PHANTOM ABYSS
This is a quite brilliant idea – the kind that seems so obvious in hindsight that you wonder how it’s not been done before. Even at the very beginning of its spell in Early Access, Phantom Abyss looks like it could be an enormous hit. It tasks your bullwhip-toting explorer with looting temples filled with hazards. You dodge spikes, spinning blades, arrow traps, collapsing platforms and more en route to getting your hands on an ancient artefact hidden deep within. Not unique ideas, granted, though there’s a twist: should you die in one of its procedurally generated labyrinths, your chance to claim that particular relic is gone forever. Only one explorer worldwide will complete their mission.
The concept alone must have had Team WIBY high-fiving one another, and Devolver rubbing its hands in glee when it heard the pitch. Though, as with a successful run, it’s all in the execution. We’ve seen most of these moves before – you sprint, crouch, leap and slide in a manner that in the hands feels closest to controlling Faith in Mirror’s Edge (complete with a safety roll that lets you recover from a fall without taking damage – assuming that plunge isn’t into a pit). And when you mistime a jump across a chasm, or misjudge your run across a series of moving or disappearing platforms, you’ve still got a chance to save yourself: crack your whip toward the nearest ledge to latch on and pull yourself up. Your whip can be used to trigger switches and smash vases, too.
You can survive a couple of falls or hits, but the stakes add extra pressure to situations you’d normally breeze through. The knowledge that you’ve only got one shot at glory can make even the most familiar videogame obstacles feel dangerous, while combinations of traps in close quarters keep you on your toes. If playing the waiting game only works up to a point, it pays to keep an eye on the phantoms you see on each run: these are players who previously perished in that temple, and their movements serve as both guidance and warning to those who follow. Later, you won’t be able to hang around at all, since you’ll be pursued by the temple’s guardian.
To make the challenge slightly less vertiginous, you can obtain godly blessings by donating coins you’ve gathered from chests at altars, affording you more air time or temporary protection from damage. However, neither of those things are quite as useful as keeping a calm head when faced with extreme peril. In that regard, we’re clearly no Indiana Jones – though to play Phantom Abyss is to arguably feel closer to inhabiting cinema’s most famous treasure-hunting archeologist than any game actually bearing his name.
Should you die in one of its labyrinths, your chance to claim that particular relic is gone forever