Start with Backrooms: Escape Together if you want a closely related co-op escape game, Inside the Backrooms if puzzles and group coordination matter most, and POOLS if you mainly want liminal environments without hostile entities. Portal and SCP: Secret Laboratory match narrower parts of the experience rather than reproducing the whole formula.
The right recommendation depends on what you want to keep. Yellow corridors, multiplayer, unpredictable routes and quiet architectural unease are separate preferences. A game that matches one can deliberately remove another.
Choose by the part you enjoyed
| Game | Closest match | Main difference to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Backrooms: Escape Together | Co-op escape tasks, entities and proximity voice | Procedural layouts and up to six players |
| Inside the Backrooms | Multiplayer puzzles in threatening Backrooms spaces | Its own puzzle structure and progression |
| POOLS | Empty, unsettling indoor environments | No hostile entities or conventional puzzle pressure |
| Portal | Vast artificial interiors and spatial problem-solving | A puzzle game rather than Backrooms co-op horror |
| SCP: Secret Laboratory | Online chaos, strange threats and uncertain survival | Role-based multiplayer with other players creating danger |
This is a shortlist by fit, not a popularity ranking. Current prices, hardware requirements and platform access should be checked separately before buying.
Backrooms: Escape Together for the closest co-op alternative
Backrooms: Escape Together keeps the broad pattern of entering unsettling spaces, solving level tasks and avoiding entities with friends. It supports up to six players and uses proximity voice chat.
Its procedural generation is the most important difference. Layouts, item spawns and encounters change between attempts, so learning one route does not answer every later run. Choose it when preserving uncertainty matters more than working through Escape the Backrooms' larger set of authored scenarios.
It also solves a practical group problem: five or six people fit its standard online limit. That is a more concrete reason to choose it than assuming that a newer engine automatically makes it scarier or better optimized.
A separate Backrooms game with procedural generation.
The Steam edition remains in Early Access. Judge the currently available experience rather than counting long-term development goals as released content. It is a separate game, so an Escape the Backrooms lobby or save does not transfer into it.
Inside the Backrooms for puzzles with friends
Inside the Backrooms is another multiplayer interpretation of the same broad horror setting. Its appeal lies in trying to solve environmental puzzles while entities and scattered teammates make concentration difficult.
Choose it if you enjoyed discussing clues, assigning tasks and trying to keep the group together. It is a closer gameplay match than a quiet walking simulator because you still have a practical problem to solve under threat.
Do not assume that a familiar level number gives you the same solution. Separate Backrooms games can reuse a setting while changing the objective, route and enemy behavior. Start by understanding this game's rules instead of importing an Escape the Backrooms walkthrough.
Its similarity is strongest in the combination of multiplayer confusion and puzzle pressure. If that combination is what you found frustrating in the original, it is unlikely to be the most useful change of pace.
POOLS for architecture and unease
POOLS is the clearest choice if the environments were your favorite part and monster interruptions were your least favorite. It focuses on wandering strange indoor pool spaces rather than solving conventional puzzles or escaping hostile entities.
Without a creature chasing you, attention shifts to room scale, light, water, sound and the uncertainty of where the building leads. That preserves the appeal of a familiar public space feeling strangely empty.
POOLS focuses on exploring its spaces without hostile entities.
The trade-off is that you are choosing a different pace. It is not a replacement for four friends shouting directions during a pursuit. Choose it for the setting and exploration, especially if you wished Escape the Backrooms gave you more time to look around.
The absence of an enemy does not mean every player will find the spaces comfortable. It means the source of tension is different and less dependent on a creature suddenly entering your route.
Portal for artificial spaces and spatial puzzles
Portal is a partial match for the feeling of being inside an enormous constructed environment whose true scale is difficult to understand. Its artificial interiors and spatial problems can appeal to someone who enjoys studying how a strange place fits together.
It is not a substitute for an online Backrooms horror campaign. The recommendation makes sense when you want the impossible-building feeling and focused problem-solving, rather than proximity chat or roaming entities.
Think of it as changing the activity while preserving a part of the atmosphere. If your favorite moment in Escape the Backrooms was recognizing an environmental clue and understanding the space, that can be a useful reason to try a dedicated puzzle game next.
SCP: Secret Laboratory for unpredictable online survival
SCP: Secret Laboratory fits the social side of the search more than the architectural side. Players receive roles inside a secure facility after a containment breach, and the resulting multiplayer interactions create uncertainty about who or what will threaten them next.
That changes the source of chaos. In Escape the Backrooms, your team mainly works together against the level and its entities. In Secret Laboratory, other players and their roles are central to the danger.
Choose it if you want surprising online situations and strange creatures, and are willing to leave behind the campaign's shared escape-task structure. Avoid assuming that “multiplayer horror” always means the whole lobby cooperates in the same way.
Secret Laboratory uses role-based multiplayer rather than a shared Backrooms campaign.
Make the next game a deliberate change
For the closest overall substitute, start with Backrooms: Escape Together. For another puzzle-driven co-op option, look at Inside the Backrooms. For a quieter emphasis on liminal spaces, choose POOLS.
Keep Portal and SCP: Secret Laboratory as targeted alternatives: one changes the activity toward spatial puzzles, while the other changes it toward role-driven online survival. Neither needs to match every detail to be worthwhile.
Before committing, identify the one thing you most want to keep and the one thing you most want to change. That gives you a better shortlist than treating every game with an empty hallway as the same experience.