Temple-crashers rejoice, as Phantom Abyss’ blend of king-of-the-hill battle royale thrills with the snaking unpredictability of modern-day action-roguelikes is an inspired hook, and may spell good news for streamers and viewers. However, this first-person platformer presently lacks some of the more absorbing twists and surprises found in the best roguelikes, and the experience feels a little shaky, even considering its point in development. Of course, its early access drop leaves plenty of room to layer in the goods, but after a score of laborious runs it’s hard to recognize Phantom Abyss’ staying power just yet.
The fundamentals are there, though, and this somewhat underdeveloped niche of first-person platforming is an irable genre to explore, with Phantom Abyss nailing some the feel right off the bat. Players can run, crouch, slide, jump, and wield a wonderful whip (with shades of Spelunky-ghost-like temple guardians will react and behave.
Phantom Abyss’ touchstones include Spelunky, of course, especially in the overall mystique and aesthetic of the temple’s available lore and mysteries. Players find themselves in the thrall of Bodach, a god represented by a statue similarly trapped in these shifting walls who forms a pact with the player to retrieve relics in hopes that they may both escape. To retrieve a relic, players enter a glowing portal and get whisked away to some formulation of a temple, with detours available on every third level to obtain a relic (which ends the run) or pay an easily obtainable currency to probe deeper onward.
The primary gameplay mutator in Phantom Abyss are numerous different whips, all of which seem to unlock at random based on deaths and temple depths reached. Most are minimally useful with a few standouts, and all are cursed with a negative effect that is wiped clean when a relic is successfully retrieved. Any equipped whips are temporarily lost upon death but can be returned if a friend chooses to complete a relic run on the same temple by sharing an offered code. During our preview, unknown players were able to rescue our whips at random, so perhaps the same result occurs when anyone happens to complete a particular run as well.
Aside from that somewhat thin reach at multiplayer, other players also appear during runs as the titular phantoms, with their presence proving prior failures on the current temple. They can be followed and observed for tips about the environment – similar to the bloodstain ghosts in the Soulsborne games – but these phantoms also trigger any traps as they . This means they can either be a help or a hindrance, though can be effectively ignored in most cases. As the primary asynchronous multiplayer trick to Phantom Abyss, it’s a fairly lightweight mechanic.
Such is the case with most of Phantom Abyss’ systems, and there isn’t ample meat on the bones of the experience thus far. The environments are readable but incredibly plain. The relics look shiny and nice but offer no context, lore, or basic function in and of themselves. Every relic treasure room per temple depth is identical, and every single treasure chest in the game offers only coins and a possible key, which can be used to purchase new whips or unlock the door to the next more challenging biome. Shrines appear in most every level and offer a randomized blessing for a fee (the one and only use of coins), but even these upgrades are quite limited in scope and don’t drastically alter gameplay.
After approximately seven hours with the game, during which time we reached the third biome and amassed plenty of relics, Phantom Abyss had, ironically, barely transformed at all. The procedural generation seems malnourished, and familiar room and trap layouts began to cycle after even just a few runs. Lacking any other permanent upgrades or varying equipment aside from a whip imparted little that felt like progress, and the dearth of texture, lore, or any other pursuits make the experience feel surprisingly flat. The prevailing concept of being Curse of the Dead Gods.
For now, streamers will probably squeeze some fun out of Phantom Abyss’ early access, and others may get competitive kicks out of claiming temples which thwarted friends and strangers. The present setup just begs for more content, without even a collection of personal milestones or end-of-run stats to track progress. Still, with the right community and a healthy injection of scheduled content, the Phantom Abyss experience could certainly scale up, as this is a solid foundation to build the next roguelike obsession.
Phantom Abyss releases on PC/Steam in Early Access on June 22. A digital PC code was provided to Screen Rant for the purpose of this preview.
