Phantasma VR Director's Cut Reviews

A bit on the short side, 1.5 hours for me to finish it, but exceptionally well-crafted the entire way through. The amount of work and attention to detail put into atmosphere and world-building really shines through, especially in the videos and environments. Puzzles are abstract and challenging, but the hint system consistently gives JUST enough of a nudge to get you on the right track. The story is just as abstract, told only in the barest snippets and bits of background detail, leaving you to piece everything together yourself, as one final puzzle. This is definitely NOT one of those shallow games that spoon-feeds baby bites of plot points to you. It's less about a linear "story," more about peering through tiny holes here and there, glimpsing into a twisted world where things have gone horribly wrong, and have been that way for a long time. Highly recommended while it's on sale. It might be a little too short at full price, but that's up to you.

Got my brain a bit of a workout, hade to cheat one time (i suck at english) so i like to say its ok game. The story did not give me alot of exitement and it was a bit boring but the puzzles was nice. The ending wtf!? xD i like to give revenge.

Phantasma VR has the most elaborate and interesting puzzles among all VR games I've played so far. Add to that very disturbing imagery and ambiguous story and the result is one of the best VR adventures.

[h1] Experienced on the Oculus Rift with Touch Controllers. Spoiler-free Review. [/h1] [i] Note for Oculus users: despite the mention of snap turning, as of today, there is none. Several items will be beyond standing reach where you can't move to. So a full room-scale setup is recommended although it is possible to finish game if you mess with your sensor setup [/i] This is quite simply, communist propaganda propagated by Russian trolls to bring down American capitalism disguised as a puzzle game disguised as a faux anti-consumerist philosophy (see Fight Club). This is not a game. There's only 4 real puzzles. Each puzzle is crafted to ingrain into you a disdain for the American way of life. There's a hint system which you have to read carefully to see the solutions otherwise everything is obtuse. All but one puzzle has television advertisements which will send you subliminal messages needed to hate America and solve the puzzle. If you play this game you are mentally ill. You will need copious amount of drugs. You are trained to kill yourself. These trolls have clearly taken their lead from terrorist organizations. They even have a bunny mascot to hide their evil intentions of bringing down our capitalist systems. You have been warned! Sale Price Rating 7/10. I think it's well-priced given the production values. Can be finished in 30 minutes or if you're a total idiot it can take you up to 5 hours. SPOILERS![spoiler] I'm a total idiot. ... look at my time played. [/spoiler]

Just finished this game and I really liked it. With my playtime it says 3,4 hours but on the second puzzle I had some help from the dev because it was really difficult and spend 1 hour alone there. This is fixed and has a more easier approach now. So 3-4 hours would be an avarage playtime. The puzzles were great and not to hard (after the updates). I felt satisfied solving them and looking forward to let family and friends solve it. I would say you can compare this game a bit with "A Chair In A Room". Where ACIAR has a bit more playtime Phantasma has the better puzzles. Both games are great in his own rights. Phantasm has his own psycholgical feeling and even at the end you scratching your head about what was going on. Its not hard figuring out but it keeps you thinking. Also this game uses teleportation or locomotion so it should be comfortable for everyone. Overall I recommend this game sloley for its puzzles. 7/10

Phantasma is sick, twisted, difficult and a little bit erotic. I highly enjoyed the experience. These aren't your typical escape room puzzles. They require "outside the box" thinking and are very satisfying when solved. If you're up for a challenge, try Phantasma. If not, just keep calm, watch TV and be a good bunny.

