Here’s a demo for Phantom Line, the paranormal military FPS that mixes S.T.A.L.K.E.R. with Control
Open world spec op gun-brandisher Phantom Line takes place during a paranormal crisis of such intensity that the outbreak of nuclear war gets relegated to bullet point five on the latest press email. Atomic apocalypse? Ehhh. That’s a roadside picnic compared to what S.T.A.L.K.S this alternately Lynchian and Tarkovskian battlefield. You’ll wish you’d been dusted by nuclear fire when you’re being torn open by some kind of demon puppet in a labyrinth of red curtains.
If you do get torn open by a demon puppet, the good news is that players have a range of artificial bodies to choose from. Among Phantom Line’s headline features is the HUSK system, which lets you switch between members of your squad right in the middle of combat. Unless, presumably, the body in question is already occupied by one of your co-op partners. If all this sounds appealing, the even-gooder news is that there’s now a demo available via the developer Discord.
“Crashland on Jantar Island together with up to 3 of your friends (1 – 4 player co-op),” explains the announcement post on Steam. “Plan, prepare, and adjust tactics to the open world with dynamic events. Gear up with new guns, weapon attachments, and night vision to be ready for any danger you encounter. Discover new captivating locations as you navigate towards the Black Forest Research Facility and fight the anomalies once contained there.”
When playing the game solo, you can command other husks to serve as decoys or scouts and any other roles your supposed ‘human friends’ consider beneath them, or are too dense to execute correctly (that’s me, hello). The NPC opposition appears split between regular soldiers, whom you’re encouraged to regard as distractions, animals, whom you’re encouraged to kill and eat, and invaders from other dimensions, whom you’re encouraged to both slaughter and, er, become.
“Humanity is at war – to fight the anomalous horror, you must turn into one yourself,” explains the mailout. This is done by augmenting your body with “exotic elements”. Surely no downsides there. “Go die again,” adds the press release, reassuringly.
Between jaunts to the battlezone, you get to hang out in a nuclear submarine, customise your artificial body, and trick out your cabin with all the phat weaponry you’ve acquired. Fingers crossed that it also contains a cheerful stove and a sit-down button. My husks deserve to put their feet up, now and then.
The basic game flow here reminds me more of Hunt: Showdown than S.T.A.L.K.E.R., except that instead of boss lairs full of rotten hay you’re diving into gobbets of spacey sci-fi horror game – in particular, I’m reminded of the backrooms of The Evil Within 2. There’s no PvP element, seemingly, so you at least don’t have to worry about other teams camping the exits. Anyway, you can read more on Steam.