'Phantasmal' Is Lovecraftian Lovechild Of 'Silent Hill' And 'Dead Space' With Roguelike Elements

Many iconic games such as ID Software's FPS "Quake," Electronic Arts' "Dead Space" and From Software's "Bloodborne" have been heavily influenced by and included elements from H.P. Lovecraft's typical horror style. However, few have managed to fully embody the works of horror author like "Call of Cthulhu: The Dark Corners of the Earth." The new kid on the horror block, "Phantasmal: City of Darkness," lies somewhere in between these two takes on Lovecraftian horror.

The indie PC game is the love child of a small New Zealand-based studio called Eyemobi. "Phantasmal" was funded through Kickstarter, which allowed it to make it through Steam's Greenlight programme and onto its recent iteration on Early Access. The game is priced at $15 in its current avatar, but the risk of being an early adopter of an unfinished game is offset by the price, which is lower than the final retail release.

What makes "Phantasmal: City of Darkness" unique is that unlike most linear horror titles, this FPS game borrows some elements from roguelike games. In layman's terms that means this game utilises procedural level generation. Therefore, no two playthroughs are the same, since levels are randomly laid out each time the game is restarted.

According to the official "Phantasmal" website, the idea behind the move is to introduce unpredictability to enhance the horror in repeat playthroughs. Interestingly, the game is set in the Hong Kong's former Kowloon Walled City, which is an interesting setting that had its own dark past before it was demolished in the '90s.

Destructoid points out that the game is inspired by "Silent Hill" and "Dead Space," as it draws creature design from the former and the element of jump scares from the latter into a Lovecraftian setting. Like the "Amnesia" series of games, "Phantasmal" incorporates the concept of sanity meter. Merely looking at the grotesque horrors will drain the player's mental balance. This can be controlled by turning off the flashlight, but it leaves one vulnerable as well.

Despite being a low-budget indie horror game, "Phantasmal" incorporates an elaborate lighting system to enable the lighting and visibility-dependent sanity system. In fact, the atmospheric lighting setup has been created by Brian Bell, who's a Hollywood Lighting Director for acclaimed films such as "The Life of Pi," "Riddick" and "The Ring 2". That's incredibly high production value from an indie game that sells for the equivalent of a DLC item from "Evolve."

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Phantasmal: City of Darkness Trailer (credit: Joe Chang)