A new horror game set on a sterile, liminal, and infinite subway train has attracted some positive buzz on its launch weekend. Platform 8 is a horror walking simulator that has you on an infinitely repeating, psychologically oppressive train where your only company are some advertisements and a guy looking at his phone.
Platform 8 is a sequel of sorts to The Exit 8, a psychological horror game about finding your way through an endless, tiled subway exit tunnel. The developer says you'll enjoy Platform 8 more if you played The Exit 8. The Exit 8 was released last year, in November of 2023, and quite well-received by people who played it—93% positive out of about 5,800 reviews.
Platform 8 is available on Steam in both English and Japanese. It takes "15-60" minutes to beat, depending on how quickly you catch on to the tricks, and costs $4.
Short horror games inspired by liminal spaces have been taking off on Steam in the last few years, with semi-shared world space the backrooms getting a lot of attention. Here's an explainer on The Backrooms, if you're curious about those. (Coincidentally, some internet sleuths cracked the origin of the most famous backrooms image just this week.)
Developer Kotake Create is also working on a larger horror game project to release in 2025: Strange Shadow. There's not much on it now, but the trailer shows a character in heavy environmental protective gear running around a dark, ruined city and seemingly pursued by a massive humanoid figure intent on crushing them.
