POOLS

Played the game through a different platform. Sometimes you just need a game where you explore some surreal and impossible locales and wonder what the living hell is going on. Also helps that the game is genuinely pretty and has great sound design and one of the few instances where lighting effects on the camera/player adds to the experience.

... first time I must've been around 7 years old and some Psycho-child actively TRIED to drown me in the non-swimmer pool of a large indoor swimming pool, all the while laughing like the child he was. He was at the ledge and held me at my head and my shoulder under water. Mom saved me at the last second, I already swallowed a lung full of water. She later said that is was luck that she saw me struggling. Second time my hand got stuck by a giant submerged divider wall in a big indoor wave pool. The (fully made out of bricks) divider was gently swaying with the waves back and forth, until the wave machines stopped and the wall caught my hand while I was diving at the bottom. If I could have stood up, my shoulders would've been above the water line, but as my Hand was stuck, I was too. That day I learned that fingernails grow back if you pull all of them out, just takes a while. I was stumbling delirious out of the water, profoundly bleeding from my hand. I was 10. Save to say I developed a form of aquaphobia after that. Bridges were almost a no-go after that, took YEARS to move past that phobia. I'm over 40 now, and this game man,this... game... this must've been the best horror game that money can buy for me. 10/10 - would re-live childhood near-death traumas again!

Throughout my entire playthrough of Pools, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing from the experience. What kept me going wasn’t enjoyment, but rather a morbid curiosity to see what the next piece of liminal horror the game would present. Everything in this game, apart from its intriguing art direction and environment design, feels flat. I expected a certain atmosphere, but a vibe cannot be carried by visuals alone—not in this game, at least. Pools feels empty, but not in the oppressive way it seems to aim for. Instead, it resembles the emptiness of an unfinished game. That’s what this game ultimately feels like—unfinished and unpolished, with nothing beyond the visuals standing out. There are many remarkable gaming experiences from the PS1/PS2 era that, despite lacking advanced visual fidelity, deliver vibes far more memorable than what Pools manages to evoke. In terms of gameplay, the game offers very little, and what it does offer is entirely unremarkable. The movement feels neither good nor bad—just bland. In a way, that’s what makes it worse; the lack of any emotional impact leaves it feeling hollow. In the end, Pools is a short, unremarkable experience that seems to be riding the trend of liminal spaces. While it has artistic value in terms of visuals, that’s about all it has to offer.

different from many games, a great change of pace. Very happy with the game. Having the ability to speed up the movement is great.