
The Hunt Begins is a dynamic multiplayer (1-4 Co-Op vs 1) horror game where one player is selected to control the ghost that is trying to scare and kill their friends. Everyone else on the team is trying to identify the type of ghost players haunt location, type and purge them.
Modeled estimate, not a reported figure. How we estimate →
About
The game currently has the very basic gameplay loop currently enabled. Many things are limited at initial launch, such as only 3 maps, minimum hunter equipment, only 5 ghost detections and a limited pool of ghost abilities.
Why? This is a very tiny indie project and it can take many hours to be able to identify and fix problems each day. The idea is to focus on the core systems and make additional stuff available as soon as possible without the whole experience being a broken frustrating nightmare.
During initial game launch week/s, hunters will not have access to any optional equipment. This means only the 5 core identification tools will be available while quickly (hopefully) fixing any game breaking bugs and instabilities.
Expect optional hunter equipment to help blind and slow the ghost player as well as enhanced tools to be made available.
We ask that everyone please be patient and understanding while we all work together to create fun new experiences.

Gather up to 4 other people and hunt each other down in a 1 vs 4 match.
One player will be randomly selected to play as the ghost and scare their friends while the remaining players work together to identify the ghost type and purge them from the location.

You and up to 3 friends must work together to locate the ghost players chosen haunted area. Use multiple tools to identify the type of ghost and use the correct method to banish them. Be careful though, the ghost does not like trespassers and if enraged will take lives.

Your friends have come to purge your final existence as you control ghosts that haunt various locations. Prevent them from finding your chosen haunted area and from figuring out how to destroy you. Use your abilities and interact with the maps to frighten your friends and get closer to hunting them down.

Many maps will get several addon expansions over time. These expansions will offer more randomized areas within the map to be accessible for more fun experiences, exploration and replayability. This may also be used in the future to allows groups to adjust difficulty.

Explore the town of Ravencrest to discover its dark secrets and find out why a growing trade town was quickly abandoned by all of its residents in the 1950s. This is the first playable region included in the base game and includes access to all related future content and expansions for this region.

