Ghost Watchers or Phasmophobia?

[Haruspex]

Topic

[NerdzGG]

Ghost Watchers is basically Phasmo on stero*ds

[Zothen]

Hm, simple answer, maybe? Both. Plus Ghost Exile, too?

I still wonder why Phasmo does not implement any kind of banish-mechanics?!

But then, Ghost Watchers option to simply drop all tools together into a "identification zones" is a pretty poor game mechanic implementation.

[Lucifer Morningstar]

Phasmophobia is best :) end of discussion

[AssuageAghast]

Ghost Watchers ONLY IF it's on sale, otherwise Phasmophobia

[Maya-Neko]

Phasmo has shown, that it will go the route of making something fully original, including new assets and animations for everything. Might not look as visually appealing right now as some other games, but Sunny Meadows definitely shows, how much potential there is for alle the other maps.

For Ghost Watchers it remains to be seen, how much effort they want to put into the game. The devs have quite a suspicious history with some cash grabs and this game seems to be made like one as well (like they bought assets from the unity store and just used the Demo Maps 1:1 without changing a single thing). So they need to show, that they're willing to further develop the game beyond just copy pasting maps into the game, until then i wouldn't recommend to buy it.

Ultimately it's your decision though. Given that Ghost Watchers got tons of money they at least now have the time to do better.

[Ittrix]

Originally posted by Zothen:

I still wonder why Phasmo does not implement any kind of banish-mechanics?!

the developer feels if you're given tools to fight the ghost then you'll stop being afraid of it. Smudge sticks is probably as far as 'fighting' it will ever go.
In this game we can already see bits of it. Players who know the ghost overly well and know they're safe openly taunt the ghost. Especially if they use exploits.

An example of a game where this has already happened is Dead By Daylight. It's horror genre themed, but not really a horror game. I have the tools to bully the crap out of a killer until they rage quit, and boy do I and many other players do so.

[Kaisoku]

Ghost Watchers has some fundamental issues that has made me avoid playing it.

• The evidence gathering tools have a some based on determining which ghost you are dealing with, but the ghosts have unique models. So those tools are basically pointless.
  
• The "spooky equipment" is very basic in implementation. The voodoo doll interaction has "wiggle or toss up and down", the ouija board is "move back and forth or all over", etc. Don't expect questions and answer, or voodoo dolls controlling the ghost, etc, like they are in any other game... it's basically an A/B/Null switch tool.
  
• Ghosts AI don't really have any unique factors. They look different, but all act the same, other than which defensive items work and "maybe" aggressiveness. No behavioral differences, no strengths and weaknesses. It's window dressing.
  
• The audio effects are not tied to anything in game. They are essentially a random sound effect played in your ear. I hear inside doors creaking, or dishes smashing right next to me while sitting in the van. It is not an indication of anything, just "generic atmosphere".
  
• The maps are very basic, and as others have mentioned, 1:1 loaded from demos. Literally, not even a texture change or objects moved, etc. Straight up demo display... it's the equivalent of going to IKEA, and buying a room display and transplanting it 1:1 in your house. Tada! Minimal effort done implies they don't have a person dedicated to making proper maps, and this will likely not be improved in the future.
  
• The equipment purchasing is implemented in a vaccuum. You buy something for the mission, and that's it. Doesn't carry over whether you win or lose. It feels like a mechanic built with the least mechanical infrastructure possible (only a single stat carried over: money, not what equipment you have, or needing to buy outside of a mission, etc).

On top of those, the decisions made by the devs about concerns have been suspicious. "We can't see anything while using tools, let us have a flashlight in the offhand/shoulder." is responded with "buy a drone with a light that costs you at least 5 hours of in-game play time to get anywhere near buying." Feels more like "how can we get people to play past refund time" instead of an actual quality of life decision.

All this really made me feel like the game was made by a dozen developers being given one part each, and they all created their part independently of each other. There's no real interaction between mechanics.

It kind of feels like a "practical Example" made as a demo for a stakeholder meeting. "Here's what the atmosphere will sound like" type of audio effects. "Here's what some maps can be like" demo maps. "Here's how investigations can work" with basic tools and logical issues.
The problem being... this is what they then released. If this was a pitch for money to spend a year developing, great, but this is their "near finished product"... don't expect sweeping development changes.

The game needs A LOT of development to make it into an interesting game beyond the maybe 2 hours of jumpscares. Once you get past that, the gameplay falls COMPLETELY flat.
And we are fast approaching the what... 3 months of development time promised? I'd originally heard 2 years but then someone said it was MUCH lower in a dev quote.
With a track record of abandoning development on games that have critical gameplay issues? Games that were all made to be very similar to an existing game that was doing well?
The company's history is VERY concerning when it comes to fixing these fundamental issues presented. I don't expect them to be fixed, and I have resigned to the fact that I purchased too early and wasted my 20$.

