Phasmophobia

Phasmophobia is an award-winning indie psychological survival horror game developed and published by Kinetic Games for Windows PC and Windows VR headsets. Originally released to the public in September 2020, just before the start of the Halloween season of horror-themed activities,  this impactful game experience managed to capture worldwide attention and become hailed as one of the scariest and innovative horror games released in the last several years on any gaming platform.



Its sudden rise to popularity could be traced to the independent Twitch streamers and YouTubers who promoted this title to millions of their fans across the entire world, increased numbers of gamers due to effects of the worldwide pandemic, and the similarities to the cult-classic “P.T.” game that received an only limited release in 2016. Due to its innovative gameplay systems and effective horror atmosphere, the Phasmophobia game was crowned as winner of the “Best Debut Game” category during The Game Awards 2020 ceremony.

The core gameplay loop of Phasmophobia focuses on cooperative gameplay between up to four active players, who can use a wide variety of tools to explore spooky abandoned urban environments and gather evidence about 12 potential ghost types that are haunting them. The more players are present in the session, the more clues they will be able to find using tools such CCTV cameras, UV flashlights, thermometers, EMF readers, and more occult items such as Ouija boards.

The immersive experience of the title is boosted by its realistic visuals, impactful sound, full support for VR gameplay and cross-platform play between monitor and VR PC players, and the innovative audio communication feature which enables ghost to hear and identify words that players are talking between themselves, and pick the most opportune and scary time to appear in the real world.

System requirements for this game are on the lower side, enabling users with a relatively old quadcore CPU, 8GB of RAM, and GTX 970 level GPU to enjoy this title. However, this system spec will prevent many users with aged laptops to enjoy this title. The game features built-in support for 25 supported languages (interface only) and full audio support only for the English language. VR support extends to all Steam VR-compatible devices (Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality headsets), with full support for tracked motion controllers, standing, and room-scale VR gameplay.

Phasmophobia can be enjoyed today on Steam, where it can be accessed in its Early Access state for a very reasonable price.