The Hunt Begins was created due to a large number of people constantly voicing the idea of someone controlling the ghost. Much time has been spent debating ways to make this happen while trying to keep it fun for both sides. This is considered a community project and we are excited to hear from everyone about the things that they like, do not like, would prefer to be changed and new ideas. If the greater community wants something, that is our goal. Please join us on Discord to get updates and so we can hear you.
Genres
Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English
Engagement
Hours played at review time, across 28 reviews with recorded playtime.
Reviews
It has potential... but it's VERY early days and it's not quite there yet. MAPS: Only two at the moment but they do look really good. Problem is... they are huge. Way too huge. Because the ghost can interact with items anywhere, it means finding the room the ghost is in is nearly impossible and it's way too easy to get lost. Some smaller maps would do a world of good for this game. But hey, at least they look good. CHARACTERS: EDIT: THIS HAS BEEN FIXED IN THE 12/13/2025 UPDATE. You can modify your character model but it is super glitchy and doesn't always save. You can't see what you look like since the mirror in the lobby doesn't reflect (this is where you modify your appearance) and the menu will only show the default female character. It is recommended you adjust how you look so you know who is who in the game. GHOST: It is currently too easy for the ghost to just never do anything in their room and then not provide the evidence players need to figure out what it is. At least one game we got 4 evidences which makes the ghost ... nothing. If the ghost never chooses to interact with the book, then you never get ghost writing. And the ghost could simply choose to not walk through the smoke so you might never get astral form either. If a ghost doesn't toss items, then you won't get EMF 5. There needs to be some balance in this so that figuring out the ghost room and what it is isn't darn near impossible. I realize it's early days still but some modifications to what the ghost can do would be awesome. More unique interactions (things like playing the piano and not just tossing or levitating items) would be great. Options for things like flickering the lights or making footstep or breathing sounds would be great too. Lots of potential here but it's just not in the game yet. PLAYERS: The weird glowing fingertip hand needs some work. Sometimes it will light up and sometimes it won't. I realize it's supposed to be in the ghost's room but using it to find the ghost's room didn't work and at least once it was brought in near the end and just wouldn't turn on. But the turning it on and then putting a scroll that you've selected and then selected again and then tossed it into the hand or whatever... weird. It's just a very clunky mechanic and not where I'm sure the developer wants it to be. Locking your ghost guess in - fine - but then actually doing something with the glowy hand thing... frustrating EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. OVERALL THOUGHTS: I feel like this is something players of Phasmophobia have been begging for for ages now. So I'm surprised not more people are jumping on board to give it a try. My personal thought is the price is high for a very VERY early release game that is functioning but definitely frustration inducing. I do love that the abilities of the ghost change but there needs to be more options and more benefit for giving players evidence (or just make that evidence appear over time despite the player choosing to be the ghost). Finding the ghost room was a HUGE PITA and I'm guessing that was not intentional. More maps with smaller locations would help a ton. I'm sure when some of the current bugs get ironed out and some updates are pushed out the game will be more fun to play. My crew enjoyed it - but didn't enjoy it enough to want to play it again and again... at least YET. I'll update my review as the game updates if I feel like it has pushed past the "not recommended" into the "recommended" territory. It's not terrible - but it's not amazing either. If the price were lower, I'd probably recommend it for a one off game night with friends. Hope to see some major updates from the developer in the future.
I went in with low expectations, like I do with most asymmetrical games, but this one genuinely surprised me. It’s still in early access, so there are definitely things that need fixing, but overall it’s a great game, especially with friends. Even though there are only two maps at the moment, our group thoroughly enjoyed the playthrough. We got a little too good at figuring out where the ghost was, but ultimately we had a lot of fun.
I played this game with Miler on stream. It was a TON of fun! I absolutely loved haunting and scaring him. >:) Game has great potential and ran pretty well! Loved the explanation of items and abilities. Both of us were hoping to also be able to play against an NPC, but just the two of us made it work well! I definitely look forward to seeing where the Dev's take this and will be playing this again in the future with more friends!
Straight up scam game. I wouldnt play this if i got paid hourly to do so.
Great Game with a much needed twist to other Ghost Hunting Games. This game is so fun and needs more hype Behind it. The Dev is also very hands on and an amazing person.
Great idea for a ghost hunting game. I can see that this is going to be really good once it has some more time to mature. The developer is a really nice guy as well and very receptive to community input.
Super neat and fun game to play with 4 other friends. Playing a hunter will remind many of playing a more basic form of Phasmophobia-esque ghost identifying games. Waiting for "evidence" to show up to identify what type of ghost youre dealing with. Playing as a ghost reminds me a lot of playing as a demon in Evil Dead the Game, which I consider to be one of the better "killer" sides in asymetricals. You spend much of your time interacting with items around the map to "scare" and build energy off the players. Then you can use abilities to eventually hunt them down. I want to greatly express this though, IT IS NOT A COMPETITIVE GAME. I am not sure if the balancing on each side is quite there yet, but it is super early in the process. And even with that being said, the charm of this game IMO is messing around with your friends as a ghost and vice versa. I had lots of fun just messing about and checking everything. Definitely a game to consider if you and your friends want a ghost investigation game with a little twist! ALSO BONUS, they already have character customization!
So this game is early access, so it's a little rough. However, it is very fun playing with friends. Edit: Could use some balancing, feels to easy for Hunters to find Ghost room. Also with 4 hunters and only 2 evidence found, it's just elimination. So three of the people just need to pick each pick different of the three remaining ghost types and it's over for the Ghost.
Played for a few hours on release and this game is very very promising! It definitely is challenging if you do not have a full group but it is still fun! Being able to spook your friends is just so much fun, especially when you can make objects move and other cool features that you have to go check out! It IS EARLY ACCESS and very very indie, something to keep in mind!. There are tutorials for both Hunters and Ghost, which is nice to have because it helps so much to understand the roles, especially the ghost. The visuals are pretty cool and the ambience works well with the theme of the game! The possibilities and what it is coming to the game in the future has me really looking forward to it! It is absolutely worth supporting this game especially because I realized how passionate the people who made this possible are!
Are you looking for a ghost hunting game where you can be the ghost and hunt your friends???? LOOK no further! Amazing game, amazing responsive dev with tons of communication on everything! I highly suggest picking up and trying it today!
Related
Related
Trends
Modeled estimate over time, reconstructed from Steam's monthly review histogram.
Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
Related
| Siberian Way | $10.6K | 70 | 81% | $7.99 |
| Muchi Muchi SEXTRA | $10.6K | 88 | 93% | $6.99 |
| Immoral office : Hypno Switch | $10.6K | 70 | 87% | $7.99 |
| AFKandia - Epoch of Idle | $10.6K | 70 | 46% | $5.99 |
| Neural Shock | $10.6K | 66 | 95% | $5.99 |
| Summon: Joint escape | $10.6K | 293 | 67% | $0.99 |