So I've played Phasmophobia since its release, and through the years I've seen the game change for both better and worse. Since this is my first review on the game, I'll split this into two parts.
First, the game as a whole.
Second, how I feel about the newer update.
So firstly, I've enjoyed the game a lot, especially as a co-op game with friends and people I know. By yourself or with a friend, the smaller maps can be plenty of fun and finding the evidences by picking roles based on your tools can be fun and interesting. There can even be certain tools or strategies I prefer to play around with and find out.
On larger maps though, it is needed to have a larger team as finding the ghost room in the limited time span can be a challenge, but it can be rewarding and fun either goofing around or just getting a different mood in with the larger areas. It can also be far easier in some cases to get away from the ghost and hide with maps like the school, prison or hospital.
I personally love the cursed items and will go out of my way to find them each run, with the tarot cards and oujia board being my favourites. The mechanics are fun, other than the music box, which I feel doesn't really help at all.
Secondly...
Today however, with the latest update and changes, I have a a stronger negative experience than ever before. With the level locked items and the harsh experience of barely usable starting tools, it's hard to get a footing, even with hundreds of hours on the game previously. Partly because the quality of the new items making it hard to get into the game, but also because the game has become overly complex from what it used to be.
The Yokai, in my opinion, was the last fun ghost type they added before it became too cluttered with ghost types, and with the short time you have to react to a hunt and the sheer amount of times the ghost simply does not give evidence, even on intermediate, it quickly kills the fun in completing a round and simply turns tedious.
Part of the fun for me was finding ghosts even without evidence, to get a feel of how the ghost acts, what it interacts with and the mechanics it showed aside from the obvious textbook evidence. Even with only one or two pieces of evidence, you could tell what ghost it was by what it did and where it hung out. There's just not enough time and too many things to keep track of for that now.
With the new update, I'm also not a fan of how they changed the DOTS and the spirit box audio. I haven't reached the higher tier spirit box yet, but the buggy audio is just straight out annoying and hurts to listen to, and I think the audio responses were far more fun to hear than the ones they use now. The dots look cleaner now, but I often find it hard to tell what exactly it is I'm looking for or where to look with it now.
However, I do still think the game could be fun with the newer update, and I'm excited to try the new items that have been added and the difference in the higher tiers of the old tools. Sadly, I will have to spend hours on the game and push through the initial tediousness of the first levels before I can even try that.
It's still a fun game, especially with a group, but I do feel the game has lost a lot of charm and fun throughout the years, and I still feel that a lot of the parts that made Phasmophobia fun has been lost.
First, the game as a whole.
Second, how I feel about the newer update.
So firstly, I've enjoyed the game a lot, especially as a co-op game with friends and people I know. By yourself or with a friend, the smaller maps can be plenty of fun and finding the evidences by picking roles based on your tools can be fun and interesting. There can even be certain tools or strategies I prefer to play around with and find out.
On larger maps though, it is needed to have a larger team as finding the ghost room in the limited time span can be a challenge, but it can be rewarding and fun either goofing around or just getting a different mood in with the larger areas. It can also be far easier in some cases to get away from the ghost and hide with maps like the school, prison or hospital.
I personally love the cursed items and will go out of my way to find them each run, with the tarot cards and oujia board being my favourites. The mechanics are fun, other than the music box, which I feel doesn't really help at all.
Secondly...
Today however, with the latest update and changes, I have a a stronger negative experience than ever before. With the level locked items and the harsh experience of barely usable starting tools, it's hard to get a footing, even with hundreds of hours on the game previously. Partly because the quality of the new items making it hard to get into the game, but also because the game has become overly complex from what it used to be.
The Yokai, in my opinion, was the last fun ghost type they added before it became too cluttered with ghost types, and with the short time you have to react to a hunt and the sheer amount of times the ghost simply does not give evidence, even on intermediate, it quickly kills the fun in completing a round and simply turns tedious.
Part of the fun for me was finding ghosts even without evidence, to get a feel of how the ghost acts, what it interacts with and the mechanics it showed aside from the obvious textbook evidence. Even with only one or two pieces of evidence, you could tell what ghost it was by what it did and where it hung out. There's just not enough time and too many things to keep track of for that now.
With the new update, I'm also not a fan of how they changed the DOTS and the spirit box audio. I haven't reached the higher tier spirit box yet, but the buggy audio is just straight out annoying and hurts to listen to, and I think the audio responses were far more fun to hear than the ones they use now. The dots look cleaner now, but I often find it hard to tell what exactly it is I'm looking for or where to look with it now.
However, I do still think the game could be fun with the newer update, and I'm excited to try the new items that have been added and the difference in the higher tiers of the old tools. Sadly, I will have to spend hours on the game and push through the initial tediousness of the first levels before I can even try that.
It's still a fun game, especially with a group, but I do feel the game has lost a lot of charm and fun throughout the years, and I still feel that a lot of the parts that made Phasmophobia fun has been lost.