Phasmophobia might well be a game that you’ve never heard of. I hadn’t before I came across a YouTuber playing it in an unconventional way. Even then though, I saw the potential in what this game was. As it turns out, people have been going absolutely nuts for the latest release from Kinetic Games, and for good reason. This is a PC only game that can be played in VR across multiple platforms. It allows for completely unique and dynamic gameplay in each and every round, and one game can be drastically different to the last based on what a player’s sense of humour is.
The game revolves around 4 player co-op. 4 People are thrown together in a lobby, and then plonked in a haunted house. From there, they have a selection of ghost hunting equipment to use in order to try to figure out what entity is haunting the house. Once they’ve figured it out, they then need to dispel or capture the ghost. The thing is, these entities, of which there are 10, can kill players without even being seen. It’s terrifying when you come across a dead player in a dark room, with no explanation of what happened to them.
This is part of what makes Phasmophobia so much fun. The other part is the players themselves. If a player is taking the game seriously, it can become very spooky indeed. With October being the month of Halloween, it’s no surprise that people are eager for more of this kind of gameplay. However, if player wants to mix things up and not play by the rules, things can get out of hand very quickly. For example, if you pretend that ghosts aren’t real, then you can just march through the game ignoring all the dangers. The thing is, soon you’ll find that everyone else is dead, and you have to take on a ghost by yourself.
I think that the dynamic gameplay makes Phasmophobia, but it’s the unknown that makes it so appealing. Players can’t see what is hunting and killing them, and that is too enticing to ignore. It’s not that expensive either, so if you pick it up on Steam now you could be so terrified by Halloween that you never want to leave your house again.
