A Liminal Sandbox That Neglects To Entertain
THE BATHROOMS was something of a rarity for me. I completed it without understanding what I did, or how I did it. I was left staring at the credits, wondering what on earth just happened. Then I played it again, completed it, and thought almost exactly the same thing. I did some things, scrabbling around in the dark, and then I won.
I did come to an understanding eventually. It took me three or four completions, but I got there. Once I realised it was a horror sandbox with a relaxed approach to how you play it, tacked on to good and bad endings, I finally understood what THE BATHROOMS was about. I’m not sure whether I liked the process, but I got there in the end.
Dude, Where’s My Shiba Inu?
THE BATHROOMS begins as you wake up in a car park, and your pet shiba inu has gone missing. It’s enough to give John Wick the rage. But it soon becomes clear that the car park is attached to a school, and the lights are on even though it’s nighttime. Perhaps the shiba has stepped inside for some night classes.
Inside the school, it’s clear that some liminal shenanigans are going on. If you’ve not realised from the title, THE BATHROOMS is a loving homage to Backrooms. You step into the toilets at the back of the school, discover some sketchy occult stuff, and suddenly you’re in a giant, never-ending bathroom with toilet stalls, scattered urinals and water up to your ankles.
The shiba inu has been taken by a giant jester-like character called The Custodian, and you need to gather keys to let them out. OR you can focus on gathering enough coins to leave the bathrooms, since there seems to be a handy total that will buy your freedom. OR you can tinker with the orbs and machinery that appear periodically in the procedural, constantly shifting bathroom maze.
Winning With One Arm Behind My Back
Initially, I assumed the objective was to gather those coins. I needed $100,000, and it seemed oddly easy to achieve it. I’d hit up some one-armed bandits in the bathrooms, play them twenty or thirty times, then have the necessary amount to win. Game over, credits roll. But this felt like a hollow victory, and I wasn’t leaving without my dog.
While I was in my one-armed bandit phase, the Custodian would make occasional visits to see how I was doing. I may have described that slightly more warmly than it deserves: the lights would go down, the water would rise, and I would get the prickly sensation on the back of my neck that I was being hunted. But as much as the clown creeped me out, he didn’t overly punish me. Once I realised that I was getting whisked to a jail-wagon with a slight dink in my earnings, I learned to stop worrying about The Custodian. Plus, I could duck into bathroom stalls and lock the doors if I just wanted to avoid the incredibly loud music.
THE BATHROOMS might be a sandbox, but it wants you to play in a different way than the one I started by playing. You need to be finding orbs and tracking back and forth to find where they slot. You need to be engaging with the game’s loops, which mostly involve purchasing Copium – an online reference that I’m just young enough to get – to multiply the gold you collect, opening bathroom stalls and digging around in barrels to get the said cash.
With that cash, you can start thinking about buying and upgrading your gold vacuum, which is naff at first, and a clown gun for taking out The Custodian. Invest in these, and the enemies and coin-gathering become less of a bother. You might even find a good ending.
More Social Experiment Than Game
This was my complicated path through THE BATHROOMS, and I would love to know whether others took the same route. But while I eventually found my way, I am still on the fence about whether I actually enjoyed it.
Part of my problem is that I can’t quite figure out what THE BATHROOMS is aiming for. At moments, I thought it wanted to be a parody of all the liminal horror games we’re getting ad nauseum. You start the game by hunting for rubber ducks and balloon collectibles. The Custodian can be funny in an odd, Terrifier-kind of way, as he runs alongside your body when you get captured like a paramedic with a gurney. And there’s the inherent silliness of the title and the fact that you’re lost in a forever-toilet.
But if it’s a parody, it’s not a particularly funny or satirical one. It’s mostly just emulating liminal games but with toilet bowls, and that’s fine, I guess, but it’s neither skewering the genre or any particular details, and it certainly never led to a laugh. Some moments were neatly surreal, but that’s about it.
If it’s not aiming to be a parody, then it’s a pure horror game, and it’s here where it’s more successful. There is a genuine tension from the way that water rising means you splash more, and that’s exactly what The Custodian is looking for. Screams echo around the installation, letting you know that he’s on the hunt, and there is genuine panic in trying to find a cubicle. Lights flash, copium runs out, and your cash reserves get worryingly low.
Like Being Locked In A Blocked Toilet
Even here, though, THE BATHROOMS is a little one-note. The Custodian is the only real threat, and you begin to learn his patterns. The liminality of the space is also more annoying than affecting: it can be frustrating to arrive in yet another room of pillars and urinals, hoping to find the orb or key that you need.
I’m very aware that I sound like a bemused old man, wandering the stalls of THE BATHROOMS. It’s certainly how I felt as I muttered about what the hell I should be doing, and what the point was. But I’m not convinced that the developers knew what they wanted to make either, as The Bathrooms sits firmly between two stools without resting on either: does it want to be a parody of liminal games, or an attempt to make yet another one?
THE BATHROOMS has strong atmosphere, some streamer-bating scares and an effective liminal space, but I rarely felt like I was doing anything of interest. I was dabbling with its sandbox, accidentally unlocking endings, and wondering whether there was anything actually meaningful to do or see.
Important Links
Need To Escape? THE BATHROOMS On Xbox Wants Your Coins First – https://www.thexboxhub.com/need-to-escape-the-bathrooms-on-xbox-wants-your-coins-first/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/the-bathrooms/9nppjl7s3dwl
