Despite being a character created almost 90 years ago that he is not present in modern popular culture, I feel enough affection for The ghost. I remember with nostalgia to get up on Saturday mornings in the late 80s to see it with Flash Gordon and Mandrake in the animated series Earth defenders. I also remember reading a few panels of their stories in the newspaper every Sunday. I could not help smiling when the announcement of a new game based on The Phantom He revived those moments in my memory.
The spectacular lucia trailer. It was a game 'beat em' up 'retro style in which we controlled “the ghost that walks” or his wife Diana against the Singh brotherhood and that had a beautiful art -based art. Sadly, the experience of playing it was not up to my expectations.
I cannot say that these expectations were especially high. I expected only a simple game that would have fun for a few hours as some recent 'Beat Em' Up 'have done, but what he did was make me feel frustrated, a little boring and finally disappointed.
At the gameplay level, The Phantom I would not have been out of place in an arcades room in the late 80s or on a console like SNES or Sega Genesis. We hit all the enemies that we find, we collect objects from the soil and occasionally we use guns with limited ammunition, we call companions animals or use a special combo that marks the enemies with the ghost symbol. As in the games of those times, it is easy to find one or two easy to abuse strategies that make irrelevant difficulty.
The 14 levels of the game will have us busy for just under two hours. There are very little variety of enemies and many of them have common movements that make them feel even less varied. There is not much strategy to defeat them and there are movements such as blows and kicks 'back' that are directly useless due to poor controls. Trying to change from one goal to another makes the characters feel slow, but when we start running we are so fast that the characters become imprecise. There are different levels of persecution that put us to pursue bosses on horseback, motorcycle, boat or other vehicles, but all end up being too similar.
Despite all those problems, The Phantom It could have been enjoyable. It is repetitive and frustrating, but the game is so short that it would have been easy The ghost And a story that – although simple and quite 'pulp' – has interesting ideas about the protagonist considering breaking his own rules to save a loved one. References a Street Fighter II In some of the characters' animations they also took a smile. But the other problems that it has even prevents that.
My attempts to play this title in a local cooperative way – one of the main reasons why I like the 'beat em' up'— were frustrating. The first time we tried to play in this way, the screen stayed completely in black and our following attempts were unsuccessful due to 'bugs' that prevented progress. The enemies that were stuck in unattainable areas or that did not rise from the floor, so we could not continue playing. Although this never happened in a player's mode, two players' mode was completely impossible.
Other bugs that I found were collectible objects that appeared automatically even without obtaining it and achievements/trophies that were not unlocked despite having met their requirements. Like these, there are other constant discomforts: enemies that take too much to get up from the ground, abrupt animations and 'Hitboxes' inconsistent.
I wanted The ghost I would like it, but it is impossible to enjoy a game with so many problems. After defeating the final boss I unlock new game modes, but they are exactly the same with more difficulty and less lives. I did not have the slightest intention of going through such a repetitive and frustrating experience, however short it was.
Review made with a digital copy of The Phantom for PS5 provided by Art of Play Interactive. This game is also available for Nintendo Switch and PC via Steam.
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