$14.99The Complex: Expedition Filming the dread in VHS
A lost 1988 expedition leaves you alone with a camera, endless yellow halls and the feeling something is watching.
Is The Complex: Expedition worth it?
The Complex: Expedition is worth it if…
- you like horror that creeps rather than jumps, and would rather be unnerved than startled
- you enjoy wandering strange, empty places at your own pace and reading the story from the walls
- you have a soft spot for the Backrooms legend and VHS-era found footage
- you want a short, atmospheric session rather than a long campaign (a full run takes roughly two to three hours)
Screenshots
Found footage from a place that should not exist
You play Neuman, the cameraman of a research team sent to explore The Complex. Everything you see comes through his VHS camera: the tape grain, the shaky lens, a flashlight and zoom when the dark gets thick. He coughs, breathes, mutters his thoughts into the recording, and the whole game plays as his final tape. The effect is convincing enough that at some point you stop reading it as a filter and start believing you are watching real footage of somewhere no camera should ever go.
Dread built from sound and silence
Nothing chases you here, and that is the point. The horror works on your head: a distant distorted melody playing somewhere in the walls, footsteps you cannot tell are yours, a figure that may or may not have been standing in that corner a second ago. The sound design is a highlight, never settling for plain silence, and the game gives you time to talk yourself into terror. You check behind you. You zoom in on dark doorways. Most of the time there is nothing there, and somehow that is worse.
What should you know before playing?
Can you play it solo?
Yes, and it is built for it. You are alone in The Complex for almost the entire game, cut off from your team, and the isolation is the core of the experience. There is no companion, no radio chatter to keep you company, just you, the camera and whatever is making that noise two hallways over.
Are there monsters and jump scares?
Almost none. The game leans on psychological horror instead: flickering lights, shapes at the edge of the frame, a doll-like figure that appears in brief cutscenes. A monster does exist, but it is barely on screen and never chases you. If you want action and escapes by the skin of your teeth, this is not that kind of game.
Is it worth replaying?
It can be. Your entry point into The Complex shifts between runs, there are different endings to find, and the hand-crafted levels reward poking into corners you skipped the first time. A single playthrough is short, so a second run to see the other ending is an easy sell.
Do you need to know the Backrooms legend first?
No. The game tells its own story about a 1988 research expedition and stands on its own. If you do know the legend, you will recognise the yellow hallways, the pool rooms and other familiar spaces, and the game treats the source material with visible care. It is its own take, not a retelling of any existing series.
