The Exit 8

Genre: First-Person Walking Simulator / Horror

Players: 1

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in The Exit 8 + Platform 8 Bundle, along with Platform 8.)

The Exit 8 is a First-Person Walking Simulator with Horror elements released in 2023 on PC, ported in 2024 to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, then ported in 2025 to Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch 2. This game has you walking down a seemingly-endless underground corridor trying to get to the titular Exit 8. Yeah, this is another one of those “liminal spaces” sorta’ deals, like the Backrooms meme, game, and movie.

As you walk down the corridor, you’ll pass by a balding middle-aged man, a few locked doors, some advertisement posters, and a few other mundane decorations. You’ll zig-zag around a few corners, and find yourself walking down the same corridor again, even passing by the same man.

Sometimes, you’ll encounter something different – perhaps you’ll hear banging on one of the doors, or maybe the man will be smiling creepily as he passes you. Maybe you’ll encounter a guy camouflaged to fit in with the white wall tiles. According to the eShop page’s description, when you encounter these “anomalies”, you’re supposed to retrace your steps back. Even before I read that, I still found myself repeatedly getting to the exit within five minutes or so of starting and apparently completing the game, simply because these random events hadn’t occurred – all I needed to do was keep walking.

The presentation here is okay but not great. The 3D visuals for the hallways are mostly fine – it looks dull, but it’s clearly meant to look dull, and the posters look detailed enough. The reflections of the ceiling lights in the tiles don’t look right, since they’re round-shaped and the lights are bars. And the balding guy is a pretty ugly-looking character model. But overall this looks okay-ish.

For sound, mostly the only sound you’ll hear here are the hum of the lights, the footsteps of you and the middle-aged man, and that’s about it unless something more interesting happens on a loop. Not much to talk about there.

Does it work as Horror? It’s clearly trying for it, but not really. There are a few surprising things that can happen, but overall this seemed more dull and tedious than scary.

Does it work as a game? Not really, it’s just a matter of walk forward until you see something different and then walk back.

Does it work as an experience? Honestly, I don’t think so. It’s extremely short and shallow even for a “liminal space” game. There’s no interesting story here, no building tension, just a bunch of random events that may or may not happen each time you walk through the repeating hallway. Even for the low $4 price, I don’t recommend this.

tl;dr – The Exit 8 is a First-Person Walking Simulator with Horror elements that has you walking down a repeating underground corridor watching out for odd “anomalies”. This game is short, shallow, and not very scary for a Horror game, and I think even fans of this particular style of game will find themselves tiring of it quickly and abandoning it for something else.

Grade: D

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

The Exit 8 – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition

Genre: First-Person Walking Simulator / Horror

Players: 1

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Review:

Yes, The Exit 8 has received its own Nintendo Switch 2 Edition upgrade, selling for $1. Yes, it has received this upgrade before any number of amazing, deserving Nintendo Switch games that could really benefit from the upgrade. Let’s just move on and see what the extra $1 gets you, shall we?

The eShop page boasts improved resolution and framerates, and I can say at least the latter is true – movement in this version is smoother (at least, after you turn off the blur filter in the options menus). As for resolution, I think it’s a mixed bag – I do see far less aliasing on the wall tiles, but if anything the middle-aged man looks even more blurry.

The eShop page also mentions more detailed graphics, and the only place I noticed anything like this is that the reflection of the ceiling lights in the tiles is fixed in this version. The lighting is also… different… in this version. Not better, not worse, just different – it’s darker in some places.

Aside from this, the other change I noticed was a small change to loading times – the Nintendo Switch version of the game took 12 seconds to load the game up (there’s no title screen), and another 17 seconds every time it had to reset the loop. On Nintendo Switch 2, those times are cut down to 7 seconds and 13 seconds.

Is that an improvement? Sure, I guess. Is it worth $1? I don’t really think so, but then I don’t think the underlying game is worth $4. But I suppose if you want to make this pointless, brief experience look a bit better (and maybe worse in a few places), and you have $1 to throw away, go for it.

tl;dr – The Exit 8 is a First-Person Walking Simulator with Horror elements that has you walking down a repeating underground corridor watching out for odd “anomalies”. This game is short, shallow, and not very scary for a Horror game, and I think even fans of this particular style of game will find themselves tiring of it quickly and abandoning it for something else.

Grade: D

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