Horror is subjective; we know that more than anything when watching films or playing video games. However, it’s difficult to ignore the meteoric rise in popularity of liminal spaces (a form of horror which focuses on atmosphere and isolation) in the horror genre.
Babbdi is a game by developers Sirius Lemaitre and Leonard Lemaitre. It was originally released on Itch.io but has since been added to Steam. It’s free on both platforms and has an average playtime of around 40 minutes.
Babbdi is the name of a city made up of concrete and a disfigured population. The texture maps used are very realistic but are so compressed that every person you see is recognizable as human but just off enough to evoke a feeling of discomfort. This is the power of Babbdi.
You can spend as much time as you want in the city. There are collectibles to find throughout it but they are not anywhere obvious; the city is maze-like. It’s made up of tall, brutalist buildings with alleys in between that are only a few feet wide. The city gives a strange sense of being overcrowded despite there being only 21 citizens, a dog and three life-sized dolls.
The lack of people and the claustrophobic nature of the city is unnatural to the player. Video games typically are full of players and NPCs but now you’re almost completely alone. It’s difficult to imagine a map of Babbdi because it is so compressed and many of the buildings ascend much higher than would be expected, some even descend into the ground.
Picturing a map is necessary, however, because your only goal is to leave Babbdi and the game does very little to help you navigate. You have very few tools to utilize in your escape from the city, all you can do is walk and interact with the citizens. There are some items you can find that will make traveling through the city easier but all of them have flaws.
Your best bet is to travel by foot. When you’re traveling by foot, you have a much easier time traversing the streets but going up into buildings is made difficult by the dilapidated stairwells. Still, you travel to the top of a building and you can see the entire city. It’s cold and empty but it makes it easier to figure out where you would like to go next.
In my first playthrough, I was given my objective and completed it in about 50 minutes. I left Babbdi by train because it’s the only way to leave. The reason there are still people in the city is because they have stopped selling tickets. The citizens have given up on escaping and discourage the player from trying. The attitude is hopeless and complacent. Once you learn this, it is up to you to find a way onto the train.
The citizens will talk to you but only in short sentences and will stare at you as you walk by. The entire world of Babbdi is cold and unwelcoming. It isn’t something most horror games offer but it’s horrifying nonetheless.
If you choose to interact with the citizens of Babbdi, most of the time they give one remark and then refuse to speak with you again. Some of them add to the environment and develop the city’s history for players interested in world building, others help you with your objective. It is most beneficial to speak with all of them because there’s no indication of who will give helpful information.
One citizen named Lee Chong sits in a sliver of sunlight with his head back and eyes closed. The buildings in the city are so tall that a majority of your playtime will be spent in shadowy alley ways.
Lee Chong basks in one of the only spots in the city that sunlight touches, he is one of the most important NPCs because he tells you about the train. When you first see him, he’s simply sitting there; there’s no indication that you should talk to him. It is an element of the game design that feels similarly cold to the rest of the city.
Babbdi offers a unique gaming experience I have never had before. It is cold and uninviting but when you enter the city, you’re entranced in the environment which beckons you to explore it.
It is uniquely haunting in a way that most games have not captured and that feeling does not go away when you leave the city. It is likely that in your first playthrough, you will still have questions; those questions are what call you back for more. It is the most significant horror game I have ever played and it is not even overtly scary.
Benjamin Martins can be contacted at
bmartins@kscequinox.com
