You know when you’re 8 years old and it’s Christmas and you’ve never been so excited in your entire life? That was me when I woke up to a key for Phasmophobia on PS5. Kinetic Games first announced a console version of their hit game back in June 2023 and since then has hit a few bumps in the road. With a full overhaul of the PC version last year, a studio fire and multiple setbacks, the console version has been repeatedly delayed. Now it’s finally here, ready and raring to launch on Xbox and PlayStation.
It’s safe to say I’m a big fan of Phasmophobia, but with unforeseen challenges and a winding road to release does it actually live up to the standards that Kinetic Games set for themselves? Only one way to find out!
I didn’t sink hundreds of hours into this to be taken out by a Shade
Gameplay
Veteran players of Phasmophobia know exactly what they’re walking into – tier-one equipment and a lot of levels to climb. For new players, there is a handy tutorial that will teach you the basic equipment. It’s super helpful and I would recommend it to both new and returning players to make the controls easier to understand. Some of the mappings did confuse me at first because it goes against the standard button layout such as square for pick up and R2 to interact. That being said, the longer I played the more the controls made sense and I’m not sure how else you could map them to keep it cohesive.
In the Early Access preview of Phasmophobia, I was allowed to experience the upcoming ‘Blood Moon’ event. It’s scheduled to run across both platforms from October 28th to November 13th. Ghosts seem to be empowered and more aggressive meaning you’ll have even less time to find evidence in some of your favourite haunted locations.
With this being the Early Access release of Phasmophobia, I did expect a few things to be missing/not working in the same way that they do on the PC version. However, there were some that took me by surprise. For instance, I could not get the summoning circle to light despite having multiple firelights. The biggest shock for me, though, was the regression in Spirit Box functionality.
The Spirit Box & Voice Chat
One of the things that makes Phasmophobia so scary is that you feel like you’re really searching for a ghost. The spirit box plays a big part of that in the PC version. Whilst it can be hard to get working, the fact that ghosts respond to your voice makes everything more immersive. So when I first loaded into Phas, I was disappointed to see that it was text input only.
Not to worry though! Kinetic has confirmed that whilst voice recognition won’t be available at launch, it should be implemented soon. They also said that while the ghost can’t understand what you’re saying they can still hear you. Or, at least, they’ll be able to when the voice chat works.
After trying every version of microphone input, Kat and I could not get the voice chat working. I was assured it was but no matter what we tried, the game wasn’t having it. Luckily we had Party Chat on the PlayStation, but I don’t know how this affects the ghosts like the Yokai that can only hear you at a closer distance.
Graphics & Audio
The graphics and audio in the console version match exactly what you would expect to see in Phasmophobia. That being said, there were several graphical errors that I hope will be smoothed out before launch. I’ve been spending a lot of time on the Tanglewood map to fully test everything out and there were a number of lighting issues. Including an error where if you were looking at someone in a hiding spot whilst you were standing outside, all colour would be removed.
There is a lot of inconsistency with the lighting or the game as well, particularly with the Blood Moon event. There were parts of garages that were brighter, and pictures that appeared flat when the red effect was over them. The actual changes made due to the blood moon look very impressive and the team has outdone themselves with the design. It’s just a bit disappointing when there are little errors that are noticeable that ruin the overall vibe of the event.
As well as the Blood Moon issues, there were lighting errors throughout the Tanglewood map, particularly in doorways and when you are outside near the van. There was a different issue with each different time of day and weather type. The foggy weather would make character hair disappear and would phase through the garage door making the cameras pick up on odd graphics. When it is darker, the houses surrounding the main house look flat and the sky loses any detail.
Weather Inconsistencies
The weather was also very unreliable. The Blood Moon event adds a new weather type featuring raining blood and a red sky. When I was playing on two of the maps you could hear the rain as you played but you couldn’t see it. It was the same situation for any rain on non-event-focused maps as well.
To make sure that it wasn’t just me being silly, I tried the maps on both performance and balance mode. In both situations, there was no rain. It’s not game-breaking or anything like that but it does ruin the immersion that has been built up so well in the PC edition.
Longevity
I’ve always been able to sink hours and hours into Phasmophobia and it’s the same story with the console version. I’ve spent 10+ hours hunting ghosts, annoying my friend with the working cursed objects and filling up my trophy list. I’ll admit, it’s not holding my focus as much given the lack of a spirit box and starting from level one. It took me ~7 hours to unlock all maps and the tier-one equipment. It does feel like levelling up is much quicker than when the new gameplay mechanics rolled out on PC. Though I could be imagining that as I haven’t been level one on the PC for a while.
Final Thoughts
Do I love Phasmophobia? Yes, without a doubt. Do I think the console version is ready for release? Not really. I’m sure that a lot of the bugs that I’ve mentioned will be ironed out by the official release. I know Kinetic are still fine-tuning things, however, with some key mechanics not working, it’s hard to say what the reception of the game is going to be like.
It is exciting to finally be getting the console version but I will probably keep playing on PC over console. It just feels like it’s too far behind where the PC is currently at.
Disclaimer: A code was received to write this review.
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