Game Review - YT Stream/Review

[RadicalRichardYT]

Hello everyone! I bought the game and played with a friend and here is my review after 3.5 hours, and in particular the game mode investigation/Identify. As a reminder to all I'm well aware that the game is freshly new and has roadmaps and updates to make it better, but this is from the standpoint of seeing it from the first time.

Maps - 7/10

One of the minor things that really gives me a liking is how you approach the maps. Its the little things sometimes, but I rather love the intros to the map, showing the difficulty and title, as you and your crew drive and roll up to the location. Its a nice switch up from other games that just put you there, so to see your characters drive up, i give that high praise

Now for the maps themselves. The first place, is your standard house, the plantation has the multiple floors to deal with, so finding the ghost is a bit rough, and the hospital is quite large so a bigger group is recommended for that. For the future maps, I would love to see some more originality and locations than what we have seen with Phasmophobia, Demonologist and similar games of the genre. A church/Cathedral, A cemetery, Lighthouse, Full size hotel, A battleship (Example- USS Lexington) A museum

Gameplay- 6/10

Now in my opinion, it has the setup to really shine. The instruments work well. I tend to love the fact you can upgrade/customize your base, and vehicle, and have you work towards not only better gear and vehicles and a base. The furniture and additions you can make, i tend lto like the things you can get to customize. The atmospherics and visuals are pretty decent. It looks good but there are improvements that can be made

Now where I give it a lower score on this review and this is just a personal pet peeve of mine is the jumpscares and interactions. Like alot of the other horror games of this genre, Phasmo and Demonologist included, There is not enough environmental scares and interactions that really can give a player the creeps and make you jump or get your heart pumping. Long before a hunt ever begins, you should be on edge and be gathering some other evidence in the process.

For example, right now you have typical stuff. Alarm clocks going off, Doors opening and closing on their own, stools moving, microwaves going off, a knock on a door or whispers etc. As a horror/investion game its missing out totally on some real action. Why not walk into a bedroom, and all the sudden the walls are bleeding and you have the ghost there slitting the throat of someone and that body falls on the bed and the ghost then turns to you and runs at you. Or walking down the hall and have a doom 3 moment where you see demonic symbols and pitch blackness and screams, whispers or gnawing bones.

You can have a TV turn on , and if you go over to investigate, have a ghost or bloody image, or something really scary come out of it, or have the whole tv fall down to the floor, or if you enter a childrens bed room, hear some giggling, or a little girl holding a teddy bear and she turns around with her eyes cut out. In the Psych hospital map, there's missed opportunitys, to walk past a room, and have a evil doctor giving a lobotomy on a patient on a table screaming, or see someone eating their flesh inside a jail cell and then dissapear, or see a wheelchair roll down the hallway, or a Sexy nurse covered in blood pushing a gurney giggling at you as she walks by

Overall, I feel i feel there needs to be way more original/creative things so turn the dial up to 11 when it comes to the horror/spookiness during your investigations that can give your experience a real fun time every time and unpredictable

Audio 8/10

The audio is pretty decent. Knocking and sound effects in general are pretty audiable. As a voice actor my only gripe with the audio is that you could easily improve in some areas. For example, if you die, and you pick the hang man and choose to scream randomly. It does the job, but with a real voice behind it, the intensity and clarity and the more human and life likeness can really make it creepier and scarier. Spirt box interactions can also be improved considerably with a real voice actor, for all the 3 levels of interaction/evidence. Thats where over the sounds that you get built in vs a experienced voice actor could spicen it up on that end.

Conclusion:

I did enjoy the game and for the price i paid, its worth getting and checking out. I didn't experience any video issues or drop in frames. On novice and intermediate accomplishing the goals wasn't too difficult. I did experience some bugs, such as on the plantation, ghost footsteps got stuck in a audio bug and running in place and it wouldn't stop at all. I would like to see more cosmetics for your characters as its quite basic and limited but i assume future updates will add more. Character models look good, but the running animation could use some work.

If more game play elements such as I described can be incorporated and a few original maps i think this can be a solid game to truly recommend, but it needs a little polish in a few areas and updates and features to set itself apart from other titles in the same genre.

[HellOnWheels]

Couldnt agree more, I think it has alot of potential to surpass the other ghost games so long as the devs listen and stick with it. Hopefully if they add a christmas update like Phasmo did, hopefully they know how christmas decorations look or at least google it LOL