Liminal Universe Review

You’ve likely seen or heard the word “liminal” but had no idea what it meant, or maybe you’re better informed than me. So with Liminal Universe, a self-proclaimed “exploration game that delves into the depths of loneliness”, I figured that it was time to finally look it up. It means something that’s barely perceptible, or in-between.

First of all, Liminal Universe doesn’t have a monster chasing you. There’s the odd startle here or there, but nothing jumps out at you or puts your life in danger. It’s just you walking around absolutely massive mazes — and I mean massive, even while sprinting it will take you minutes to cross some of the chasm-like environments.

There are three different levels: Pools, Snow, and Clouds. Each one is dreamlike in its presentation and will take close to an hour to finish each one, depending on how well you do in mazes, and how much of the time you’re sprinting.

Unfortunately, that’s about all of the good things that I have to say about Liminal Universe. For most of your time with the game, you’ll be listening to breathing, broken up by the sound of bodies of water or random regions of music. The music is immediately forgettable, as even though it repeats ad nauseam, you’re very quickly out of range of it. Oh, and there are the footsteps, which make it sound like your character is wearing dress shoes, even when walking on top of some pools of water…

What you’ll never be rid of is the constant motion of head bobbing, unless you look straight down. Admittedly, this is often a valid strategy, since there are long stretches of hallway that just require you to move forwards. Even while sprinting you don’t move that quickly, and when you need to crouch the motion is frustratingly slow. That’s both the crouching and then moving while crouched, a full downwards motion takes about five seconds.

Each level has to be completed in a single sitting, as there is no save system that I encountered. If you finish Pools and then want to exit the game and then return to the newly unlocked Snow, you have to go into a separate menu to select it.

I mentioned that there’s no danger in the game, and while that’s true, there are still some things that are clearly designed to make you feel a sense of unease. After swimming pools filled with giant rubber ducks and jungle gym playsets (with those plastic balls) they really seem to come out of nowhere.

Liminal Universe honestly feels like the developer bought a load of assets on the Unity store and slapped this together in a hodgepodge way, especially since nothing can be moved. Since you wake up at the start of the game in a room with a TV and media player, I assumed that there was some narrative that I was missing, but nope. There is an ever-present dust filter on the screen, which is less noticeable when there’s not much light. It’s like your character is supposed to be filming everything, but there’s nothing to suggest a camera is being used.

As a game, Liminal Universe isn’t very good. It’s much better as an experience, but saying that it’s probably even better as a YouTube video. Pretty to look at, weirdly taxing on the graphics card, and that’s about it.