Phantasmal: Survival Horror Roguelike Reviews

This is a very serious/not serious review. Pros -this game is intense, and very, very, very terrifying. -this game's enemies are very creepy and it's better to avoid them -it is realistically hard -you have to be crouching most of the time -hid behind a desk for 15 minutes, died, game promptly crashed XD -very terrifying noises always present -smashing things over the head with a board is fun -a monster mooned me XD -randomized map cons -A.I is iffy at times -randomized map sometimes glitches Overall, a very good addition to the horror genre 9/10

This game have nice asian city atmosphere. But i directly have to warn you about some negative points: -Starts in windowed mode. -Fullscreen mode seems not to be properly centered. -Cursor is shifted when going into the option menus. -2560x1440 resolution seems not to be supported. I would understand when it's in early access stage. But a final release should be properly tested or at least a competent helpful support available who fix the problems. Or it easily leads to a sh*tstorm by frustrated gamers.

WARNING: THIS GAME IS UNPLAYABLE BECAUSE YOU CANNOT SWITCH THE RESOLUTION! I loaded up the game at the highest resolution setting and once you enter the game it reverts back to the lowest possible resolution. You are unable to change these settings at the main menu and once you are in the game and press escape for that menu it's completely off the screen and you are unable to choose any different settings. Developers are aware and refuse to fix it so it would seem. I don't see how anyone has given Phantasmal a positive review. Total garbage until its fixed. THUMBS DOWN! DO NOT BUY!

I spent most of the time trying to fix the screen resolution because for whatever reason this game started out with my window being in between both my monitors. It's really easy to fix this problem just by adjusting my screen resolution because the game would just auto adjust and center itself onto one monitor. But the options menu wouldn't let me do it. The option to change the resolution was there, but it wouldn't let me adjust it. It was like my mouse and keyboard didn't work, I could only leave the menu, I couldn't navigate it. Also you can only access the options menu while you're in-game! You can't access the options menu from the main menu. After I finally did adjust the resolution (with luck), the gameplay wasn't worth it. It's garbage. The monsters spawn almost immediately after you kill them, the combat is very clunky and boring. It's just a terrible game. And trust me I'm use to playing low budget games or games that require a specific taste. I can sit there and play The Guild for hours even though it crashes and bugs out. I can still sit down and ignore all those flaws. But this game just doesn't offer any satisfaction. It's dull as hell.

Phantasmal is a procedurally generated first-person horror game which has made its way from Kickstarter, to Greenlight, and finally onto Early Access. It borrows liberally from other successful horror franchises (Outlast, Amnesia, and Silent Hill 2 come to mind) with the added twist of random level design. On one hand the game is, in theory, infinitely replayable. On the other hand, it lacks some of the tension and methodical pacing of more traditional horror games. It's tough to really call Phantasmal "horror" at all. Its more of a dark stealth experience with some unpredictable jump scares. Overall, there's a lot to like here--optional combat while stressing stealth, a cool risk/reward mechanic with light sources, and of course the unkillable tentacle monster. Unfortuantley, like many Early Access games, it's impossible for me to recommend Phantasmal in its current unfinished state. The lighting effects and motion blur are nauseating and the enemey AI and frequent glitches turn what should be a horror experience into something unintentionally comical at times. Phantasmal has a ton of potential and it's worth keeping an eye on to see how the game continues to evolve. For gameplay footage and my first impressions, check out the video below: https://youtu.be/dCfDAukKjsI

Early Access Review: This game was a huge surprise. Even though it has a lot of bugs, it is now my one of 10 favorite horror games of all time. Coming from me as a huge horror junkie, that is a HUGE praise. The mixture of ultra creepy atmosphere, stealthy roguelike, unpredictable procedurally generated environment, and extremely scary creatures delivered a true and awesome survival horror experience. After each time I die, the floors are not same as the last one at all. Well, the rooms are similar but the pathways are always different which give a lot of repayability and unpredictable results. Amazing. The creatures are extremely creepy, smart, and not to be messed with. At first, I was thinking, "I can plow through the game killing all the monsters and running. Yeah no problem." He he... Well no. Never happened. Each time I do that, I die immediately after 20 seconds. The monsters are very mean. The game requires a lot of stealth, careful planning with the guns (with very low ammo, use it wisely!), flares, keys, and a very small amount of health packs, and confidence. You will NOT want to see the huge monster right before you die ever again. My most favorite part about the game is the atmosphere. It is really well done. It is so creepy and gives a lot of goosebumps. I can't spoil it any more. Buy it and find out! The only problem I have with this game is the bugs. That's it. I highly expect the devs to iron out those bugs right before releasing this game officially. If they do that, this game is going to be one of the best survival horror games within the same tier as Outlast, Amnesia, Silent Hill, and System Shock 2. 8.5 out of 10

One of the best indie horror games on steam. I've been playing it on and off for a few months now. I would like to review the pros and cons . Keep in mind that this is still in early access , full release planned on April. PROS - The atmosphere is spot on and does not rely on cheap jumpscares - You'll get a weapon to defend yourself. It does not make the game any easier though :) - Combining elements of survival , stealth and quick thinking for success - Random generated levels , so it has replayability. CONS - The textures are kind of generic - Some animations are still buggy/jerky (should be fixed) - A few bugs with items (should be fixed upon release) Overall i can recommend this game for the price. The devs are responsive and listen to the community. Good job

Spent a good amount of time just TRYING to get this to work properly. It does not. I sat at the menu screen for ages just trying to fix the resolution. Checking the other reviews, I see that I'm not the only person with this problem. In fact, it seems like at least half the people who tried this game found that it had been released in a broken state. Broken abandonware for $15? No thanks.

