Horror is an interesting genre in video games. Often, the play is to scare players straight-up. Foreboding music, high-pitched stings, the classic (and occasionally overused) jumpscare. But, THRESHOLD? It’s psychological horror. And it’s an awesome shot in the arm for the genre.
It’s also a very short experience. There are multiple endings, and short of just flat-out dying, the others should take you just over an hour to get to. It’s not a game that overstays its welcome. It knows what it’s trying to do. It reminds me of Firewatch in the way the environment and circumstances tell the story more than outright exposition.
Videos by VICE
THE HORROR OF UNCERTAINTY in ‘threshold’

The game opens with you in a locker room, preparing for your shift at an unknown job. As you’re riding the elevator up, the oxygen meter on its rails continues to deplete. When you reach the top, you’re greeted by your new coworker Mo who explains all communication needs to be written down to preserve air.
Mo then explains that the large train you see speeding through the mountain must continue to run at what is called the “expected pace.” This is determined by a series of lights over the train. As long as the light is green, you’re fine. If it turns red, a haunting siren will fire up, and you have to get to the horn in the middle of the area and blow a whistle.
Doing so, however, depletes oxygen and you have to bite down on a glass canister to get some air. The game explains most of the basic stuff but leaves some things to your exploration, like the ticket system. The tickets you get for collecting the goo at the end of the river are paramount to surviving the shift as they can be turned in for more air canisters.
THE MYSTERY OF THE TRAIN
Of course, the thing the game doesn’t outright explain is what exactly the train carries and why it has to keep moving at a particular speed. This is a mystery you’ll have to discover for yourself during your playthrough.
The horror aspect comes in the form of this mostly unexplained job, doing mostly unexplained work. As you fall into the routine of exploration, whistle-blowing, and glass-biting, the game becomes more and more unsettling. The monotony of the actions actually enhances some of the fear. There were moments when I became aware of the rhythm I was in and started trying to anticipate the next thing, only for nothing to happen.
The eerie setting and graphical style only add to the game’s atmosphere. The graphics are lifted straight out of a PS1, and the game is better for it. Everything is muddy and muted. There’s a constant fog, and the sound of the train is the only thing that keeps you company. After a while, you just get used to it. Mo said exactly that about the glass canisters, but it seems to also apply to the entirety of the game.
A horror show i couldn’t stop watching
With every glass canister bitten into, I began to feel like I was there with my character. Blowing the whistle became a compulsion, something I felt would keep me alive, despite my actions clearly having the opposite effect. The more I dug into the mystery of the mountain, the more I wanted to learn. At the same time, though? Somehow, I wanted to know less. I felt like my ignorance kept me safe.
THRESHOLD achieved something in its very short run time I didn’t expect. It made me consider the concept of performing tasks in a video game. We have quests, side quests, and other distractions, but what about the actual ramifications of them? Do you keep the train moving because that’s what you’re expected to do? Or is it time to peel back the curtain and see what’s behind it?
VERDICT: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
THRESHOLD is available for PC. A code was provided by the publisher.
More
From VICE
-
Credit: Spotify -
Rich Fury/VF20/Getty Images for Vanity Fair -
Screenshot: Nintendo -
(Photo by Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images)