Phantom Abyss
Top Critic Average
Critics Recommend
Phantom Abyss Trailers
Phantom Abyss - Steam Early Access June 22
Phantom Abyss | Steam Early Access in June 2021 | 4K 60FPS
Critic Reviews for Phantom Abyss
Phantom Abyss is a trek into a lost and trap-filled temple that constantly has you on your toes. Each room is filled with several ways to die, or at least take a good amount of damage, and the constant pressure from the guardian means you have to think while moving. While there's something to be said for tearing through the level at top speed, the rooms are frequently interesting enough that it would be nice to stop and look around for a minute without being pushed forward. The secrets are highly satisfying to find, and when a guardian is dropping poison bombs or just relentlessly advancing that can feel like it's working against the necessary concentration or experimentation needed to reach them. A lot of the time it can feel easier to just dash on through, ignoring the intricate room design to reach the door to the next one, and the next and the next until finally reaching the exit. Every once in a while, though, Phantom Abyss manages to balance the speed and exploration, and that's when it's at its best.
Phantom Abyss isn’t a perfect endless temple speedrunner, but for a dozen or so hours, it has a great hook.
Phantom Abyss can be a run roguelite with its free-running, puzzle solving, and trap avoiding adventures. But throw in the phantoms of real-world players who act as a guide of what to do and not do through these temples takes things to another level. Mileage can vary though as a lot of the puzzles, temples and traps are reused and thus can make the game start to drag on and feel repetitive. Being in early access for so many years though there is quite a lot of content here that players can dig through before fatigue will set in. And with all the talk about Indiana Jones lately, why not start practicing your whip skills.
Phantom Abyss offers an original experience, tinged with platform and roguelite, in a colorful "Indiana Jonesque" atmosphere but a flemmarde hair. The result is rather convincing at the moment and the asynchronous multiplayer adds a real little added value.
Review in French | Read full review
This is all to say that Phantom Abyss falls somewhat short on achieving the goal of offering a challenging parkour adventure in a roguelite package. The whip and phantom gameplay involving other players’ trial and error are unique, but its clunkiness, difficulty, and disparate progression are worth a pause. I’m confident that additional polish and content are coming down the pipeline, but I need more from the current state of the game.
Phantom Abyss is a roguelike game. You navigate through procedurally generated temples in search of relics while avoiding traps and guardians. Developer Team WIBY and publisher Devolver Digital have created some real challenges as you duck, dodge, and slide your way through. Is it enough to keep players engaged and having fun?
Phantom Abyss offers a thrilling gaming experience, but it won't keep you hooked for hours on end unless you have a group of friends to tackle the temples alongside you.
The kinetic experience of making your way through hazard-filled temples in Phantom Abyss makes us eager to see what else is still to come.
