POOLS
Worth it · Narrative · 2024
Steam Deck VerifiedThe verdict
BUY IT.
Worth it at $9.79, a BANGER if it drops to $5.62.
- Length
- 2.1h
- Value
- $4.66/hr
- Reviews
- 95% positive
Watch this gameOne email when it is worth buying.
Minimum on the Steam store: 8 GB of memory, NVIDIA GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 580 or newer, 12 GB of storage. Runs on Windows, macOS, Linux.
Walking simulator. Explore, admire and listen. Uncanny. Relaxing. Unnerving. Eerie. Immersive. No monsters chasing you or jumping at your screen, but can feel oppressive at times by invoking fears of getting lost, the dark, tight spaces and liminal space architecture. Inspired by backrooms.
What drives the score
How to read this
Grades run S to D, read from the buyer's side. ▲ marks a lift, ▼ a drag or a dock, ? an input we do not have, • a fact this genre's score does not use. How the grades work
The value story
It has never been cheaper than $4.89. That was March 2026. It has been discounted 25 times in the 2 years tracked here, typically at 25 percent off, with about 5 weeks between sales. Today it is at full price. The last sale was about 5 weeks ago, and on this game's rhythm the next one tends to arrive within 5 weeks. Past sales have already crossed the $5.62 BANGER line once.
Against its own genre it lands in the top 2 percent on value. It is better reviewed than 98 percent of its genre. Among the games closest to it, The Exit 8 ($3.99, scores 66) and Visage ($34.99, scores 44) both come in lower.
This site sampled 602 of its Steam-purchase reviews; 24 were written by buyers who refunded it, sampled from reviews written April 2024 to August 2026. Inside the two-hour refund window, 91 percent of the 2,264 reviews written there were positive, against 95 percent overall, and those are 35 percent of everything written about it.
It carries Valve's Deck Verified rating and runs 2.1 hours, about as long as a handheld game wants to be.
The drop-off
74% start to 4% rarestNo achievement in this game marks the ending, so there is no finish rate. The curve runs from the most-unlocked achievement to the rarest, and its shape is where players stop. Steam global achievements
Players
About 29 players at once, as of Sep 24.
Player counts via SteamSpy.
What players say
I love Poolrooms-style Backrooms levels the endless glossy white tiles, the crystal-blue water, and that surreal feeling of wandering through corridors that seem to shift and change around you. There's something strangely peaceful about it. The silence, the reflections, the endless passages... it feels unsettling and comforting at the same time, almost like being lost in a dream you don't really want to wake up from.
filled me with a sense of serenity and dread like no other. i loved it! I personally love the concept of the poolrooms, and getting to explore as a low stakes environment was absolutely what I'd hoped for from the game. really cool visuals and all around a good experience :) the only thing I'll say is that I did have to use a guide for chapter 4 because I kept going around in circles. all the other levels have that...
I love this game and it's my favourite liminal space/backrooms game to date. The rooms are beautiful and the game gives you time to enjoy exploring without feeling like you have to rush due to a monster chasing you. There's also plenty of settings to play around with the graphics which was nice. The horror is very understated all-throughout the game. There was always that feeling of being alone but needing to look...
Steam reviews, mixed to match its Steam ratio and rotated daily. Opinions are theirs.
No data upstream: critic score (Metacritic).
Cite this score
POOLS scores 75/100 on the BANG Score (worth it). The BANG Score rates what a game is worth for the money. Via Steam BANGERS. https://steambangers.com/game/2663530/poolsReviews set the ceiling, and price against real length moves the BANG Score inside it. How it works, and where it is weak → Steam reviews as of Aug 2, price as of Sep 24.
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