological Horror.
Shares First-Person, Mystery, Mysterious, Psychological Horror.
Both lean into Single-Player, First-Person, Mystery, Mysterious.
See all games like The Complex: Found Footage →
Closest hidden gems
A lesser-known kindred — First-Person, Mystery, Mysterious, Dread. 89% positive across 4,904 Steam reviews.
Both lean into First-Person, Single-Player, Mysterious, Mystery.
A lesser-known kindred — First-Person, Dread, Mysterious, Mystery. 86% positive across 4,772 Steam reviews.
Both lean into First-Person, Dread, Single-Player, Mysterious.
A lesser-known kindred — First-Person, Dread, Psychological Horror, Lonely. 90% positive across 4,526 Steam reviews.
Both lean into Single-Player, First-Person, Dread, Psychological Horror.