I'm really not a horror game fan. They stress me out and make me feel like I'm running a marathon. Truthfully, even horror movies are often too much for me and keep me up at night. I'm a bit of a full-blown coward, if I do say so myself. As a dreadful surprise, my friends purchased me a copy of Phasmophobia right around the time the game came out in Early Access. As much as I loved playing co-op games with them, I was terrified of playing this game. To my delight, I ended up having a ton of fun with Phasmophobia, even if it shaved years off my life due to the constant fear coursing through my body.
Appropriately titled, Phasmophobia is all about spooky, scary ghosts, and it aims to creep you out at every available opportunity. You and up to three friends play as amateur ghost hunters who investigate haunted buildings and utilize ghost hunting equipment to try to find and then identify the type (or is it breed?) of ghost that's haunting the building. It's up to your team to get the information that you need and hopefully escape with your lives. Most of these specters are downright nasty and are more than happy to turn you into a ghost too.
There are several different distinct maps that you can explore, each creepier than the last. There are normal, familiar looking neighborhood homes of varying sizes, which are scary in their own right. There are also just inherently evil-looking rural farmhouses that will have you spooked before you even have a ghost encounter. There are also some really horrifying large maps like a high school, a prison or an insane asylum that you can get lost in. I have countless memories of getting separated from my friends, wandering down the eerie halls of the basement floor of the asylum, only to get cornered and have my neck snapped by the resident ghost.
The sound design in Phasmophobia is really wonderful, and a high point in the game. You're encouraged to utilize headphones when playing the game, so that you can hear all the creaks and groans in the map that you're playing on. It's beyond creepy to hear the ghost stomping around in another room or breathing in your ear. I highly recommend playing with in-game proximity chat with your friends, instead of using a Discord channel or something. To hear your friend's voice fade into the gloomy darkness or a quick scream get cut off as someone gets killed by the ghost greatly improves the overall experience, and you just don't get that if you're still hearing your friends talk in Discord.
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There are several different pieces of ghost hunting equipment. There are items that serve more of a utility role, like flashlights and video cameras. Ghosts frequently turn off light switches, so flashlights are incredibly important so that you can just get around the map. Video cameras can be set up wherever you need to catch suspected paranormal activity, like ghost orbs. Other items in the game are used to try and deduce the breed of ghost that you're dealing with. For instance, some ghosts are known to make the temperature drop to the point that you can see your breath. Other ghosts will communicate over a radio receiver to you, which is always a spine-tingling experience. Some ghost breeds are more coy than others and require the team to be quiet and patient for the ghost to display any activity, while others, like the Demon, are extremely aggressive and require almost zero provocation and will hunt you and your team down.
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| Image Credit: Xbox Tavern |
Phasmophobia has some jankiness that I've come to expect from games developed in Unity, but there's a real charm and humor to some of the less refined elements. The player character models sort of float around the map, which almost suits the eerie nature of Phasmophobia, even if that wasn't intended. The developers are constantly updating the game, reworking maps and ghost behaviors and character models, so I'm sure the game doesn't even look or play now exactly how it did when I was playing it. They were regularly adjusting the mechanics of the game so that items functioned how they were intended, and ghost breeds were exhibiting more unique behaviors, so you could correctly identify them.
I can easily recommend Phasmophobia, even if you're a certified scaredy-cat like me. Playing this with my friends was some of the most fun I've ever had with a video game. It's easy to learn and has intuitive controls, and you can scare yourself silly with little effort. With a $20 price tag, this is an easy suggestion for a game to play with your boys.
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