The game is great when all the mechanics want to work right. The atmosphere is creepy, the locations are all varied and interesting, and the tools are all unique plays on classic ghost hunting items. The animations of the characters are, for the most part, pretty good too. There’s some character customization, base upgrades, and decorations. The jump scares and events are varied and can be terrifying or interesting. There are even things in the environment that you can read aloud which will cause a little surprise which is pretty cool the first few times.
Now for the bad. The basic tools are all mostly good enough to figure out what kind of ghost you’re dealing with. The extras will help you complete the “optional objectives” which in turn will let you exorcise the ghost/demon. You most likely won’t be able to do that without buying some sort of extra tool like a candle or camera. But just one of those tools cost thousands and will require a little grinding/farming. But when you die and lose your extra tools, it really sets the game back due to just how expensive everything is; it feels extremely punishing when you die, and you will die especially while trying to learn the later exorcisms.
Some of the base items don’t seem to be very intuitive or seem to take forever to use. Fingerprints aren’t consistently seen with UV light. The ESG tool (DOTS) and the Easel (Ghost drawing/writing) seemingly take forever to work with no rhyme or reason as to when or why; some games have lasted 30+ minutes of just staring at these last two items hoping for an interaction for a final piece of ghost evidence. Your basic EMF tool is based upon distance of the item interacted with, but doesn't take into consideration if the item is thrown out of reach or in an entirely different room above or below you.
Now there is a bare bones written “how to play” tutorial that you can read, but it does little to really show you how to use each tool and when and why they’ll work.
There are 3 “cursed objects” in the game, but they feel like blatant and cheaper rip offs from another popular ghost hunting game. A ouija board that can only be asked 4 very specific questions with only one being useful. A voodoo doll that can either cause more activity or a hunt, and a tarot deck with cards that cause random effects.
There are 24 ghosts with different personalities, but they’re not very distinct and sometimes don’t even feel like they’re working right; there’s a ghost that angers when it hears cussing and swearing, but a hilarious game was spent doing that without any repercussions. One of the ghosts even has one of their attributes as "we have no data" as if the devs just gave up on adding anything.
Also you can’t complete your optional objects (like take a photo of the ghost or collect “item”) at the same time and while you’re looking for the ghost room and trying to figure out the ghost type. It seems like this is in place just to make you spend more time in the location instead of respecting the player’s time.
Difficulty wise, the game seems pretty balanced and almost too easy at times on “easy”, but if you bump up the difficulty, the ghost seems to interact less and less with its environment meaning you can’t get the evidence you need to ID it. It turns into a game of looking for a possible ghost room that hasn’t had anything happen in it, in the dark (since the lights will supposedly break more and more as you heighten the difficulty, even though some easy games, I’ve had literally every light break), and just walking around until you’re insane enough that the ghost will constantly hunt you. There is a custom mode, but the options are extremely limited and don’t seem very worth it since they’ll tank your money/reward multiplier.
Each location has a very specific way to exorcise the ghost that won’t change and is always your last objective. All of these also involve running around the map, looking for some sort of object(s) that only spawn in once your optional objectives are done. Some of these, especially on earlier maps, require you to pick up “x” amount of an object (rats, fingers, etc.) and take them somewhere. This is made more frustrating because they count as a tool and you’ll only be able to carry up to 3 at most; they later change this in the later maps thankfully and let you pick up and hold all items at once. Currently, one of the more frustrating exorcisms involves finding an item that will only spawn in the map once you lock in your ghost type (right or wrong), which can spawn anywhere in the house, and also immediately starts a timer for another final part of the exorcism which involves you examining multiples bodies using vague instructions.
Some random low points. There’s no global talk (like a radio system), so don’t think of getting too far away from your friends. Your keybinds reset each and every time you quit the game. The ghosts don’t make noise when they’re hunting you, so it’s hard to pinpoint where they’re at or if they’re done. While you can use your flashlight at the same time as another tool, when you switch to that item to do so, your light turns off and you have to toggle it back on. The jump scares can get repetitive after a few hours (especially after grinding on a map for money) and have nothing to do with a particular ghost type or help in identifying it.
I’ll keep playing this game just to experience each map and unique exorcism puzzle, but afterwards, there’s no way I’m working my way up buying the penthouse base for $150,000. I really want to like this game more than I do, but the core mechanics just don’t feel consistent and the amount of time the game makes you waste in just constantly running around the map feels like it just doesn’t respect your time.
This game feels like it should still be in early access. Wait for a sale if you’re interested after trying the demo and have at least another person to play with. It feels like dev support had dropped off since they called it good and suddenly went out of early access.