Ghost Exile, Ghost Exorcism Inc., Obsideo... they all have "Phasmo + Banishment" SOOO much better in gameplay than Ghost Watchers. Forewarned has very similar genre feel (investigation + tomb raiding) and is another great example of a good gameplay implementation (they just need to flesh out Banishment more, imo).
Look past a handful of nice models and a couple jumpscare animations, and you will find Ghost Watchers is not worth it.

[Varenvel The Festive Dinosaur]

personaly i played other ghost games and a lot of them have much more interactivity (both from ghost and players) but most of them have very basic gameplay

phasmo has solid gameplay but not a lot interactivity

i hope they fix that , having ghost interact with you more rather then kill you would be amazing

and no other game made me realise this then ghost watchers...

imagine some ghosts would kidnap you instead of killing you

or placed things on map adding more and more(you have to remove it) growing in power

etc etc

but personaly i think solid game base is more important as developer can expand from it

all fun gimicks wont matter if gameplay is not solid (hello starbound ,did you kill terraria yet?)

ghost watchers looks like fun but it does not have solid gameplay yet , tho it has some fun ideas id like to see eventualy expanded in phasmo eventualy

[Maya-Neko]

Originally posted by Varenvel The Festive Dinosaur:

imagine some ghosts would kidnap you instead of killing you

or placed things on map adding more and more(you have to remove it) growing in power

Many of these things sound great on paper, but might not feel good after being implemented.

The kidnap-mechanic of Ghost Watchers is a great example for this. At first glance it seems to be scary and fun, but the more you play it, the more annoying it gets without any real benefit gameplaywise and on top of that it's always a very bad idea to take control away from someone with motion sickness problems and if its even a VR-Player on top of that, then it gets even worse.

And Ghost Exile shows, that the portal closing mechanic also might not be that great, because it constantly pulls you away from the core mechanics, pretty much like an annoying side quest, which isn't skipable.

Obviously it is up to everybodies preferences in the end, but it is no surprise, that Phasmo is still the most played ghost hunting game and the one with the best user rating. It might not to as much as others, but the things it does it definitely excels in, making it hard for others to keep up, when they need to divide their attention over more features.

[Ulfkarl]

phasmo need better animations and models for ghosts, the blinking thing when they hunt looks stupid and not scary, even a ps2 game had better animations

[Varenvel The Festive Dinosaur]

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

Originally posted by Varenvel The Festive Dinosaur:

imagine some ghosts would kidnap you instead of killing you

or placed things on map adding more and more(you have to remove it) growing in power

Many of these things sound great on paper, but might not feel good after being implemented.

The kidnap-mechanic of Ghost Watchers is a great example for this. At first glance it seems to be scary and fun, but the more you play it, the more annoying it gets without any real benefit gameplaywise and on top of that it's always a very bad idea to take control away from someone with motion sickness problems and if its even a VR-Player on top of that, then it gets even worse.

And Ghost Exile shows, that the portal closing mechanic also might not be that great, because it constantly pulls you away from the core mechanics, pretty much like an annoying side quest, which isn't skipable.

Obviously it is up to everybodies preferences in the end, but it is no surprise, that Phasmo is still the most played ghost hunting game and the one with the best user rating. It might not to as much as others, but the things it does it definitely excels in, making it hard for others to keep up, when they need to divide their attention over more features.

my sugestions is just bag of ideas , devs might implement it in diffrent way , not at all , or cherrypick

i just want a bit more interactivity as even on hardest dificulty there is not that much stuff to spice gameplay , game gets harder but you already know all mechanics and ghosts eventualy inside out.

made post on sugestion sub-forum

[Rhapsody]

Originally posted by Maya-Neko:

And Ghost Exile shows, that the portal closing mechanic also might not be that great, because it constantly pulls you away from the core mechanics, pretty much like an annoying side quest, which isn't skipable.

That's pretty much it. It would not be difficult at all to cherry-pick "cool" features from other games, but what Phasmophobia actually does well IMO is connecting all the features almost seamlessly together. Take a look at the new challenges for example, they utilize existing features instead of incorporating something otherwise out-of-place into the game. Any person, player or developer, can choose and point out "cool" or "exciting" features, but only truly skilled developers know how to put the whole thing together properly for a smooth and memorable experience (aside from the unintended things like bugs of course).

[Kaisoku]

Ghost Exorcism Inc does the ghost grab very well.
It's randomly done, random duration, and has several different versions from short pulls or pushes to full blown dragged across the building.

You are still able to act, too. I was able to click a tool on the ground as I passed it and saw EMF, lol..

I don't know for sure, but I feel like the child ghost does more push/pulls (playing), while the poltergeist does more grab and drag.. though that could just be my experience, no idea if that's actually a behavior thing.

Regardless, it feels the most organic implementation of the feature, and I don't feel tired of the mechanic after 50 hours of playing it.

[Zothen]

We need a game with better (or any meaningful) level randomisation.
At least randomisation from prefab room layouts with furniture/item populators.
That would be the logical next step?!

[mkhi]

Phasmophobia