Phasmophobia

>
> „*Paranormal activity is on the rise and it's up to you and your team to use all the ghost hunting equipment at your disposal to gather as much evidence as possible.*”
>
>
>
>

—Game description on the Steam store page[src]

Phasmophobia is a four-player cooperative online psychological horror game created and published by Kinetic Games. It was released on September 18, 2020 in early access on Steam. A full release is estimated to be in 2024 at the earliest.

## Gameplay

Players can choose to play alone or with up to three other players, the latter by creating or joining a server lobby. The host then selects a contract including the location of the investigation and the difficulty level. Any equipment can then be added before the players get ready and the host starts the contract.

For each contract, the player is tasked to identify the ghost type, and three optional objectives are also assigned. In the tutorial, the only objective is to identify the ghost. To do this, the player must conduct an investigation, using their equipment to locate the ghost room and find various forms of evidence. This evidence must be recorded in the logbook, which contains information about the different types of ghosts, as well as an automatic sorter based on the information entered. Players can also use the characteristics of the different types of ghosts as recorded in the journal to identify the ghost.

To complete other objectives, players may use equipment they have brought with them or items found on site. Some objectives depend on the ghost's activity, and the player can increase that activity by saying certain key phrases or the ghost's name. While the player is in the investigation area, their sanity gradually decreases, depending on their surroundings and certain activities that occur. As the player's sanity decreases, the ghost is more likely to initiate a hunt, where it will pursue players and attempt to kill them. During a hunt, exit doors will lock, forcing players to hide or escape the ghost for the duration of the hunt. A combination of equipment and strategies will be needed to stay alive.

Players can leave whether or not the objectives have been met. After closing the van door with all players alive inside, the contract will end and players will be rewarded with money and experience based on the completion of objectives and secondary evidence collected. These rewards can be used to purchase or unlock equipment and progress in the game.

## Availability

Phasmophobia can be purchased on the Steam store or the Viveport store. Officially, Phasmophobia supports Windows 10/11 and the Steam Deck. Unofficially, the game can also be played on Mac or Linux devices through other methods, or on Windows 7/8.

Phasmophobia is compatible with any VR headset that supports OpenXR, such as Valve Index, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The game can also be played on Oculus Quest 1/2 via Air Link or Oculus Link.

An early access release is planned for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PlayStationVR2 in August 2023.

## Controls

All PC commands can be changed in the settings menu. The default settings are as follows:

## Trivia

* The word "phasmophobia" means fear of apparitions (as opposed to "phantasmophobia" which is the fear of real ghosts), but in modern usage it is most often used to refer to ghosts in general; the game was originally called Spectrophobia. Phasmophobia is considered the first early access ghost hunting game (previously and still sometimes lumped into the "survival horror" genre) that allowed direct communication with the AI via a microphone, and also the first game of its kind to use VR.
* Dknighter was the only person working on the development of the game until June 18, 2021. Kinetic Games currently has two developers and two artists.
* There is an unrelated game with a similar name called *Phasmophobia: Hall of Specters 3D*, which released in 2016.