SCP-3008: Infinite Store Review (PC)

SCP-3008: Infinite Store feels like a personal attack against someone—an air-headed husband, in this case—and their lack of control over the shopping list at a grocery store. Bewildered by the imaginary to-do list, and unable to remember the ingredients without a palm-written checklist to hand, I found that trolleying through the store and locating groceries was about as confusing as trying to remember the milk, butter, and cheese after my own wife had told me fourteen times in advance before commandeering the store. But that wasn’t the only thing that caught me off guard in Infinite Store. No, because if it was just the case of locating items from a few shelves and tapping a card at the checkout, then I probably would have been able to complete the task and earn a few brownie points along the way after a solid thirty minutes of scouting. Infinite Store, on the other hand, had a few additional chores that required a stern eye and a memory that wasn’t as frail as a year-old goldfish or a husband without a brain cell to wager.

Collecting items from a handful of aisles and taking them to the checkout counter was one thing, but also having to comb through the showrooms and manually analyze the contents was another issue altogether. It wasn’t that the act of shopping was difficult; it was that the pressure of carrying out the task successfully was a burden. Yet, it wasn’t the watchful gaze or the frequent phone calls from a spouse that forced the hairs on my neck to stand at attention; it was the way in which the store presented itself—the perpetual look that made me question my whereabouts and fear for each new aisle that I would come to cross. I could gather one item, but then, as if to knock me back ever so slightly, the store would begin to alter its formation and give me something else to look at. I’d venture through one section of the store, but then I’d be given another piece of the puzzle to solve. The store looked the same, yet there was something that seemed out of place — and it wasn’t just the butter, milk, or cheese, either. The problem was, I rarely knew what it was that needed to be checked out.

Observation games aren’t really my forte I’ll admit. And yet, there’s something about them that pulls me in and makes me want to scrub through every nook and cranny and take in all that there is to see and do. Take SCP-3008: Infinite Store, for example. While the premise remains almost identical to your usual corridor romper—to explore the same setting time and time again and make a conscious decision on whether or not to progress toward the next loop or to step backwards and repeat the same process—the setting keeps me on tenterhooks. Although barren white and about as familiar as your local home depot store, the world here contains a special ingredient that keeps you coming back for another round. The halls may be similar and with the same patterns, yet there’s an ominous light that piques your curiosity and makes you want to iron over the crags and crevices.

The idea is still as simple as one might imagine it to be: an unnamed person enters a store with a shopping list, and decides whether or not to move forward or to return to the previous corridor. Like other observation games, if you happen to spot something that’s out of the ordinary, then you venture back to the previous room. If you don’t find anything of note, then you can progress deeper into the store. The catch, however, is that you don’t have any helping hands to point you in the right direction — only a simple yes or no answer to highlight your mistakes if and when you make them. And that’s all that you’re looking to accomplish here: to make enough correct decisions before reaching the checkout. If you miss an item, or if you fail to decipher an anomaly, then you must start the process from the beginning. Again, a simple concept, but one that also works well with the setting.

Infinite Store doesn’t host any peculiar puzzles or intense boss sequences for you to overcome. Instead, it uses the atmosphere to weave its narrative and push you in the right (or wrong) direction. With a harsh focus on audiovisual cues and isolated environments, Infinite Store makes a good effort to immerse you in a world that turns a blind eye to the usual trappings and instead chooses to cast its focus on atmospheric storytelling. It might not always do a remarkable job of conveying the image or painting a target on its greatest details, but honestly, that’s sort of what it vies to accomplish.

All in all there’s a great observation game here with a lot of solid details and unsettling moments. Although it’s with the same idea as the other games from the deck, it’s what it does with the assets in its hand that make it so much easier to bond with. It’s still a rather short experience that could do with a few extra layers to broaden its appeal, but for what it does offer—a thought-provoking romp through the eerie corridors of an ever-changing store—it certainly justifies the price tag.

Verdict

SCP-3008: Infinite Store stands tall as one of the few observation games that captures the essence of a perpetual cycle incredibly well, with thanks to its perplexing setting and shifting design offering a thought-provoking shopping experience that can keep you second guessing yourself for hours. Conceptually, it’s still the same thing that you would have seen a bunch of times before. Yet, there’s a special ingredient here that piques your enthusiasm for the repeating the same process, even though it doesn’t always feel like you’re making progress.

If you’re a fan of all things Exit 8 and anomaly-based, then you’re probably going to enjoy most of what SCP-3008: Infinite Store has to offer. Again, it’s best not to expect anything other than a textbook observation game. However, if you can find it in yourself to enjoy the little things—the gradual developments and frequent shifts in the atmosphere—then you’ll probably get a kick out of it.