Valuable relics are hidden deep inside the mysterious temples. A countless number of players tried to recover them but ultimately failed. Can you do better than them? Meet Phantom Abyss.
Phantom Abyss is an asynchronous multiplayer first-person obstacle course game where you’ll be tasked with avoiding all kinds of traps as you try to dive deeper into the dungeon to obtain hidden relics.
Collect gold, get some upgrades, and use your parkour skills to move quickly through procedurally generated levels to achieve things other players weren’t able to.
If you’re interested in learning more about Phantom Abyss, here’s a review where we’ll be going through a number of important game aspects to see how the game fares and if it’s worth giving a shot.
Gameplay Mechanics
Phantom Abyss is an asynchronous multiplayer game which means you won’t meet other players in person but you’ll meet their ghosts, or phantoms, as you explore the procedurally generated dungeons. Phantoms are the recorded versions of other players as they were playing through the exact same dungeon as you’re currently in, so you can see how they were doing and where they ultimately failed.
Once the player dies, they leave an essence that you can pick up and restore some health; as such, with the help of essences left by other players’ deaths, someone is bound to eventually beat the stage.
The game revolves around a simple concept: enter the temple, avoid all sorts of traps and obstacles, and try to safely reach the destination. Essentially, it’s a combination of Mirror’s Edge and Indiana Jones. You can dash, jump, crouch, roll, and use your whip to quickly move between platforms.
Especially the whip will come in handy as it allows you to disable certain traps, open chests from a distance, and, most importantly, grab onto the ledges that otherwise would’ve been out of your reach. You will also encounter various types of whips that may grant you some extra abilities, making a choice of whip an important part of preparation before each run.
During the run, you’ll be able to find treasure chests filled with gold. It’s important to collect some as you go, as it’s used to buy extra abilities at the shrines to make the current run easier.
The abilities include things such as double jump or negation of fall damage; having access to these could make or break the run, so keep an eye on these chests and look around carefully whenever you get a chance; you may be able to spot some hidden passages that may lead to treasure rooms.
Don’t stop for too long, though; you have powerful temple guardians on your tail and their only goal is to prevent you from reaching the end.
Phantom Abyss also features meta progression in the form of extra permanent upgrades that can make each subsequent temple run a bit easier. As you play, you’ll sometimes find special currency called keys; you will need those to upgrade your permanent bonuses. Higher level skills require rarer keys that can be found on higher difficulties.
Use this opportunity to increase the range of your whip, increase its speed, or give yourself more starting gold; maxing out all the skills will certainly take a while but it’s basically a necessity at higher difficulty levels.
The game offers variable difficulty levels that can be adjusted to everyone’s personal preferences. First, you choose the base difficulty, which affects the base challenge level and the quality of keys you’ll find inside.
Then, if you feel like it, you may add extra challenges on top of that, to spice things up even more and make the run more rewarding.
There are three main modes to try, but in essence, they’re very similar to each other. It’s worth mentioning the daily mode though, where a new temple is being generated every day. It’s the exact same design for all players; everyone starts on equal ground, making it the ultimate test of skill.
Story
The game does not seem to contain a full-fledged story. You’re being thrown into a mysterious hub, from where you can enter various dungeons in order to retrieve relics, with the ultimate goal of freeing the soul of evil Altec that seems to be imprisoned here with you. Freeing him might not be the wisest idea, but it also appears to be the only choice if you wish to find your way out.
As you play, you’ll meet some random NPCs that may give you an extra line or two, adding a bit to the lore, but it’s safe to say that it’s certainly not the main focus of the game.
Graphics
Visuals are simple, not overdone, stylized to create a particular type of aesthetics, and it gets the job done just fine.
The game doesn’t aim to create realistic graphics and instead takes a more cartoony approach, reminding of games such as Fortnite or Overwatch, which works perfectly well in this particular case.
The clarity of visual effects and the elements of the environment is satisfactory and makes spotting the traps and obstacles easy.
This directly translates to the fairness of difficulty level – everything is made visible well enough to give you time to react accordingly, even when there’s a lot of stuff happening on the screen.
Music
The music in Phantom Abyss is nothing out of the ordinary. For most of the time, it’s barely noticeable, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s subtle, rather quiet and simple.
It has some mysterious, tribal vibe to it and it does help to build the right atmosphere, but it’s not particularly impactful. It is what you would expect to hear while playing this kind of game; themes that bring some kind of deep, forgotten jungle to mind.
Occasionally, it will become more aggressive, especially during action-packed segments.
For example, as the guardian that haunts you gets closer, the music will start to play louder and switch to a more dynamic beat, possibly causing anxiety and making one more nervous, but in a good way; in other words, it makes things more exciting.
It’s also worth noting the seamless transitions between action and moments of peace; the music graciously fades in and out and flows naturally.
Replayability
The game has a huge replayability potential, thanks to the random nature of the dungeons. The gameplay loop revolves exclusively around completing obstacle runs, but the challenges are unique enough to provide players with hours upon hours of entertainment before becoming repetitive.
There’s also the extra incentive in the form of permanent upgrades that will make all subsequent runs easier, encouraging players to keep playing and farming the keys needed to unlock more impactful bonuses. It can get repetitive after a while, but here’s hoping that the development team will keep releasing more features to spice things up more as time passes.
Multiplayer
Phantom Abyss is an asynchronous multiplayer game. This means that even though you’ll meet avatars of other players during the game, they’ll just be recorded versions of their playthrough, similar to ghost cars you can often see in various rally video games. There are no real-time interactions with other players.
The game has the option to add friends, but you won’t be able to play with them in real time. It will only give you an opportunity to try your hand at the exact same dungeons your friends played through.
Performance
Due to the simplicity of the game, it runs smoothly even on weaker and dated systems. Performance is more than satisfactory and stays relatively stable even if there’s a lot of stuff happening on the screen, which is extremely important in a game that is all about quick movement and reflex.
Comparison with Similar Games
If you’re looking for similar games to Phantom Abyss, several titles come to mind, depending on what exact aspect of the game you’re most interested in.
If you’re into parkour, the original Mirror’s Edge is an extremely fun game to try with its linear levels and gameplay filled with stunts and action. It’s a single-player game, though, and the levels are not random.
In case you’re looking for a competitive title, Fall Guys could be a great alternative that offers real-time multiplayer experience, with up to a few dozen people competing on obstacle courses and participating in other casual minigames simultaneously.
There’s also SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell, which is an option for those who are looking for a more hardcore challenge to test their skills and reaction times to the limits. It features 100 increasingly difficult levels and even comes with its own level editor.
Conclusion
Phantom Abyss is a simple but addictive game that provides players with some adrenaline rush as they jump and slide through the increasingly difficult dungeon rooms.
Hone your skills and adjust the challenge to match your abilities. Run, jump, and escape the gaze of the guardians as they’re trying to strike you down. See how well you can do compared to your friends and the rest of the community. There can only be one winner. Will it be you?