TLDR: Deathwatchers is an interesting blend of genres that requires a bit more work in my honest opinion to really stand out and against some similarly designed games which are tough competition, like Phasmophobia. It's a good price, decent fun, and has solid replayability despite some annoying problems.
Despite what one of my friends wrote for their review, I wanted to be a bit more optimistic and open-minded when it comes to Deathwatchers. So I figured I'd write mine and give my thoughts on the game in a more well-written manner and touch on a variety of subjects from my time playing last night.
Before we get into it, of course, I want to explain what Deathwatchers is. To basically summarize it, I found the game to be an interesting genre blend of Phasmophobia, that one demon house game, and observation Duty. You basically walk around a location attempting to find disturbances and log them, with the eventual goal being to exorcise the entity haunting the place. Luckily, exorcism is not required for a win, as you get paid for each interaction you log. During the gameplay the creature will do things to the location and initiate hunts, with the end goal being to both scare and kill you. Nothing too crazy, but it does make for fun gameplay at a basic level.
Moving forward, the game is a bit wonky and we encountered some minor bugs that weren't really that game-breaking, but more so annoying. The most frustrating of the two being the utility room door on the station map breaking completely, and the event logged being inconsistent with readings. The very first bug, however, was the main menu music not actually working until I went to the audio section of the settings. I personally thought it was kinda funny. The second bug I encountered was less so, as the character creator would not load my model when I loaded into our lobby. That was a frustrating experience, as I made multiple attempts to get it to load and even did a relaunch. While the two bugs annoyed me, the sheer amount of information present at the lobby absolutely made me feel like this game would be far too much.
And honestly, despite listening to some of the tutorials, our first run was a nightmare. It was a mess of our group barely understanding the mechanics combined with an insanely aggressive haunt which threw not one, not two, but three void events at us despite us not bringing sticks (as we didn't really figure out how.) We had no idea how to use some of the tools we brought, or how to even tell how close we were to death.
And yet, despite all those setbacks, I had a blast. It wasn't scary in the sense of like a horror movie, where I am on edge of my seat in silent anxiety worrying about the next thing that's gonna pop at me. It was more like the funny type of horror, where the scares (even if basic) made me laugh and freaked me out when they randomly jumped in my face. The sheer amount of things constantly happening made it less so scary and moreso funny because of the pure chaos that was ensuing. The fact we were so disorganized and unprepared made for some great laughs in general while we learned the game.
I think the best way to play this game is to learn it pieces at a time, taking on more advanced mechanics as you go. For example, we first started off learning how the basic tools worked and what events looked like (some gripes about this later), then we learned how to use thermals and emfs to spot things, and then eventually learned the audio logger. Trying to learn everything at once results in just too much needing to be understood and then dealing with the randomness of the haunt and being able to somehow adapt to it.
Visually, I think the game could use some work. It uses a lot of the physical assets Phasmophobia does, even some of the text, and so it sometimes feels like I'm playing a more light-hearted and less serious take on Phasmophobia, which is both to the game's benefit and detriment. The lobby itself could use an overhaul, as all of the information and videos are simply too much to absorb all at once. The screens themselves aren't too bad to use, but it just feels like there's a lot going on. I think it might be a better idea to find some way to have TLDRs readily available once in the haunt, instead of only on display in the lobby.
The events themselves are pretty neat, although I do have a couple complaints. The first being that the entity spawning event happens WAY too much and often times feels like the moment I go to scan it I've lost it. At first they were visually overwhelming, and then they become annoying due to the frequency. The voids don't always register correctly without you needing to get within harm distance, the audio events can be frustrating when they're going off during a hunt and you can't listen in, and my biggest complaint, by FAR, is the inconsistency in the object move/extra object events. It is so frustrating seeing a floating item on the wall and having to wait 15-20 seconds if I end up eventually getting the guess wrong. EMF works amazing for when I have object disappearances and even some of the moves, but extra objects give no readings and act as pains in the ass you gotta scan over and over again to confirm they're not moves without using auto. It just feels bad.
Still though, for the money's worth and cost, I could see myself introducing to this to my more chaotic phasmophobia friends and having an absolute blast with the silliness that occurs in this game. I think it's worth the pickup, especially on discount, and overall it's a good time despite some of the glaring issues.
