THRESHOLD Review. (Spoiler-free) What's In The Train?
Reaching my THRESHOLD!
Developer: Julien Eveillé
Publisher: CRITICAL REFLEX
Socials: Julien’s Twitter & BlueSky | Critical Reflex’s Twitter
Platforms: Steam
Price: $9.99
After a year of anticipation, THRESHOLD, developed by Julien Eveillé, and published by CRITICAL REFLEX, finally came out and it’s here to make your gums bleed.
I’ve been following the developer on Twitter, and even participated on the Discord even for this game. While I was hyped for this game, and I did win it in a raffle done in the server, this short narrative did leave me wanting more, however, its atmosphere and storytelling is competent.
Atop A Mountain (Narrative)
Congratulations! After Ni met an unfortunate end, you’re given the opportunity to become the yellow clerk to keep the train going with Mo, the purple clerk who you’ve become a partner of.
Mo teaches you to the best of his capabilities, giving you Ni’s whistle to continue the train going, teaching you how to get more air canisters and how to use them (don’t worry about the shattering glass that’ll get stuck into your gums, you have a great dental plan), and if any questions arise when he’s gone, you can always as HQ, or call him back when able.
Given that the job is easy, and its been sixteen hours since Mo took a break, you’ll be on own most of the time. But no one said that get job was hard! Only boring and stressful. Whistle to keep the train going, which keeps the water flowing to your country, and bite into the gas canister, which you get more through turning in tickets. Easy!
But it’s odd that Ni died, and you’re not really told how. Just that you’re replacing them. Now that you think of it, on your way to the horn that speeds up the train, there’s some sort of broken path that led to a view to the top of the train. How come you can’t know of the train’s content until a year of work? What’s the train transporting?
Clerks Putting Work
Not only is your job unforgiving, and monotonous, but it’s also unrewarding and surrounded in secrecy. As a clerk, your job is to keep the train going by whistling into a horn, cleaning the accumulated ick left by the flowing water, and using the tickets generated from the passage of the train and ick recycling to acquire more gas canisters.
By no means is the game’s mechanics complex, but it plays well with its narrative. The job isn’t anything exciting, and while you do have to bite into glass to breath, that’s the only bad thing about the job. No wonder Mo was able to do it for sixteen hours.
The key aspect of this game is its narrative, as the setting does feel suffocating, the colors are dim, the train reverberates and drowns you with questions of its importance and contents. I won’t say more, but the game does have a message, and I understood why the developer said that it’s based on a true story.
The Non-Stop Train To Somewhere
Government jobs have amazing insurance, so it’s worth whatever you got to do and why. THRESHOLD was worth the wait for me, as it was a bite-size experience that left me thinking about its message that, in today’s age, is crucial and important. I wish I was able to see the rest of the facility, maybe see anything else that’s going on in the premises. The worldbuilding is tied almost strictly to your job, though if you think about it, it could be intentional considering one of the game’s message. I also do have a gripe with something very coincidental regarding the reveal, but I really can’t say without spoiling anything.
The game does suffer from a few bugs, as my game broke during the ending, but the developer is working hard and releasing patches to fix some bumps. While I do doubt it, there’s enough here to explore further, allowing a THRESHOLD 2 to be made, if they wanted to.
If I had to give a score, I’d give it a:
7/10
and
Recommend
To anyone looking for a bite-sized narrative that forces you to explore your workplace and piece things together to understand your purpose, with minimal gameplay mechanics that greatly impact the tone, and an ending that’s fairly surprising.
What do you think about this game? Ever heard of it? Let me know!
This looks very interesting, but also surreal. You enjoyed Eclipsium's demo and Mouthwashing. How does this compare to them?