As in almost every Devolver game that you end up trying by relying more on the good taste of the editor than on the experience it can offer, Phantom Abyss is an amazing game. One of those simplistic ideas with seemingly short legs that, however, quickly become the best pickpocket.
And what do they steal from you? Life. They steal your hours, your calm, your decency, your self-control and, if you are one of those who are overly excited, probably also a controller or a mouse. I have lost count of how many times I have remembered the mother of the developers, but when it was time to put the brakes on the game and sit down to write, I did so with a smile from ear to ear .
Much more than an Indiana Jones Fall Guys
Although in the first bars or videos the comparisons with Fall Guys seem inevitable, the truth is that after trying Phantom Abyss on its arrival on Steam, it has little to do with it. Yes, you must run from point A to point B avoiding all kinds of traps, but it maintains a much calmer pace than the other game of Devolver .
There are also no rivals to bother or bother, only the ghost of those who, as you will surely end up doing, have perished at some point in that same temple. A guide that can serve to alert you to a more hidden trap than usual or even show you the way to a new secret.
From there the premise is that only one person in the whole world will make it to the end . If you die you will not have the possibility to repeat, but you will jump to another temple with a different arrangement of rooms that will have more or less ghosts depending on the people who have passed through there before you.
Waiting for you a few steps away is a collection of spikes that roll on the ground, blades that spin around a column, giant hammers that swing, tranquilizer darts that shoot out, and spears that come out of the ground seeking to impale you in the most painful way possible. .
Looks are deceiving
It is inevitable to go through Phantom Abyss thinking that it is an easier game than it should be. The traps are obvious, the way to avoid them too and, with few exceptions, going calmly and measuring your steps is more than enough to survive without problems.
The problems will come as soon as one of the two biggest problems that you are going to encounter appears. On the one hand, there is the excess of confidence that leads you to think that you reach that leap or that you can avoid that danger with less calm than you should.
On the other, a guardian of the temple that, depending on what touches you, can be increasingly ruthless and bloody. It is not an enemy to use that goes head to head for you, but a trap more than in the form of sun rays, poison balls or a tireless pursuer, they will be able to deconcentrate you enough to fall into the next trap.
That is when, for fear of the problems that they may cause you, your passage through the temple accelerates more than it should and, at a higher speed, more possibilities of screwing up with catastrophic consequences for the run that you thought you had perfectly controlled.
Much more chicha than it seems
Ok, you get over all of that and you get to the end. And now that. The idea, although I am miles away from living it in my flesh, is that by getting the trophies that are at the end of the road you will end up escaping from the temple, but in the handful of hours that I have played I have only managed to do it in two occasions.
Part of the fault is mine, of course, and not because of the aforementioned but because at a certain point you can always choose between running one last stage and securing the prize or, if you prefer, go down one more level to try to get one more prize. Juicy in an area with new traps and rooms .
A classic risk reward sponsored by the possibility of obtaining new whips with which to open chests, brake blades or grab onto ledges to overcome obstacles and escape death. From the basic and its limited actions to special whips with a blessing and a curse such as, for example, win one more heart but that the stores are 20% more expensive.
And so, as simple and basic as it seems, between the rush to go further and further and the curiosity to see what new area you discover or what new whip you get, suddenly you find yourself trapped in the temple of Phantom Abyss . A death trap capable of making you invent new insults that you didn’t even think possible and jump out of your chair with joy, several times and during the same game. A well of hours with a long way to go that already has an excellent base and is highly recommended.
