The Exit Project: Backstreets

Around this time last year, I reviewed The Street 10, a miserable exercise in repetition where the goal was to suss out a bunch of anomalies and either walk forwards or backwards. As it turns out, there are a number of games in this weird genre, including a brand-new Switch release called The Exit Project: Backstreets. This game takes you from the street to the backstreet, which is more like an alleyway with doors on each end. It’s atmospheric and occasionally creepy, but is this new release from Nostra Games any fun? Is it at least better than The Street 10? That’s what we’re about to find out when I review The Exit Project: Backstreets.

If you’re thinking about buying The Exit Project: Backstreets for the story, then don’t bother, because there isn’t one. All you know is that you’re playing a man trying to get back to his apartment, but he’s stuck in what seems to be some sort of loop. Every time he opens the door to what should be his home, he’s right back at the beginning of the alleyway, seeing the same junk strewn about and hearing the same radio broadcast. What is going on?

Just like The Street 10, the goal of this game is to puzzle your way through ten levels in order to finally make it home safe and sound. Now, I will admit that I’m using the word “puzzle” extremely loosely here, because what you’re really trying to do is figure out if the alley is normal or if it has some sort of weird anomaly.

Here’s how it works in a practical sense: If you enter a backstreet and see the numbers “666” spraypainted everywhere, then that’s an anomaly and you need to walk through the back door. The same goes for when you see crows flying around, boxes getting blown off shelves, the lights flickering on and off, or even a freaky mannequin dancing above the street. Sometimes the anomalies are audio cues, such as the radio screaming at you or a spooky knocking coming from the other side of the door. If you witness any of these strange incidences happening, then it’s time to turn around and go back through the door you just walked through.

On the flip side, if everything is as it should be in the level, then you’ll walk through the door at the end of the street, advancing our hero to the next seemingly identical alleyway. You’ll just keep going through that door until you detect an anomaly, but watch out, because if you go through the wrong door, you’ll get warped right back to the first level. You can keep track of which stage you’re on by looking at the number painted on the gate at the start of each cycle, though the character will be audibly annoyed every time he makes the wrong choice.

If all of this sounds incredibly easy, it’s because it is. Once you crack its front door/back door code, you’ll have no problem beating the game in a matter of minutes. It took me less than ten, and that includes solving the so-called puzzle. While there are certainly a few subtle anomalies that can mess you up, most are in-your-face obvious. All you really need to do is memorize the base level, and be a little observant, and you’ll have no problem beating the game in record time.

I suppose you could argue that at least the short alleyway looks good. It’s dark, moody and certainly looks lived in, detailed to within an inch of its life. There’s a lot to look at and potentially memorize, but there’s really no reason to gawk at the detailed junk, because the anomalies just aren’t very subtle. You’re never asked to count the lights or make sure there are the same number of boxes this cycle, because most of the anomalies are obvious to a fault.

“Who is this game for?” That’s the question I kept asking myself as I looped through the alleyway. Sure, it’s moody, but it’s not scary, so it doesn’t work as a horror game. There’s no story, so you wouldn’t buy it for the plot. The puzzle is obvious, so nobody is going to play it as a brain-teaser. And did I mention that it’s not challenging and there’s barely anything to the gameplay? I just don’t get it, who is this game made for? And, more importantly, what are they getting out of this experience?

If you were to tell me that this came from a first-time developer who was using the project to practice how to construct a claustrophobic and atmospheric stage, then at least this game would make sense. But The Exit Project is one of thirteen titles Nostra Games has released so far this year. Keep in mind that we’re only eight weeks into the year, so they’ve definitely been busy putting out “quality” titles like Street Food Restaurant Owner and Save the Doge.

The real problem with this game isn’t that it’s not fun, but rather that it’s not really much of anything. It barely has a start. and ends just as abruptly, offering little in the way of satisfaction. It’s repetitive, it’s boring and it never adds up to anything. And worst of all is the ten-dollar asking price, which is especially offensive when it won’t even take you ten minutes to beat the game. Maybe you could justify the price for an easy platinum trophy on PlayStation, but the Switch version doesn’t even have that excuse to fall back on. Mark my words, The Exit Project: Backstreets will be the most forgettable game of 2025.