After last month’s insanely weird Mouthwashing impressed me with its bizarre story and unsettling tone, I figured Critical Reflex would be a publisher to keep an eye out on, in case I ever wanted to experience something else in the realm of “really weird horror”. Now here we are with Threshold, another unique shortform experience with a settling tone that delivers exactly what I was expecting it to.

It’s your first day on the job at the border post up high in the mountains, and your job is simple: you gotta maintain the outpost, repairing any damages, and making sure the train that passes through it is running on schedule. If not, your limited air supply will be cut off. Yep, just like that. Don’t question anything. It’s not like you have the air to do so. But don’t worry, a worker called Mo is there to help you on your first day.

Meet Mo, Mo is a good worker, be more like Mo.

The story of Threshold holds a strong central mystery, as you aren’t told what you are doing or why it has to be done. All you know is that you have to do it. Threshold doesn’t hold your hand through the story, and by the end of my first playthrough, not a lot was clear. It leaves more than enough mystery to keep me invested, and that is helped by an incredibly brief two-hour run time that doesn’t let things sit for too long.

The gameplay is simple: your job is to keep the train running on schedule. You do this by blowing your whistle if it starts to drop too far behind. Not doing so means you won’t be able to trade your tickets for glass air capsules you have to bite into. Keep the train in that sweet spot to keep the company happy and the air coming in. Running around and jumping will drain your oxygen faster, so try and walk around. I didn’t find myself running out of oxygen tanks with good enough management. However; even when moving around quickly I never really started to run out of tanks and there doesn’t seem to be too much of a penalty for consuming too many air capsules..

Whilst trying to keep up with your duties you can explore the outpost and uncover its many dark secrets. Keep an eye out, and find interesting things, but in keep in mind that your actions do have consequences. These may not be blatantly obvious at first, but whatever you do is tracked with several endings and variations upon those endings as well. There are moments throughout the game where I was thinking “Hm, what if I try this?”, and typically something does happen, even if it’s small. And the small border post environment is one I enjoyed exploring, even if there’s really not a lot to it.

What’s in the shed?!

On occasion, you will be able to call up Mo, who will explain how the game works, and answer questions about the Outpost. You can ask him about how the various functions in the outpost or secrets that you have found around the incredibly small area. But you can also piss him off. I haven’t explored all the possibilities with interacting with Mo or the council itself.

There’s always a sense of unease in Threshold that holds throughout the entire runtime. Every encounter with the council is shrouded in mystery as it never truly explains what’s happening. Whilst the glass air canisters are a sadistically cruel joke, the air is thin and the only supply you have is to bite down on a glass bottle of the story. You’re not sure who can be trusted or what your entire purpose but the more you explore the weirder things get. It’s an incredibly effective short psychological experience.

The biggest issue I have with Threshold, though, is that it is plastered with tons of bugs that constantly hampered my progress. Rebooting the game after hitting a checkpoint often resets tutorials and messages, meaning everything I do has pop-ups again. On multiple occasions, I’ve had the game soft lock me with objects landing in front of a door that can’t be pushed away, Mo just disappearing, or prompts just flat-out not showing up, meaning I cannot get any more tickets for air.

Thankfully, getting back to where you were doesn’t take too long but this has happened on a frequent enough basis that it was becoming a frustration. Keep in mind, the game was being patched a lot through my review period, so it’s entirely possible a lot of things may have been fixed or my issues were a result of changes that were affecting my save. Your mileage may vary a lot here.

Water rises or drains depending on how fast the train is running.

However, Threshold is also an incredibly short game, and your first playthrough will likely take close to two hours, maybe pushing two and a half, with subsequent playthroughs being significantly shorter. You will then focus more on replaying the game several times to really start unravelling the mystery at the centre. This is something I would recommend doing in one sitting regardless, but for those who want to spread their playtime, checkpoints are somewhat infrequent.

The visuals are rather simple and this works to the game’s advantage. The simple low-resolution textures and small environments give the game claustrophobic feeling. Due to the lack of air in the outpost border, there’s an excuse not to have any voice acting. All of this works to make the game that much more eerie. The same can be said about the lack of soundtrack. As a whole, there’s not a lot to discuss about the game’s visual and sound design, because there’s not a lot there, and intentionally so.

As a whole, Threshold is a delightfully bizarre and engaging little game, but the odd pacing and structure might not be to everyone’s liking. The core main gameplay loop borders on tedious, and there’s a frustrating amount of bugs, however, it’s getting to the bottom of that mystery that makes it an utterly engaging experience. If you’re looking for weirdness, you should give this one a go.

Threshold is available now on PC.

Reviewed on PC

A copy of Threshold was provided by the publisher.