Games Similar in feel to Phasmophobia

Question

I am currently searching with a friend for a game that scratches the itch of phasmophobia while we wait for the new update to drop. When looking at other threads of this nature, games like DEVOUR and Demonologist have popped up, so we bought and downloaded those two. We were immediately disappointed because they try to match the horror aspect, but completely miss the mark of the brain teasing nature of phas. Demonologist tries to duplicate it, but it's so early in development that the gameplay loop just wasn't what I was looking for.

Do you all have any suggestions for Co-op investigation games that could scratch this itch? The horror element is optional.

With every popular game comes a slow decline in active play due to becoming bored or wanting something new and unexpected. The developers are working hard to add updates and more characters to the game. Whether you're tired of Phasmophobia or want more ghost-hunting content, there are similar horror games out there for groups of friends to enjoy if you're searching for a similar experience.

Updated May 31, 2023, by Sharnelle Earle: More games have been added to this list of games to play with your friends if you enjoyed Phasmophobia. People tend to not play Phasmophobia anymore, but that does not mean you can't get the same experience out of a different game. These games will have you and your friends screaming, laughing, and crying all over again. The horror genre will never go away, and it has never been better since multiplayer has been added to horror games.

30The Outlast Trials

outlast trials one player watching two other players get chased by monsters

Four players
Puzzle

Instead of ghosts, you are dealing with enemies who belong to a corrupt organization that experiments on people. You yourself are being experimented on and are being watched. You and your friends must complete trials to show the organization you are ready for the final mission.

There is no fighting back, just running. Complete objectives and ward off the many, many enemies coming your way. This is an adventure game with many objectives, missions, and fun to be had.

29Demonologist

demonologist player holding ghost device next to dress on mannequin

Four players
Investigation

Developed with Unreal Engine 5, Demonologist probably has the best graphics out of all ghost detective games out there. You can play alone or with friends in a beautifully dark atmospheric building searching for clues.

Your task is to find and exorcise any demons in the house or facility. The jumpscares and events are randomized each time, making all your investigations unique.

28Inout

Four players
Puzzle

In this game, you and your friends act as professional ghost hunters who regularly expel demons in their pastime. Your team must prepare a ritual by finding and collecting ingredients and items needed.

The demon itself is not ghost-like as in Phasmophobia, but rather large, menacing, and very real. There are difficulty sliders so that you can give yourself more and more of a challenge if the main mission was too easy for you.

27Frightened

Four players
Puzzle

Frightened has some of the best jump scares of all the Phasmophobia-like games. The game relies heavily on atmosphere and cinematic resources to really make you feel like you are in a haunted house.

You must exorcise the demon in the building by collecting the necessary items and preparing a pentagram for the ritual. All while defending yourself and your friends against the demon itself.

26Fear Therapy

fear therapy player holding flashlight aimed at tv

Four players
Puzzle

While Fear Therapy follows the same recipe of walking around in the dark and getting jumpscared, there is a lot of strategy and thinking required to win the game. You can get scared and die all you want, but you will never win unless you pay attention to the objectives and find the objects you need to continue.

There are multiple tasks and items you must find on your own throughout the house. Friends and yourself included can be whisked away by the demon and trapped in the cellar until someone comes to save them.

25Ghost Watchers

ghost watchers player pointing uv light on ground and other player holding emf reader

PvE
Investigation

This is an early access game similar to Phasmophobia as your objective is to identify a ghost in order to win. There are up to 20 tools you can use to your advantage, but only a small amount of ghosts are available to find until more are added.

The ghosts themselves have a lot of personality and can be identified based on things such as age and mood, not just by power. You can work your way up to capturing ghosts once you have learned enough about them.

24Forewarned

Four players
VR available

In this game you and your friends are archeologists exploring in Ancient Egyptian ruins, uncovering secrets and researching long-forgotten knowledge. Each mission's objective is to collect relics and get out while a strange spirit lurks about.

You can learn more about it, or try your best to get what you need and get out. There is the Mejai spirit haunting the grounds, as well as your regular spooky Egyptian creatures all ready to stop you from unearthing secrets.

23Inside The Backrooms

Inside The Backrooms two players near television

Three players
VR available

This is a ghost-hunting game based on the creepypasta The Backrooms. Your objective isn't to dispel the evil beings here, but to continue up levels and eventually escape.

There are up to six different enemies in the game and they each have unique behaviors that you're required to learn in order to survive. Instead of investigating ghosts, you're completing difficult puzzles while working together with your team to escape these horribly familiar backrooms.

