Phasmophobia PS5 Review. One of the most heart pounding experiences I’ve had playing games was with Outlast on PS4. The tension of navigating around a pitch black room with just the night-vision on a camcorder with a low battery was truly exhilarating and terrifying in equal measures.
While that game had you in the shoes of an investigative journalist roaming the halls of a psychiatric hospital, Phasmophobia (from small UK based indie studio Kinetic Games) has players in the role of a rookie paranormal investigator.
Originally released in Sept 2020 on PC, the award-winning psychological horror title finally makes its way over to consoles. All screenshots shown are from either the tutorial or first level so no locations or layouts are spoiled ahead.
Phasmophobia Review (PS5) – Who Ya Gonna Call?
Paranormal Activity
Players are tasked with working as a paranormal investigator either in single player or in up to four player co-op. Visiting a range of different haunted sites, you (and your team if playing co-op) aim to collect and capture evidence of the ghostly goings on.
Each site has a list of tasks to complete and you are equipped with a truck of equipment to aid you bag the required evidence. You start out with basic equipment but through completing tasks you earn cash with which you can upgrade your arsenal of investigative tech. What you don’t have is a spare pair of underwear which you will most definitely need if you are playing on PSVR2.
As you progress you are not only armed with cash to spend on new toys, but you are also constantly building up knowledge from trial and error on previous attempts at the locations. You have a handy journal that gives you all the lore on different types of ghosts, so actually reading the information here can give you some great tips. The difficulty select option is locked out until you reach Lv10 giving you some welcome onboarding time to hone your skills with less punishing gameplay.
Not only do you progress onto more sophisticated tech but the locations you work advance in scale and creepiness. Your performance on the job will determine your monetary rewards so aim to net all the objectives and the bonus ones too for a nice health injection of capital into your ghost hunting kit.
Sanity
The aim of the game is not to lose your mind. Protect your (and your team members) sanity level and keep it above a 50% average. This can be done by staying in well light areas. It is easier said than done so be sure to aim for resetting the trip switch on the power and don’t switch on too many lights or you will trip the power and have to return to the fuse board to reset it.
Failing to keep that average sanity will instigate a hunt where the ghost will hunt players down and attack. If you find yourself in a hunt then it’s time to find the nearest cover and hide it out. Sanity medicine can also be consumed to help extend your sane investigation.
Ghost Hunt Training
The design of the in-game training is very well done. The use of whiteboards with realistic looking marker written text gives the feel of being on an induction on your new job. It’s hands-on training where you perform tasks as you would on an investigation. Players are fully in control of the pace, so you can progress when you feel you’ve got to grips with each training module.
Just make sure to read the whiteboards carefully as it took me a while to figure out the final task of using the spirit box. TURN THE LIGHT OFF! There are quite a lot of tips and info given here so its wise to take your time and not rush. You’re not Soap MacTavish running the cargo ship in Call Of Duty 4 after all.
Improvements
A couple of little points that could be tweaked for a better experience. First is the lighting system used for shadows gives way to some unwanted behaviour. As you walk around you sometimes get a floaty kind of partial self shadow that is quite distracting. When you are in the thick of things immersed with your headset on the last thing you want it for your focus to be taken in any way. Shadows in general are low res and poor quality.
Secondly, interaction with some objects can be frustrating. This is especially true of opening the panel of the circuit breaker. A little refinement here would be welcome especially when you are against the clock you don’t want to be slowed down.
The audio for your own footsteps is way too frequent when walking slowly and shouldn’t be so loud either. More nuance and polish here would greatly add to the immersion for the player and elevate it to the next level.
Co-Op Fear Fest
Throughout my time with Phasmophobia I only tackled the single player, but I can absolutely see the draw of playing with a team of buddies. Assigning tasks to each player on the team, each with their own specialist equipment and meticulously planning and executing the investigation to net the big bucks. The hilarity of the voice chat alone would be with the price of admission.
In fact, some ghosts prey on people who are alone so it would be paper-scissors-rock to decide who takes the short straw and acts as bait to lure out the apparitions. It’s nice that players on PS5 & PS5 Pro can team up with PSVR2 players to try to become a formidable group of ghost hunters. Or just scare the living daylights out of each other – either works!
The more I think about it the more I realise that Phasmophobia is basically paranormal Cluedo – search the rooms, find the evidence and identify the killer, or in this case the ghost. It’s a compelling and addictive game loop that keeps you coming back for more, striving for mastery each time.
Phasmophobia hits PS5 on October 29.
Review code kindly provided by PR.