Phasmophobia Early Access Preview – Dox Ghosts or Die Trying

‘Tis the season for all things spooky and developer Kinetic Games is opening up their cooperative psychological horror game Phasmophobia to a whole new group of would-be ghost hunters. The popular 4-player co-op game brimming with heart-pounding paranormal activity has made the jump from PC to consoles four years after its early access debut. However, this shift doesn’t mark the full 1.0 launch; the console release is actually the 0.10 version. Although that may signal we’re still in the earlier days of the early access development period, the popular ghost hunting experience has evolved over the past few years, bringing more frightening specters and various tools into the mix. You’ll need to leverage the wide array of investigative equipment to collect evidence and accurately identify the ghost stalking the environment, all while maintaining your sanity and soul.

In Phasmophobia, the goal is simple: figure out what kind of ghost is haunting the building while avoiding becoming a fun corpse decoration for the already creepy environment. It’s like playing a twisted, one-sided game of Guess Who? There are several levels, ranging from a decrepit prison to an abandoned school to a cursed hospital, and each tosses you into a hunting ground of a spirit, of which there are twenty four types. Each type has distinct behaviors and interacts with the player, equipment and the environment in different ways. Paying attention to these tells is how players can start piecing together what kind of supernatural entity is roaming the halls. For example, players may wish to observe how a ghost interacts with a salt pile. If a ghost walks through a placed salt pile and the salt remains undisturbed, this would be indicative of a Wraith. Conversely, seeing the salt pile disturbed by the passing of a ghost would allow players to eliminate Wraith from the pool of suspects. This is only one example, but it provides a high-level overview of how this process unfolds over the course of a mission.

ID the Ghost or You’re Toast

Identifying the ghost is only one part of the Phasmophobia frightfest. The ghost isn’t simply going to sit idly by while evidence is collected regarding their identity. These ghastly figures would much rather you leave them well alone, and they will make that known with increasing intensity over the course of a hunt. Events play out through these investigations, with lights flickering or equipment, like a breaker, being manipulated. All of these events, along with certain interactions, lower the player’s sanity. Different ghosts can start a hunt, which is when the real madness begins, at different player sanity levels. And it’s not enough for one player to keep sane; if one player drops too low, then everyone in the group is at risk of having to deal with a hunting ghost. In these moments, the exit doors become locked and all you can do is hide (and pray). It makes for some heart-pounding moments as players scramble for any shred of perceived safety, waiting out the enraged ghost. Surviving means diving right back into the detective grunt work to get that ghost appropriately labeled and the team back out in the world of the living.

There’s a bit of risk-reward that comes into play with the sanity mechanic and item spawns. Unlike the equipment you bring into the mission yourself, the environment can house different otherworldly tools to aid (and at times hinder) a hunt. These are cursed possessions. The haunted mirror, for example, allows the player to peer into the mirror to see the ghost’s favorite room. However, looking into this unearthly object causes sanity to plummet. Summoning circles, monkey paws, ouija boards, music boxes and more can be leveraged to try gaining an edge on the ghost if you’re willing to risk a chunk of sanity, and the risk of a cursed hunt. This is where the otherwise strong console debut shows its weakness in comparison to its longstanding PC counterpart. It’s not in the items themselves, but rather in how the player interacts with some of them.

Losing Your Voice

The PC version of Phasmophobia sports voice recognition, enabling players to speak directly to the ghost using the spirit box, ouija board and monkey paw. Here, players are restricted to selecting from a short, predetermined list of questions. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it certainly lessens the enveloping atmosphere of the PC experience. It is worth noting that Kinetic Games has gone on record stating that they are investigating solutions for this feature on console, although it will not be ready to go for the 0.10 release on PlayStation and Xbox and there is no ETA for its implementation. If you have a choice of where to play Phasmophobia, and you’re not rigidly beholden to either console platform, PC is still the best place to experience all of the ghost hunting goodness. Keep in mind, this doesn’t affect the ghost’s ability to hear your talking; that’s still a concern. The hostile entities just won’t be chatting with you as seamlessly for now.

Regardless of where you choose to play it, the horror can be modified via a selection of difficulty settings. Amateur will be the only option at first, allowing for a more relaxed experience in terms of ghost behavior, setup time and death penalties. Rest assured though, new players aren’t likely to feel relaxed given that the lacking familiarity that pervades the early hours only makes the onscreen events unfolding all the more stress-inducing. And pushing up into the higher difficulties that unlock as you level are only going to heighten the tension. More experienced ghost hunters, equipped with more robust equipment, require more demanding trials to test their power of deduction (and survival), after all.

The console launch of Phasmophobia has brought the ghost hunting fad to an even wider audience, and it couldn’t have picked a better time. The thematic alignment of October and its spooky Halloween season have made for a strong reason to see what all the excitement was in 2020 that saw a small burst in ghost hunting games to break onto the scene. The PlayStation/Xbox version of Phasmophobia may be just shy of the PC version at this time, but it’s still a gripping experience that is sure to bring friends together for a fun-filled night of jump scares and laughter.