Platform 8 Switch Review – The Game Slush Pile

The is no talking about Platform 8, a horror walking simulator, without talking about The Exit 8, it’s predecessor. The blurb says, “You will enjoy it more if you have played the previous title.” So i plopped down four more dollars and did just that. Interestingly, I enjoyed Platform 8 less than I enjoyed Exit 8. But we’ll get to why later. Firsts let’s dive in to the Exit 8.

The Exit 8

Exit 8 is the predecessor to Platform 8. And it is a far simpler game. You find yourself in an endless looping hallway. Every time you pass through, you look for anomalies. They can be as obvious as two Yakuza guys standing in the hallway, to as subtle as a flipped sign. If you see an anomaly, turn around that walk the other way. If you don’t see any, just continue forward. If you successfully navigate eught hallways, you’ll find the exit. Go up it and the credits will roll. At first I thought it was stupid, but eventually I was hooked and thought it was a simple but well done game. Not particularly scary, but it did not need to be. I could see why it sold a million copies(being $4 helped). Now onto Platform 8.

Platform 8

Platform 8 had a bigger budget and they turned the everything up to 11. This time, you’re on an endless train and the anomalies slap you in the face. You’re not missing these. This time, you can’t turn around and go into the last train car. You have to “survive” the anomalies to move to next train car. Some are harmless, some will kill you if you fall for them(and you start over) and some need to be solved to move on. One anomaly dumps you in a looped place filled with fog and you have to reset the game to start over. The beautiful simplicity of Exit 8 is replaced with frustration at times. I did not like Platform 8 much at all. It was like the developers were trying too hard to be edgier and it just did not work for me.

Conclusion

The Exit 8 was short, but extremely satisfying. Platform 8 was not satisfying at all. As I said, the developers were trying too hard. Anomalies where you’ll die if you move five pixels to the left are not fun(and they exist). I’m giving the game a Your Mileage May Vary with a six back-end score. I just know I’m about to get dog-piled by kids screaming “You’re wrong!” And they are free to enjoy the hell out of this. I’m not stopping them. I just don’t think Platform 8 works as well as it predecessor did.

Overall: I thought Exit 8 was great. I thought Platform 8 tried too hard and missed the train entirely. Get this with caution.

Verdict: YMMV

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