[b]WARNING: The developer banned me from the forums for asking probing questions regarding the (lack of) optimization in this game. I had initially considered repurchasing the title to update the review if things had gotten better. The discussion can be [url=http://steamcommunity.com/app/342550/discussions/0/1620599015866856302/]viewed here in detail[/url]. Ironically, I broke no Terms & Conditions, but he did. Consider this fact that he will never address optimization, and cares even less about customers.[/b] Phantasmal is a survival horror roguelike title with Lovecraftian influences, and it's the first game that we've seen on Steam from New Zealand based publisher/developer Eyemobi Ltd. The combination of essentially three gaming genres is a brave, yet unique, step for an up and coming company, especially given the roguelike elements that are thrown into play. Boasting procedurally generated rooms, permadeath, stealth mechanics, along with health and sanity meters, one question begs to be asked; does this amalgamation work well together? There's a small storyline within Phantasmal, and basically you're a guy looking for his missing aunt. For one reason or another, you've been led to unfathomable depths that continue to grow deeper and deeper as each elevator and staircase plunges you deeper into the heart of madness. Along the way you'll encounter various, and numerous, enemies through randomly generated levels; the further you progress, the more plentiful and deadly your foes will become. Along the way you can pick up weapons such as a spiked bat, wooden plank, and a pistol to fend off the monsters. Your sanity meter will go down if you stare at them for too long with your flashlight on, but if you stand in the dark for a period of time you will also start to go insane. There are sanity pills and health kits scattered sparsely about to help aid you on your journey, along with coins that you can use to buy upgrades from the vendor at the starting area. From my experience the stealth mechanic doesn't work well at all. Supposedly if you crouch you're silent, and as long as you stay in the dark you're safe. I've had enemies charge at me despite using both of these techniques together. Their AI is also fairly terrible, given that they become stuck on stairs frequently and will run head-long into walls. I'm also pretty certain that I encountered areas with unlimited respawning monsters, and also an invincible foe. I'll also add here that the first trailer for the game (the second that appears on the store page) is very misleading, and is entirely cinematic; it is not at all how the game plays. Now, let me say that I have an i7 6700k and GTX 1080 combo, along with 16GB of DDR4 3000 RAM; additionally my monitor supports 1080p, 144Hz resolution. For those who aren't tech savvy, basically my rig is on the very high part of high-end; my graphics card in particular is second only to a newer NVIDIA card that released a mere 3 months after my card. I'm not saying this to brag by any means, but how would you feel about buying a game that can't even hit 30 FPS in some areas on a powerful rig? Would you spend $16.99 CAD on a title that struggles to hit even 60 FPS during its core areas? Let's say the graphics are also on low, and special effects are turned off. Comparatively speaking assess your rig against mine, how well do you think yours may fare given that mine cannot sustain a suitable framerate on Phantasmal? And before you ask, yes my drivers are all up to date. Needless to say I was beyond shocked, since every game I've thrown at my rig has hit 60+ FPS; The Witcher 3 with all settings maxed? Check. Grand Theft Auto V with everything but distance scaling maxed? Yep. How about the new Doom? Blows it out of the water. Metro Last Light Redux? Far Cry Primal? All run beautifully. Since many of the assets and designs are very similar to UNLOVED (a far superior game, I might add for those who're interested), I'm going to assume that Phantasmal runs on the Unreal engine. Though it doesn't matter what engine it runs on since it shouldn't perform this badly, it's especially unacceptable for such a high quality, acclaimed engine in particular; it's downright unforgivable. If I'm wrong and it's the Unity engine, well I'm no longer as surprised but still incredibly disappointed. Heed the warnings of this review and all others. Aside from some of the most abhorrent optimization I've personally witnessed (and I thought Obscuritas was bad), Phantasmal has a large amount of bugs, it's even a chore to set your resolution as you cannot even see all of the options and you must select blindly, restart the game, and try again. There's also a problem with keybindings staying put. Developer, instead of giving us new rooms, how about making your game functional to at least some degree? This is an appalling mess, and one that I've refunded. I had been looking forward to playing this game for quite some time, needless to say it's a huge letdown. [h1]Rating: [b]0.5/5.0[/b] - Abysmal, avoid it like the plague.[/h1] The Horror Network [url=http://store.steampowered.com/curator/28221963/]Curator[/url] | [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/thehorrornetwork]Group[/url] Click for Gore

I enjoy the premise and idea of this game, however, I don't understand the Sleeper. The sleeper spawns if you spend too much time in an area, preventing you from looting everything and giving you a sense of urgency. However, I can not even sprint straight to the end of the level, no looting, stealthing, or even fighting enemies, without the Sleeper spawning and killing me through walls. I will sprint straight to the exit doing my best not to get lost (a guessing game with the procedural generation), and it will spawn without fail every time. Am I doing something wrong? Because so far I seem to be doing everything correctly. It also doesn't exactly "chase" you, as the game states... It simply flies through the walls to where you are, moving at what seems to be a faster pace, so unless the exit is right in front of you, there is no outrunning it. I'm vexed by this mechanic to say the least, but I'm going to continue and try to get past it. EDIT - So, it seems that the Sleeper actually is based on your Sanity, which I wasn't paying enough attention to. EDIT II - So the Sleeper activates when your commotion goes too high. PSA - DONT SPRINT AROUND ALL THE TIME LIKE ME. (: