Channeling the Impossible
There is a classic lithograph print by the artist M.C. Escher called Relativity. You have likely seen it, as it depicts several black-and-white stairwells that criss-cross one another, defying the laws of gravity. Figures walk the steps appearing upside down or on their sides, but each operates under its own rules of gravity within this strange piece of modern art.
It feels like The Stairwell has been heavily influenced by this classic 1953 print. Here, you are also confronted with staircases that defy the rules of reason, but it is up to you to spot the differences in this latest anomaly-spotting title.
There has been a host of these spot-the-anomaly games over the last couple of years, ranging from The Exit 8 to The Cabin Factory. The Stairwell is the latest to hit the market, and it features quite a simple setup. You play as a security guard for a sort of museum, and you have to repeatedly walk through the exact same loop: two stairwells, a small gallery with a bench, a little aquarium, and all the fixtures and fittings contained within that area.
Your job is to memorise this short route. You must look at every detail, from the posters on the wall to the direction a statue is facing. If you feel that everything is exactly as it should be, you carry on up to the next floor. If you feel that there is an anomaly and something isn’t quite right, you go back downstairs. In both instances, you will find yourself in a holding room that will flash either green or red, telling you whether you got it right or wrong.
Difficulty Tiers and the 10th Floor Goal
Initially, the goal is to reach the 10th floor and access the roof to escape and finish the game. However, be prepared for the fact that this task isn’t entirely what it seems; without spoiling anything, the journey might not simply end on the 10th floor. You have three difficulty levels to choose from too, Normal, Hard, and Nightmare, which determine how many anomalies will appear and how difficult they are to spot.
Memorising the Museum
The route you take passes a man on a bench looking at a painting. Then, there is a poster for a dinosaur exhibition. A painting of a skull hangs on the first stairwell, alongside a reward poster for a lost dog. Further along, there are a couple of statues depicting a man and a devil, as well as an aquarium featuring a poster about the sea. The final stairwell displays a film poster and another painting of a hallway. These images will be imprinted on my mind for a long time, as I have walked this route countless times.
The anomalies that appear can be massive; for example, the entire place might fill with water, leaving you submerged. This makes it quite clear that things have gone wrong, prompting a swift retreat downstairs. Other anomalies are much more subtle: a poster might be slightly altered, a statue could be pointing the wrong way, or the man on the bench might suddenly be staring directly at you.
Compelling Repetition
There is something highly addictive about this journey in The Stairwell, and it failed to ever frustrate me in the way some other games in this genre do. I genuinely wanted to keep playing through the loop to work out the differences, or confirm their absence. There is something compelling about the world, and I haven’t even mentioned that there might be a mad clown running amok.
The game’s visuals are interesting, and as I mentioned earlier, there is something unique about the vertical loop. That is especially true when you look up or down and see endless repetitions of the stairwell stretching into infinity. The graphical details within the loop are precise, and you will get to know them inside out while playing. Occasionally, the game pulls you out of the loop and drops you into strange, surprising, and highly effective alternate landscapes.
The audio is quite sparse during the first few loops, but occasionally, when something surprising happens, music will kick in, adding to the shock value. There are a few jump scares here and there, and the sound effects do a great job of amplifying this small slice of horror.
A New Favourite in the Looping Genre
The Stairwell is one of my favourite games in the looping genre. There is something about the vertical, Escher-esque design that really got its hooks into me. I couldn’t tell you how many times I walked that loop, but when I eventually made it to the end, I immediately wanted to go back for more, taking in a harder difficulty setting. It is also a game packed with great surprises that genuinely impressed me with their scope.
So, get your knees warmed up and venture up The Stairwell.
Important Links
Can You Survive The Stairwell’s Endless Loops? – https://www.thexboxhub.com/can-you-survive-the-stairwells-endless-loops/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/the-stairwell/9P24KCDQRM14/0010
