The latest development preview from Kinetic Games teases a more tailored ghost-hunting experience in future Phasmophobia updates. In its Steam blog, the developer shared a peek at its upcoming Phasmophobia Custom Difficulty patch and more on the Sunny Meadows map.
While Kinetic Games has touched on new customization options in the past, it’s finally getting a little in-depth on what Phasmophobia custom levels are shaping up to become. In its current version, contracts limit players to strict Amateur, Intermediate, Professional, and Nightmare settings. In the Custom Difficulty update, you’ll see presets for these modes, but they carry optional tweaks. The hosting player can change options like starting sanity, player speed, ghost speed, flashlight functionality, item loss, and more. Make all your friends walk, but all the ghosts fast—imagine the possibilities.
In addition to those options, Kinetic gives you the power to really irritate friends by bumping up the number of cursed objects on the map and toggling sanity drain rates in the dark. There’s a strict rule in Phasmophobia with my friends: I’m not allowed to have the cursed object. I do enjoy pulling for Tarot cards from the safety of my hiding spots, but custom difficulty allows players to turn those objects off.
Of course, all of this is still a work in progress, and Kinetic notes some of these things may see big changes before going live. Regardless, the bones of it are in place, and it looks like the studio has a clear direction with reward multipliers, advantages, disadvantages, and how these things all play together.
As for Sunny Meadows, the new image previews are so dark they’re pretty damn hard to make heads or tails of. I reckon that’s on par for the regular Phasmophobia experience, but for now, the text is more helpful. As a rework of the Asylum map, the new Sunny Meadows “is crammed full of things to make it feel used, abandoned, and messy.” A far cry from how the old, empty map looks now.
Kinetic says its rework brings “visual diversity” and makes for a more intense ghost hunt full of consequences and obstacles. It sounds like a great change, as the current map doesn’t do much to complement those core Phas mechanics that make newer maps a better thrill. Adding clutter and personality hopefully means no more hunts like the one I encountered the other night, running in a straight line through the Asylum hallway from a demon for a minute.
When it comes to specifics, Sunny Meadows should have more distinct areas. There’s a yard, chapel, and hospital wing with new themes and assets. Kinetic doesn’t have much more on this update yet, but the studio teases more secrets lurking in the asylum. For now, there’s no solid release date for either of these updates, but Kinetic did mention they’re close to the testing phase for Phasmophobia’s custom levels.
From the sounds of it, this makeover looks like one of its biggest yet, and Sunny Meadows certainly brings more of a distinct feel. We’ve spent ages with some of the old Phasmophobia maps full of stock assets and the same few hide-and-seek tactics. The game is still my ghost-hunting go-to, but if you’re looking to take a break, I’ve got a few other co-op horror suggestions for Phas fans.
