It will come as no surprise to those who know me that I am a huge horror fan; movies, books, even videogames. I just love all things horror! And of course I've played plenty of horror games over the years: F.E.A.R, Fallout, Dead By Daylight, Resident Evil, Phasmaphobia. The list goes on. So when a new horror game hit the virtual shelves earlier this year, of course I jumped on it. Rumoured to take horror to the next, fully immersive, level using Unreal Engine, I was keen to see how it stacked up compared to the reigning champion of ghostly horror games, Phasmaphobia. I will be reviewing Phasmaphobia very soon by the way but, *spoiler alert*, since it's been dethroned as reigning champ by Demonologist I'm waiting on their next big update which promises to change up a lot about the game and give it a new lease of life. For now, though, let's talk about Demonologist.
From Steam: "Demonologist is a co-op horror game that can be played with at least 1 and up to 4 players. Your goal is to identify the type of evil spirit in cursed places and exorcise it using your equipment, either alone or with your team."
Bearing in mind this is an early access game*, I'm impressed. There's a decent amount of content already available, with the promise of so much more to come. This game has a lot of potential. As with any game, even more so early access games, there are bugs, but the Demonologist dev team are really on the ball with this. They're constantly rolling out hotfixes for reported bugs as well as pushing new updates with new maps, evidence types, customisation options and more.
It's an incredibly immersive game, thanks in large part to the use of Unreal Engine which makes everything look super realistic and this really adds to the fear factor. The maps themselves are a decent size, with plenty of hidden secrets/jump scares which are spooky and fun. The dev team have done a great job of creating an unsettling atmosphere before any ghostly action even happens just through map design. And then, of course, there's the ghostly action.
Jump scares are the name of the game here. I can't count on both hands how many times I've physically jumped out of my chair thanks to a ghost event in this game. Even repeat ghost events still make me jump, coming out of nowhere in an otherwise eerily quiet environment. I love a game that's genuinely scary, that can actually make me jump, and Demonologist certaintly delivers on that.
Demonologist offers a lot of fun customisation options too. There's a small selection of clothing options available for male and female with more to be added. You can purchase additional safe houses and decorate them to your preference. You can even buy a cat to keep you company (as a crazy cat lady this was one of the first things I did when I'd saved up enough money)! With the promise of a lot more customisation options to come, I'm excited. Demonologist offers far more than Phasmaphobia has and it's still in the early access stage! I'm looking forward to seeing how it progresses and grows.
Oh, I haven't even touched on the multiplayer, co-op aspect of the game yet! Play it alone, if you're brave enough, or with your friends (up to four). There's plenty of people playing this game and plenty of lobbies you can jump into day or night if you don't want to play alone. Or create your own lobby and let people come to you. You can voice-chat in-game but there's also an option to text if voice-chat's not your thing. Communication is key in this game.
An even bigger issue in the game as it stands lies in the difficulty levels. There are three currently; easy, medium, and hard. Medium hits just right with a decent reward multiplier and evidence being not impossible to obtain but a little more difficult than playing on easy mode. Hard mode, however, is nigh on impossible to play. It's much closer to nightmare mode (for you Phasmaphobia players out there) but without the juicy reward multiplier. I've tried hard mode on a few different occassions and each time I die within minutes of walking into the building. It needs a huge rework. Add a higher reward multiplier to make it worth it, make evidence a little less impossible to find, balance starting sanity and sanity loss and you'll have the perefct hard mode.
Until they rework hard mode, I would not recommend playing this game on hard. It's just not worth it. You can earn a decent amount of money playing on medium difficulty and you're far less likely to die and lose all your stuff. Which you then have to buy back. And that stuff's expensive! But it would be nice to have a challenge, you know? So I really hope the Demonologist dev team take note, because I'm not the only one saying this, and rework hard mode in the not too distant future.
That being said, I would highly recommend playing Demonologist if you're a horror game fan, particularly if you've played and enjoyed Phasmaphobia, Ghost Files etc. Demonologist takes the original concept of Phasmaphobia, ghost hunting, and steps it up a notch, adding exorcisms, jump scares, realism and more. With the promise of a lot more to come in terms of new maps, new ghosts, more evidence types, and more personalisation options, Demonologist is one to watch. It's definitely going places and I for one am excited to be along for the ride.
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
Have you played Demonologist or Phasmaphobia? What are your thoughts?
*Early access games are not complete and may or may not change further.
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