Phantasmal – Pre-Alpha Download

Phantasmal is a genuinely terrifying roguelike first person horror game inspired by Dead Space, Silent Hill, Metro and Resident Evil, set in an old abandoned, procedurally generated mansion.

The prevailing darkness makes for a very claustrophobic feeling game, and both the character design and audio are both particularly freaky, but the single most terrifying aspect of it is that the levels are all procedurally generated.  This procedural generation means that every playthrough is different and just as pant-wettingly horrifying as the last.  You never know what’s going to come at you next, although it’s a safe bet it doesn’t want to be friends.

The goal of the game is to escape the mansion, by making your way through levels full off all manner of creepy ghouls, trying to reach the level exit portal.  This is no easy task, resources are sparse and you’re pretty fragile.  You have a mixture of traditional weapons and makeshift weapons but a lot of the time, sneaking is your best option, especially with the most common enemy, blind humanoid creatures that hunt through sound.

As if things weren’t stacked against you enough, you’re also prone to hallucinations, looking directly at some creatures with your torchlight turned on will cause you to slowly lose your sanity.  Make no mistake, you’ll die a lot in this game, you’ll learn how to take on different enemies, but you can forget about learning level layouts.  You never know what’s behind those corners, and most of the time it’s something very bad.

Happy hunting, and if you have any feedback please leave it in the comments section or the official website.  YouTubers have full permission to make & monetize gameplay videos.

Notes:  Stealth is always the best option especially when dealing with the blind enemies, use crouch (L-Ctrl) to sneak past them as even walking will generate too much noise.  Also keeping the torch switched off will lower your chances of detection, even to creatures with sight.

Watch out for the Darkchilde that’s invisible while you have your torch turned on.  If you hear a freaky Laugh loop then it is nearby, or catch a glimpse of it during a lightning strike you should turn your flash-light off immediately.   Otherwise the screen will go red, you’ll start to hallucinate, then die.  Also, creating too much noise from fighting, running around, or knocking into things will eventually wake the sleeper (sort of like a Pyramid Head), which will hunt you down and terminate you with extreme prejudice.

Stay very quiet and use your weapons and flash-light only when necessary and you MIGHT survive this procedurally generated nightmare.  You’ll need a steady nerve and a LOT of luck on your side though.  Make no bones about it, this is a very hard game.

Watch a Lets Plays of it in action HERE, HERE & HERE

UPDATE: This Alpha Is No Longer Available