There’s something about first-person platformer games that get me excited. Ghostrunner (and its superb sequel), as well as Neon White, are some of my favourite games of the past few years. They’re exciting games that do something wholly unique and interesting to create some memorable experience. Phantom Abyss is the latest first-person platformer from Devolver Digital, and despite some really interesting ideas, it does have some issues.

Phantom Abyss is a first-person dungeon runner that has you running through dungeons to collect the relic at the end. Think of it as Indiana Jones meets Temple Run and then sprinkle in some roguelike features for good measure. Initially, the controls can feel pretty rough as a first-person platformer. However, very quickly you will get used to them as you jump, slide, roll, and grapple your way to the relic at the end.

Your first few hours will be unlocking some whips. Each of the game’s four biomes hosts a wide variety of whips to unlock, with abilities ranging from double jump, to extra healing when picking up phantom orbs, and a hell of a lot more. Each biome also introduces a lot more traps as the game goes on, with some really unique and distinctive tilesets. This really ramps up the difficulty each time with some new gameplay mechanics like dark rooms, rotating corridors or even some light puzzles as you have to figure out how to open a door at the end.

Whilst it does get repetitive running the same tilesets, entering a new biome and seeing what tricks it throws at you is always exciting. As the difficulty ramps up, so does the enjoyment of the game. Throughout Phantom Abyss you will gather a large selection of whips. As a roguelike, there is plenty on offer here, with a wide variety of whips to unlock that provide special abilities, such as higher jumps or the ability to use the whip to grapple in quick succession. If you are looking for some extra challenge, there are a ton of modifiers to activate as well.

Every run can be different, and that’s not because it has super random generation. In fact, in a refreshing move, the random generation is done on a server level, with tilesets that mesh together seamlessly. It’s decent enough and stops the generation from being too jarring, but you will often see the different tilesets come up often. Unfortunately, Phantom Abyss doesn’t have that addictive gameplay loop that you would expect from roguelikes, and the more I played. the shorter my sessions would become.

To try and keep things fresh, Phantom Abyss deploys an asynchronous multiplayer system that allows you to see the phantoms of other players. Essentially recordings of other players runs. It caught me off guard at first, thinking it was maybe a multiplayer title, but it’s a touch more interesting than that. On the trickier encounters you can use these phantoms as a guide to help you find hidden treasures, shortcuts, or traps.

It’s a decent enough system that would make what is an otherwise standard platformer more interesting. Think Super Meat Boy, but instead of seeing your own failures, you are seeing the runs of the entire community. You can use this to your advantage as you follow the paths off other players, or it could lead to your downfall, as they may lead you into more dangerous routes you are not quite equipped for. In one level there was a modifier that kills you immediately if you take damage whilst holding a crystal. These crystals are typically in darkness zones, so instead of giving myself light, I hugged a phantom until “we” found the exit.

Phantom Abyss‘s art direction is rather simple, yet effective. The temples are lacking in details, but this keeps a clean image that is almost essential for free-running games. Nothing in the game will blow you away, but the game’s graphics do serve the game well. Even in the most high speed and busy areas, I found it to always be clear what was happening.

Phantom Abyss is an interesting temple runner game that provides fast paced platformer gameplay and an ever escalating level of traps as you move from biome to biome. Despite having interesting ideas that should have spoken to me and my tastes, I didn’t find myself hooked into the game as much as I thought I would. Nothing about it, from its online systems to some of its later levels, did enough to make it worthwhile.

Graphics: 6.0 Nothing in Phantom Abyss really looks bad, but it won’t blow you away either.	Gameplay: 7.0 An initial learning curve leads to a thrilling first-person platformer. Just one that never manages to hit its true potential.
Sound: 7.0 Nothing too remarkable about the sound design. It does the job well enough.	Fun Factor: 6.0 Phantom Abyss‘s initial novelty wears off by the time you reach to later levels.
Final Verdict: 6.5

Phantom Abyss is available now on PC.

Reviewed on PC with an RTX 4070.

A copy of Phantom Abyss was provided by the publisher.