Puzzle · 2020 · Kinetic Games · online
Phasmophobia
A dark house, a ghost, and instruments that tell you only half of it.
What it is about
You drive to a house said to be haunted and have to work out what kind of ghost lives there. For that you have instruments: a thermometer, an EMF reader, a camera for ghost writing, a book the ghost can write in.
Each ghost leaves three out of several possible traces, and the combination gives you the answer. It turns dangerous during a hunt: the lights go out, and you have to hide or run.
You play with two to four people, online only. Voice chat is part of the game — the ghost listens in, and some react to their own name. Whoever stays in the van sees the cameras and the floor plan and can tell the other what is coming.
Our verdict for couples
The real appeal is not the fright but the division of labour: one goes in with the thermometer and calls out what they see, one stays in the van with the floor plan and the cameras and writes it down. After three contracts you have developed your own language for it, and that is the best part. There is nothing to aim and nothing to hit — someone who has never played can join immediately, because all the skill here is knowledge rather than reflexes. With two it is tenser than with four, because there is nobody left to hide behind. That it is expressly built to frighten you should be clear to both of you beforehand.
Pros
- No aiming, no hitting — playable straight away
- Voice chat is part of the game
- A contract fits into half an hour
Cons
- No local co-op
- Expressly built to frighten you
- Still in early access, and rebuilds annoy the regulars
Suitable from
Casual
- Conflict potential
- Spirited
- Cosiness
- Draining
- When you can stop
- After 15 minutes
- How long it lasts
- No ending
What other co-op fans say
Almost every review says the same thing in its own way: it works alone, it is meant for several. Praise goes to the voice chat becoming a tool of play, and to the fact that the biggest fright often comes not from the ghost but from the person who abandons you. The recurring objection targets the rebuilds: after the major updates, regulars find the game shakier and buggier than before.
- “Buy the game to hunt for ghost. Turns out the real demon was the friend who left you to die during a hunt.”
- “very fun game if you like scary games although i would never play this alone its definitely better with friends using in game voice chat”
- “After all the updates they've done, its more buggy runs way worse and the in game voice chat doesnt work”
Summarised by machine from 60 Steam reviews, not written by our editors. The quotes appear verbatim in those reviews.
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