Eyemobi is a developer that I hadn’t heard much about before researching Phantasmal: City of Darkness. I hadn’t heard of them because the previous games in their portfolio weren’t really games that I would be interested in, but anyone who knows me knows that I thoroughly enjoy the survival horror genre. Couple that with procedurally generated levels and my interest was peaked.
Procedural Generation, for those of you that may not know, is used to randomly construct the layout of levels. This means rooms, enemies, and even items aren’t always going to be in the same place, forcing players to adapt to the current situation instead of just relying on level memorization.
Phantasmal: City of Darkness takes place in the walled city of Kowloon. The walled city was basically ungoverned, and illegal activity was rife throughout the densely populated enclave. The city was destroyed in the early nineties, but either way, the Walled City of Kowloon makes for an awesome setting in a video game.
Phantasmal: City of Darkness has Lovecraftian undertones, similar to the Cthulhu Mythos developed by H. P. Lovecraft. There is a monster in Phantasmal called the Sleeper, and once it awakens it will pursue you relentlessly. The Sleeper is very similar to Cthulhu in that he’s been slumbering for who knows how long, and when you fix your gaze upon him you immediately start to go insane. Other than that, the story in Phantasmal: City of Darkness is left deliberately vague.
The graphics are pretty great by indie standards, but I have to say that I found the light and motion blur effects to be a bit too excessive. Controller support was completely broken and thus Phantasmal: City of Darkness was unplayable with anything other than the keyboard and mouse combo. The game is in Early Access and being updated quite frequently, so I imagine the developers will fix all of the issues before the full retail release.
Your only objective in Phantasmal: City of Darkness is to make it to the first floor of the clinic so that you may escape the hell that is this creepy walled city. The enemies you encounter are usually quite quick and encountered in groups. This makes fighting more of a last resort, especially when you figure in that any noise, even sprinting, will start to disturb the Sleeper’s slumber. This makes stealth the only viable long term option in Phantasmal, because when you die you respawn at the beginning of the very first level.
Phantasmal: City of Darkness has definite appeal for fans of the survival horror and roguelike genres and I would urge like minded gamers to give it a shot, even if it’s still under construction in Steam Early Access. I wish the story weren’t left so vague, but I have strong hopes that Eyemobi will flesh the storyline out more before the full retail release.
Check out the trailer for Phantasmal: City of Darkness below, and don’t forget to leave a comment about your anticipation or experience with Phantasmal.
Quick heads up that we’re currently hosting a giveaway right here where you can win a Steam key for this fantastic game.