I finished this game feeling very angry with the game itself and the people who made it. As a first impression, you start the game in one of those standard videogame creepy hospitals. After a doctor talks for a while over a speaker and the creep factor slowly ramps up, she gives you a knife and tells you to stab yourself in the chest. But you don't have a chest, because it's a VR game. What you *actually* need to do is stab yourself in the *face*. [i]And that's the simplest and most intuitive puzzle in the game.[/i] I had to look up solutions for more than one of the surreal challenges that followed. The in-game hint-system is generous to begin with, but sometimes it can be misleading and by the end of the game it will actually insult you. This was frustrating for me. The story is either that you've been through the plot of They Live, or that you're a serial killer who only *thinks* that's what happened. The game never really commits fully to either of those explanations. This, too, was frustrating. The horror is decidedly not subtle, Almost every environment is creepy and weird, and the story is punctuated with occasional jumpscares. The tension never winds down - only up. I've seen a lot of videogames make this mistake - if you don't give the player room to breathe occasionally and let some sense of security return to them, eventually they get innured to horror. Or, in the short term, they get frustrated. And the game ends on a very intrusive and unsatisfying note, with Flappy breaking the 4th wall, acknowledging that you're playing a VR game, and then threatening you. Then the game suddenly exits with no credits or anything. It's like the writer *wanted* to try to induce nightmares in the player. Go to hell, Flappy. My last act in this game was to drive my virtual fist through your intangible skull.

Being a fan of the games mentioned in the "About this Game" section, I was interested in playing, then once I got the demo and went through it, I had to get it. The puzzles were challenging enough to be a little frustrating, but the Dev was very helpful with hints that gave just the nudge in the right direction without spoiling the fun. No jumpscares, but that bunny. :) Graphics are good, and the sound design definintely helped the atmosphere. Some of the sound effects give you the creeps. Definitely worth it. Was both relieved and disappointed when it was over. Hope to see more from this Dev.

Enjoyable puzzle experience, with a horror theme, quite disturbing. Puzzles are challenging but not absurd. No jump scares just an uneasy feel. God damn that bunny

When I launched this game I really didn't know what to expect. the trailer seemed pretty creepy though and i like creepy so I figured I'd give it a try. This is basically an escape room game along the same lines as A Chair in a room with from what I have gathered so far, a very dark narrative. I noticed in the tags it said "cute" ,.. well if you mean cute like I ate too many shrooms and now my pillow wants to eat me, then yeah,.. cute. I have only played for a couple hours now and at least 90 minutes of that was trying to figure out the Paris level. which brings me to my next point. In this game you have to put away your normal gamer logic. most escape rooms you find a key that opens this door which reveals a strange shaped object which fits in that hole and so on. Phantasma is more of a brain teaser. It reminds me of those MasterMind cards from when I was a kid. You need to be able to think laterally and not so much well this thing does this thing and so on like we are all used to. What's really nuts is that when you figure it out you want to slam your head on your key board because the solution to these puzzles were right in front of you the whole time and then the puzzles seem easy. at least the two I have completed. BTW something happens after the Paris Level,. it takes the darkness of this game to a whole new level. I found while trying to solve the puzzles there are things that kinda drove me nuts,. like the never ending barking of a dog,. I'm a cat person,.. or non stop baby crying. or french music on repeat for 90 minutes. but from what I gather,. this game is about a very deranged mind and it certainly can give you the feeling of going mad. The graphics are really polished. the sound is great if not annoying at times. it's nice that the devs gave us both teleport and free locomotion. I prefer the locomotion as the teleport seems to be a bit out of control and can send things flying in all directions if you aren't carful. Over all I would say that this is a working peice of art in VR. it's a bit ambiguous, but that's ok. I saw one reviewer refering to Salvador Dali and Lynch which I would say is pretty right on the money. The dev says that it will take at least 4 hours to complete the game and since I have only completed 2 puzzles and already have 2 in I'm going to take his word for it. you def get your money's worth unlike some games where you pay 20 bucks for an hour of play. Pros: -great graphics -sound and voice acting -new kind of puzzles, very challenging. -options for locomotion - creepy AF -plenty of play time for the buck -great physics Cons: -sounds can get repetative and annoying -teleport is a bit wonky this is a soild title. props to the devs for giving us something different! you should buy it!