The most effective way of starting a fiction is with an in medias res beginning: being thrown into action right away. But what happens when we get no clarification regarding our background, not even later on?
Several games and movies (in books it can't be evaded) utilize amnesia, as an effective means of hiding our protagonist's background, but if it isn't revealed later on, i. e. our hero is NOT amnesiac, then something's not right.
A certain level of exposition is always mandatory, no one wakes up knowing nothing about themselves, their surroundings and not be surprised about it, without sharing any information with the player. It works in a game, but otherwise it's practically unimaginable.
That aside, Threshold works undeniably well - great even - as one of those 'experimental' (which are usually awful, to put it mildly) horror games.

Dropped into an unsettling, claustrophobic, industrial environment we are tasked with a seemingly simple and monotonous job: at roughly regular intervals - as our coworker, Mo instructs us - we have to blow our whistle straight into a horn in order to urge the neverending carts of a freight train passing nearby into reaching an optimal speed.
But there's a catch: the air is thin for some strange reason (we are on a mountain, but it doesn't seem to be that high) so we need constant supply of oxygen. Small air cans are provided by a machine if we have tickets, which we receive regularly - as long as the train moves at the "expected pace". If this wasn't strange enough, these air cans are made of glass, which our character (who we have to name each time when starting a new game) has to break open with his teeth...
Amongst the numerous questions (why is the central building locked, what happened to Ni, our predecessor and why does the stream next to the railroad drain, whenever the train slows down, etc.) the most intriguing one of course is:
What is the train carrying?

steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3408564140

Well, without spoiling it, it's the 2nd (OK, maybe the 3rd) most relevant thing we would think of. Yes, it is disturbing and thought-provoking. Makes us think, but not without resolution - instead of lazy, metaphorical nonsensical symbolism - it does offer us proper(?) ending(s) - 3, as a matter of fact (at least that's how many I managed to find) - or at least conclusions.
If we do what we're told and have our suspicions at the same time, we judge and act accordingly - the plot should make sense even after the 1st playthrough.

While our task seems like a monotonous stroll between the horn, ticket- air can machine triangle within the (really) small gaming area, a not so tight time management for air, there are several other points of interests we should visit. Our colleague retires while we are on duty, however it is mandatory for progression to call him from time to time by blowing the same white whistle we use for the horn to speed up the train into the microphone next to the elevator where we arrived. He will happily answer our further questions that may arise (yes, we also need to use our whistle to gain entry to the mysterious Building 1).

Depending on the speed of the train the machine punches holes into our tickets at a matching speed. It is important to note that the machines (both the ticket and the air can) stop functioning when the train slows down, making oxygen unavailable (there are some additional cans scattered around). An air can provides us with oxygen enough for a few minutes, but after blowing the whistle we immediately begin to suffocate. On the mouth icon in the upper left we can see how fast we are breathing/losing oxygen - running, jumping or passing through the stream (as its current becomes stronger later on) also increases the rate at which we use oxygen.
Additionally we may use the bucket to gather organic materials and dump it into another machine which also grants us tickets.

My first playthorugh took 84 minutes (I think it was more, since I suffocated and died, so I had to restart) which I didn't measure: the game provides us a result screen at the end of each playthrough. Here we can see the ending we got, besides some rather strange bits of information... the game saves every time after we leave Building 1.
The menu screen - where we see someone being buried - feels like a missed opportunity (or maybe I missed something) which I thought was going to play some role later on, but apparently it didn't. Choosing a country at the beginning only seems to affect the name of the mountain (UK - Grampian Mountains).
There were some slowdowns/stutters in the 2nd half of the game, but strangely it only occured during my 1st playthrough.

The early Playstation-era graphics function well: not overly pixelated and the yellow-brown colour scheme contributes well to the tone of the story. As the train gets faster, more and more things around the post begin to fall apart and it changes the look of our surroundings rather drastically. The camera forcefully zooms in on points of interest if we stare at the 'right' direction.

steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3408595374

There's attention to small details, like the broken air cans remaining on the ground throughout the entire time or our mouth getting bloodier after using a large number of said cans. The dentist & pulmonologist office next to the changing-room also makes sense after we played the game through.

Some of the sound effects consist of the 'pew-pew' caliber, but the train's screeching or the powerful loud honk the horn makes are great. There's no spoken audio unfortunately to which the explanation is half-baked - the real reason is the small size of the game.

Threshold is a great little psychological horror - a subgenre which I tend to avoid otherwise because most of them are terrible - exciting and thought-provoking at the same time despite its short length.

PROS
+ powerful, unsettling atmosphere
+ we get answers to most of our questions
+ multiple endings, replayability
+ interesting mechanics

CONS
- we get no explanation regarding who we are
- no voice acting

RATING
8/10

Thank you for reading my review. If you enjoyed it, please follow IndieGems for more reviews like this one. We also have a YouTube channel if you would rather see game play footage with reviews.

The most effective way of starting a fiction is with an in medias res beginning: being thrown into action right away. But what happens when we get no clarification regarding our background, not even later on? Several games and movies (in books it can't be evaded) utilize amnesia, as an effective means of hiding our protagonist's background, but if it isn't revealed later on, i. e. our hero is NOT amnesiac, then something's not right. A certain level of exposition is always mandatory, no one wakes up knowing nothing about themselves, their surroundings and not be surprised about it, without sharing any information with the player. It works in a game, but otherwise it's practically unimaginable. That aside, [i]Threshold[/i] works undeniably well - great even - as one of those 'experimental' (which are usually awful, to put it mildly) horror games. Dropped into an unsettling, claustrophobic, industrial environment we are tasked with a seemingly simple and monotonous job: at roughly regular intervals - as our coworker, Mo instructs us - we have to blow our whistle straight into a horn in order to urge the neverending carts of a freight train passing nearby into reaching an optimal speed. But there's a catch: the air is thin for some strange reason (we are on a mountain, but it doesn't seem to be that high) so we need constant supply of oxygen. Small air cans are provided by a machine if we have tickets, which we receive regularly - as long as the train moves at the "expected pace". If this wasn't strange enough, these air cans are made of glass, which our character (who we have to name each time when starting a new game) has to break open with his teeth... Amongst the numerous questions (why is the central building locked, what happened to Ni, our predecessor and why does the stream next to the railroad drain, whenever the train slows down, etc.) the most intriguing one of course is: What is the train carrying? steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3408564140 Well, without spoiling it, it's the 2nd (OK, maybe the 3rd) most relevant thing we would think of. Yes, it is disturbing and thought-provoking. Makes us think, but not without resolution - instead of lazy, metaphorical nonsensical symbolism - it does offer us proper(?) ending(s) - 3, as a matter of fact (at least that's how many I managed to find) - or at least conclusions. If we do what we're told and have our suspicions at the same time, we judge and act accordingly - the plot should make sense even after the 1st playthrough. While our task seems like a monotonous stroll between the horn, ticket- air can machine triangle within the (really) small gaming area, a not so tight time management for air, there are several other points of interests we should visit. Our colleague retires while we are on duty, however it is mandatory for progression to call him from time to time by blowing the same white whistle we use for the horn to speed up the train into the microphone next to the elevator where we arrived. He will happily answer our further questions that may arise [spoiler](yes, we also need to use our whistle to gain entry to the mysterious Building 1)[/spoiler]. Depending on the speed of the train the machine punches holes into our tickets at a matching speed. It is important to note that the machines (both the ticket and the air can) stop functioning when the train slows down, making oxygen unavailable (there are some additional cans scattered around). An air can provides us with oxygen enough for a few minutes, but after blowing the whistle we immediately begin to suffocate. On the mouth icon in the upper left we can see how fast we are breathing/losing oxygen - running, jumping or passing through the stream (as its current becomes stronger later on) also increases the rate at which we use oxygen. Additionally we may use the bucket to gather organic materials and dump it into another machine which also grants us tickets. My first playthorugh took 84 minutes (I think it was more, since I suffocated and died, so I had to restart) which I didn't measure: the game provides us a result screen at the end of each playthrough. Here we can see the ending we got, besides some rather strange bits of information... the game saves every time after we leave Building 1. The menu screen - where we see someone being buried - feels like a missed opportunity (or maybe I missed something) which I thought was going to play some role later on, but apparently it didn't. Choosing a country at the beginning only seems to affect the name of the mountain (UK - Grampian Mountains). There were some slowdowns/stutters in the 2nd half of the game, but strangely it only occured during my 1st playthrough. The early Playstation-era graphics function well: not overly pixelated and the yellow-brown colour scheme contributes well to the tone of the story. As the train gets faster, more and more things around the post begin to fall apart and it changes the look of our surroundings rather drastically. The camera forcefully zooms in on points of interest if we stare at the 'right' direction. steamoss.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3408595374 There's attention to small details, like the broken air cans remaining on the ground throughout the entire time or our mouth getting bloodier after using a large number of said cans. The dentist & pulmonologist office next to the changing-room also makes sense after we played the game through. Some of the sound effects consist of the 'pew-pew' caliber, but the train's screeching or the powerful loud honk the horn makes are great. There's no spoken audio unfortunately to which the explanation is half-baked - the real reason is the small size of the game. [i]Threshold[/i] is a great little psychological horror - a subgenre which I tend to avoid otherwise because most of them are terrible - exciting and thought-provoking at the same time despite its short length. PROS + powerful, unsettling atmosphere + we get answers to most of our questions + multiple endings, replayability + interesting mechanics CONS - we get no explanation regarding who we are - no voice acting RATING 8/10 [quote]Thank you for reading my review. If you enjoyed it, please follow[url=https://steamoss.com/steamstore/curator/32732116-IndieGems/] [b]IndieGems[/b] [/url] for more reviews like this one. We also have a [url=https://www.youtube.com/@IndieGems2][b]YouTube channel[/b][/url] if you would rather see game play footage with reviews.[/quote]