Multiplayer horror is a relatively new gaming genre that has taken off in recent years. Initially, the words “multiplayer” and “horror” seemed to contradict each other as it was difficult to combine them in a meaningful way. Having friends or strangers interact with you could take away the tension from a scary game, defeating the purpose of playing one in the first place. The genre’s first real step was Dead by Daylight in 2016, which still feels to many as having one foot in the competitive sphere.
Phasmophobia, released in 2020, seems to have perfected the formula for the multiplayer horror experience. The game drops one to four players in an abandoned building to investigate a haunting, and its simple premise and jumpscares create a tense environment that somehow becomes even scarier with friends, especially as more voices trigger more ghost activity.
Demonologist is a new horror game built on the same premise and gameplay loop as Phasmophobia. You and up to four players enter an old, abandoned building to gather evidence of supernatural activity and exorcise it from the area.
Players who have tried Phasmophobia will immediately notice similarities and make comparisons between the two games. This is not surprising, as Demonologist is directly inspired by Phasmophobia, and its game design philosophy is essentially identical.
If Demonologist were just a better version of Phasmophobia with more shocking encounters and better graphics, that would be perfectly fine. Spoiler alert: it is that, but Demonologist also extends the experience and adds to the gameplay loop offered by Phasmophobia. In Demonologist, you don’t just identify the ghost; you must also exorcise it, creating a whole new phase for each match.
Another advantage of Demonologist is that it’s not a VR game. By utilizing the Unreal Engine 5, Demonologist is able to create a graphically superior experience filled with more complex, flashy, and chilling scares.
Ghosts crawl out from behind doors, screaming faces appear in hallways, and mirrors offer warped, demonic reflections. The haunts in Demonologist are fully animated, complex, and terrifying, not to mention incredibly varied, with tons of unique ghosts and haunting events to encounter. You’re unlikely to have the same experience twice when going on an exorcism in Demonologist.
The game also features excellent set design, with each location packed full of props that create creepy scenes and add to the overall horror of the experience. You’re bound to feel scared even before the haunting starts.
Demonologist manages to use many of the same tools as Phasmophobia while giving them a unique look and feel, as well as adding to the roster. EMF readers and Spirit Boxes make a comeback but operate and look differently and exist alongside ESG readers and an Ecto Glass.
Using this specialized equipment, which must be purchased using the money you earn from successful hunts, you track the spirit’s activity at each haunted location you visit. Each spirit behaves differently, so correctly identifying a spirit involves tracking the combination of activities happening at each location.
Each character starts with a certain amount of sanity, which decreases as they interact with the haunted environment. As your sanity runs low, ghost activity will progressively ramp up, potentially leading to deadly consequences.
The goal of Demonologist is to discover the nature of the spirit and exorcise it before it claims one or all of your group’s lives.
From start to finish, the hauntings in Demonologist are terrifying. The atmosphere created by developers Clock Wizard Games builds a thrilling sense of tension that had my whole group afraid to proceed at times, leaving us stunned in a corner, each of us waiting for the next person to push ahead.
However, at times, I felt like the spirit continued to spawn in the same location on the map each time. I’m not sure if this is random chance or if the game intentionally wants to take advantage of its scary set pieces. Nonetheless, while the sets may be scary, the same chair sliding across the hallway jump lost its effectiveness over time, and I found myself running to the same location each haunt.
That said, the game still managed to scare me in new ways. The wealth of models and sound effects kept me surprised throughout, and actually seeing the ghost and haunts was always a different experience. I couldn’t get too used to the actual jumpscares because they never felt recycled.
Demonologist is undoubtedly best played with friends. While the tension is strong when playing alone, feeling your pals’ anxiety as they explore the game with you can intensify the experience even more and offer a bit of reprieve if things get too intense.
In addition, multiple players are needed to effectively use the tools available in Demonologist. If you can’t put together a private match, online lobbies are also available.
Despite being in an early access state, Demonologist is genuinely scary. While the early game grind can be a bit severe, I didn’t find myself dreading having to take on the first level repeatedly with my friends. However, as a single-player experience, it might be a bit different.
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