Threshold
Critic Reviews for Threshold
Threshold is a game that deserves to find an audience that will truly appreciate its provocative and philosophical approach and represents another excellent title in Critical Reflex's library. The opening credits claim that it is a true story and this detail in particular has lead me to speculate on possible metaphorical interpretations ranging from the highly personal to the global political. It is rare for a game to make you think quite this much and that is meant as high praise.
As a whole, Threshold is a delightfully bizarre and engaging little game, but the odd pacing and structure might not be to everyone’s liking. The core main gameplay loop borders on tedious, and there’s a frustrating amount of bugs, however, it’s getting to the bottom of that mystery that makes it an utterly engaging experience. If you’re looking for weirdness, you should give this one a go.
THRESHOLD is an interesting and creepy tale that succeeds in creating an intriguing tale, even if it has some minor issues here and there. The story is extremely entertaining, and I was taken aback throughout the game when I figured out what was going on. It is a bit short, and the gameplay is very basic, but it does the job and, with the fantastic visual style, complements the story which absolutely shocked me. I do wish the experience was a bit better with a controller and on the Steam Deck, and some optimization on both fronts would have helped a lot. It's still playable, but I wouldn't consider it the best experience. It's an awesome game, and may still be worth it given the short time it takes to complete. Hopefully these smaller Deck/controller issues can be fixed through patches!
Threshold has some interesting ideas but it very bare bones both in terms of gameplay and storyline.
Threshold is interesting, but didn't captivate me in the ways that Mouthwashing did. It has an eerie charm to it, and the PSOne/Nintendo 64 visuals do a lot to give this a nice unique look among the tons of sprite-based indie games. It may be a short shift, but you'll always remember your brief stint as a member of the Border Post, just don't tell Mo.
Short but powerfully unsettling, Threshold takes aim at the strange and horrifying helplessness of being a small cog in a giant corporate machine, and nails its execution brilliantly.
