I think it’s safe to say Phasmophobia is a bit of a miracle. I remember seeing it for the first time in a videogamedunkey video, thinking it was a bit silly. But then one October, I decided to pick it up on a whim and I was sold. Despite its Early Access status and somewhat janky gameplay, there was a genuine charm to it and every subsequent update made it a bit better until my poor little Microsoft Surface Book 2 couldn’t handle it anymore.
I think back to those halcyon days, desperately wondering when the game would be ported to consoles. It’s a bit irrelevant now since I’m rocking an awesome Alienware M16, and after 300 hours, I can say I’m somewhat of a Phasmophobia savant. But for those who don’t have rockin’ gaming laptops, the ghost-hunting phenomenon has finally made it to consoles and…it’s fine, I guess?
I do want to preface this review by saying I do unequivocally love Phasmophobia. Despites its flaws, I think it works really well as both a really fun cooperative experience and a pretty scary single-player experience. It doesn’t work all the time, but when it works it REALLY works. It’s got that great gameplay loop, similar to games like The Mortuary Assistant, where players are meant to complete a task while spooky doings are afoot.
For the uninitiated, players take on the role of Ghost Hunters, who are called to different places where paranormal activity seems to be occurring. Using a combination of different tools, players will need to collect three pieces of evidence to determine what ghost is haunting the residence on top of completing bonus objectives.
Depending on how you play, it can be really formulaic or really nerve-racking. There’s a certain charm to walking through the pitch-black hallways of a silent house, peering through the night vision of a camera screen and seeing a small orb float by—and hearing a voice come out of the Spirit Box after asking a question always sends a chill down my spine.
“If you’ve ever got that eerie feeling from walking through your house at night where hearing a floorboard creek puts you on edge, Phasmophobia captures this feeling perfectly.”
This gets even more interesting when you play on the higher difficulties where one or two pieces of evidence will be hidden. It forces you to start learning how every ghost operates since, despite a bit of jankiness, they all have unique behaviours and some even have forced evidence that being able to identify can make the difference between success or failure.
It really does a lot with a little, using a combination of dynamic lighting and quiet ambiance to make these rural environments feel genuinely scary. If you’ve ever got that eerie feeling from walking through your house at night where hearing a floorboard creek puts you on edge, Phasmophobia captures this feeling perfectly.
The spooky vibes get cranked up even more on some of the more interesting maps like Camp Woodwing, Sunny Meadows Insane Asylum or the Point Hope Lighthouse. Kinetic did a really great job adding dynamic ambiance and unique motifs to make these locations feel a lot more scary than the standard suburban homes.
That being said, despite its critical and commercial success, Phasmophobia has been in Early Access for almost five years, and the console version is also releasing in Early Access. As such, a few key features are missing at launch. Namely, the game’s voice recognition features—which some would argue is one of the most dynamic elements of Phasmophobia—is missing from the console launch.
“…despite its critical and commercial success, Phasmophobia has been in Early Access for almost five years, and the console version is also releasing in Early Access.”
This means players won’t be able to speak into the Spirit Box at the console launch. Instead, pre-loaded phrases have been mapped to the buttons until the feature is patched in. This also goes for the Oijiua Board and the Monkey’s Paw—players will be able to select questions using the buttons rather than ask them in the mic.
While it’s not the biggest issue, it is a bit of a drag that this fundamental element would be missing from the console version of Phasmophobia. One of the most unique things about the game is how it really creates the feeling that whatever otherworldly presence is with you is listening to you and can respond in helpful or even hostile ways. Cutting it out and reducing it to button presses, even temporarily, certainly detracts from the experience.
Not only that, but the review version was pretty rough visually, most notably with a lot of lighting imbalance, even after a patch I downloaded while reviewing. Even when I turned the brightness down to 80 or 70 percent, you can go into almost every house without a flashlight and be fine. On top of that, there were some noticeable audio issues, with certain ghost sounds made during hunts and events just missing or significantly muted.
“…it is a bit of a drag that this fundamental element would be missing from the console version of Phasmophobia.”
Kinetic has said these issues, and more will be addressed with a day-one patch, but it did genuinely impact my enjoyment of the console version of the game. And while the team did say cross-progression is going to be added, it was pretty disheartening to jump into the PS5 version at Prestige 0 with none of the items, difficulties or levels unlocked.
It really cemented the idea that at the moment, the console version might need to be avoided until Kinectic brings it up to snuff with the PC version. I think if you’re in a situation like I was three or four years ago, and you don’t have a competent gaming PC then the console version of Phasmophobia might be a good enough experience.
Much like its PC predecessor, Phasmophobia on console has a lot of flaws, but at its core, it is a genuinely interesting and sometimes terrifying game. If you can look past the roughness and lack a computer competent enough to run it—or maybe you’re just not much of a PC gamer—then this is definitely one you should check out. Just try to give it some time to get to where it needs to be.
