Day 7 (also stylized as, Day Seven, Day Se7en or known alternatively as The Backrooms) is a 2019 psychological horror game developed by Puppet Combo. The game can be downloaded from Puppet Combo's Patreon page.
Summary[]
Every 20 seconds, a person goes missing in the US. Terrence has been slowly losing his mind at a dead-end job. His desolate late-night commute may make him lose a lot more than that!
Gameplay[]
The game consists of 7 days.
Day 1[]
The game starts with a character named Terrence returning home from late work in the office. On his way to the subway station, he encounters a stranger who warns him about the end of the world. Inside the train, he helps a young girl and has a chat with her before getting off the train. As he reaches the exit, he unexpectedly falls through the staircase and appears in the backrooms. Confused and scared, he wanders the maze looking for the exit before encountering a strange mask on the wall. He removes the mask using a screwdriver that he found on the ground, revealing a hole in the wall. He looks through the hole and sees a corpse of the police officer whose blood had been drained and eyes torn out. Terrence continues wandering the maze of halls and finds a small gap between the wall. He looks through it and sees a tall person in the other room, but is unable to determine who it is because of the dark. He continues to wander and comes across a little girl, who he tries to talk to but she doesn't answer any of his questions, but before she runs away, she warns him that the bad man is coming and that he better hides. She also informs him that she will find him later to show him a way out. Terrence eventually gets tired and sits in a small corner of a room and falls asleep. He has a dream where he's at his cousin's funeral. He is encouraged by his brother Malcolm to play hide and seek with him. Despite not wanting to, young Terrence eventually agrees after his brother calls him a chicken. After finding a room, Terrence goes to hide while Malcolm counts to ten. After a while, Terrence gives up and goes to find his family, but he is ambushed by a tall man in a black suit and with long fingernails.
Day 2[]
Terrence wakes up from his nightmare and continues to search for the exit despite feeling weak and thirsty. He finds a change purse filled with coins that he takes and uses to leave a trail of coins where he's been. He also finds a wall filled with bugs and is forced to eat the insects, despite their disgusting taste. Soon, the walls and corridors start flashing and changing, and he encounters the tall man and is forced to run as far away from him. Terrence manages to escape the man, but he collapses on the floor and faints from exhaustion.
Day 3[]
Luckily, Terrence is found and rescued by a hiker named Sally, who explains to him that she was camping with her friends and she fell through the ground and found herself in the backrooms. Both team up and start looking for the little girl in hopes that she will tell them where's the exit.
Day 4[]
After navigating through a series of warped rooms with bodies hanging from the ceiling, they get to the normal section, which Terrence recognizes as a beginning where he first appeared. They decide to rest and while Sally sets up the tent Terrence goes to find a wood to set up a fire. He runs into a little girl again, who refuses to speak to him, making Terrence angry. A little girl runs away, threatening Terrence she will tell her daddy. Terrence returns with the chair he found, they set up a fire and have a chat before falling asleep. Terrence wakes up to a loud sound only to find Sally gone. He goes to search for her and finds a stranger mutilating and devouring her corpse, and he attacks Terrence, but Terrence manages to defend himself with a screwdriver. After a game of cat and mouse, Terrence ambushes the insane stranger and stabs him with the screwdriver in the eye, killing him.
Day 5[]
Terrence is sitting on the ground, hungry, thirsty, not knowing what to do, slowly losing his mind, and being watched by the mysterious man.
Day 6[]
Blood splatters all over the wall, hinting that Terrence is feeding on human remains.
Day 7[]
A woman is seen wandering the halls, calling for help. Insane Terrence, covered in blood, wearing a mask and wielding a screwdriver slowly approaches her from the back. The game cuts to black as the woman screams are heard. The game ends and credits start rolling.
Alternate ending (Day 2)[]
On the second day, Terrence is caught and killed by the Mysterious man. He appears in a blue room and walks out of it and enters a small control room where he sees a cat on the desk. Realizing it was a cat behind all of this, he drops on his knees and yells "DAMN YOU!". The game ends.
Characters[]
- Terrence
- Security guard
- Preacher
- Homeless man
- Worker
- Girl on the train
- Sally
- The Mysterious Man
- Little girl
- Policeman
- Terrence's mother
- Organ player
- Malcolm
- Insane stranger
- Woman in swimsuit
Trivia[]
- Soundtrack was composed by MXXN and Clément Panchout.
- The gameplay is openly inspired by a PS1 game Hellnight,[1] while the concept is based on The Backrooms creepypasta. The original text accompanying the image depicting the Backrooms from the initial 4chan post can be found as handwriting on a wall on Day 3.
- According to the developer Ben Cocuzza, he wanted his version of The Backrooms to differ from the original creepypasta, so he took inspirations from some of Stephen King's works, such as The Shining[2].
- The design of the subway Terrence commutes with is the 2600 series model of the Chicago Elevated metro system. This, along with the mention of VCR, indicate the setting to be 1980's/1990's Chicago.
- The second alternate ending is a little throwback to the infamous Silent Hill 2 Dog ending.
- In the early preview of the game, a poster of the film Enemy (2013) could be seen in the subway, the film itself is about a history teacher who seeks his exact look-alike after spotting him in a movie. The poster does not appear in the final game[3].
- The VHS cover was made by Mateo Jakičević, who also illustrated the covers for SkiFreak, The Booty Creek Cheek Freak II: The De-Cheekening, Nun Massacre YA Novel, and bunch of other Puppet Combo and Torture Star covers.[4]
- In the early versions the game was supposed to have fixed camera angles, this was replaced with the first person mode in the final game[5].
- The game also had mirrors that were cut from the final game.
- Puppet Combo considers Day 7 as the least favorite game that he made[6].
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/PuppetCombo/comments/duvsgz/ama_222/
- ↑ https://twitter.com/PuppetCombo/status/1234856698772414466
- ↑ https://youtu.be/QBbzu4qMyY8
- ↑ https://www.tumblr.com/puppetcombo/189176476695/new-cover-for-day-7-created-by-the-great-mateo
- ↑ https://twitter.com/puppetcombo/status/1139938585807851520
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/PuppetCombo/comments/g64l5x/333k_ask_puppet_combo_anything/