22Masks Of Deception

Six players
PvP or PvE

Masks of Deception has two different genres in one. Your team enters a residence in order to locate and remove a demon. The catch is that one of your friends is the demon in disguise, making this a social deception and ghost hunting game all in one.

Aside from worrying about which one of you is the demon, you will all also have to avoid various other ghostly entities. One of the unique things about this game is that if and when you die, it's not entirely over. As a ghost, you can still participate in the game as there is a task that ghost players can do in an attempt to turn the tides.

21Ghost Exile

Four players
Choices matter

Ghost Exile is one of the more similar games to Phasmophobia. You enter houses, use evidence to figure out what type of ghost is present, and expel it. There is no running away and correctly guessing the ghost. You must perform an exorcism at the end.

There is speech recognition with ghosts. The general gameplay and objectives remain similar to Phasmophobia, but the atmosphere and experience are two different things. There are over 25+ items to help you and your friends best the supernatural.

20Lunch Lady

Four players
Collection

If you've witnessed YouTubers playing this game, you'd think it's a funny game for laughs with your friends. Actually playing it is another story.

Lunch Lady is a very short and very inexpensive game where you must sneak around school after dark and collect answers for a test. Much like the premise in Slenderman, you must collect ten pages to complete the game and escape.

19Somewhere In The Shadow

somewhere in the shadow three players staring at wall drawings

Four players
Investigation

This is a whodunnit escape room horror game. Players have to figure out how to escape a wicked house by working together to complete various challenging puzzles, all while demons and strange things that reside within the house stalk you and try to stop you.

Somewhere In The Shadow is a very affordable co-op horror experience. The game is short and sweet if you are looking for some extra fun with friends.

18Chupacabra: Night Hunt

chupacabra night hunt three players aiming shot guns

Five players
Shooter

Instead of hunting down and putting an end to malevolent spirits, your duty is to hunt an infamous beast of Latin American folklore known as the chupacabra.

You and your friends must work together and collect every necessary weapon and precaution needed to kill the bloodthirsty beast of the woods. There is a twist though. One player can be the beast himself and be hunted by the group of friends.

17Ghost Exorcism INC

ghost hunters corp holding bible and cross at entity

Four players
Investigation

Previously known as Ghost Hunters Corp, this game is one of the more similar games to Phasmophobia. Multiple friends must try to figure out what type of ghost they are dealing with and then send them back to hell, or heaven, where they belong.

Once you figure out what type of ghost it is, you have the power to exorcise them with the power of God and some holy water. This is where you must stand your ground and face the entity instead of running away.

16Obsideo

obsideo holding paranormal tool in basement

Two players
PvE

Another similar game to Phasmophobia, players must figure out what type of entity is haunting the building and put an end to it. Obsideo focuses more on the detective aspect of ghost hunting, using clues and remembering behaviors from previous experiences.

Ghosts are programmed to be smart, not just scary. They hear you and know the house better than you do. The developers aim to add four-player multiplayer in the near future.

15Sign Of Silence

sign of silence two players aiming flashlight

Four players
Multiple endings

Sign of Silence is frustrating to some due to the loud, frightening, and very large monsters that attack randomly tied in with the regular mobs around your vicinity. In this game, you and your friends have to collect all the materials needed to repair a vehicle and escape the wretched and cursed woods.

You can choose to leave your friends behind or work together. Stealth gameplay is advised because any movement and sound will attract enemies.

14Hand Simulator: Horror

Four players
Physics

Hand Simulator is a hilariously funny and complicated game that has come out with many different versions. This time around the creators make the setting a horror game. There are various tricks and puzzles you must solve while concentrating on how to control your hands and the goal is to escape the area with your friends.

Hand Simulator: Horror puts a challenge into the ghost-hunting feel of Phasmophobia since it's based around only having control over your hands and fingers using mere keyboard buttons. This game will be both hilarious and challenging.

13Devour

Four players
Puzzle

The true horror of ghosts comes to you in Devour in more forms than astral. There is a cursed and evil ritual and cult leader running amok in the woods, and it's up to you and your friends to stop the blasphemy.

There's a story that can be played in single-player and is meant to be both a scary and cinematic experience as well as a chaotic and fun. Multiple tasks must be complete in the correct order, so that you may vanquish the evil. The game is available in VR.

12Tales Of Escape

Six players
Escape room

Tales of Escape is a free-to-play escape room game with horror elements. Available in VR, you and a friend must solve complex puzzles in a creepy and dank cave.

Up to six friends can play together and there are extra DLC escape rooms. In the base game, you find yourself in some haunted minds full of strange noises and letters to help you better understand what's going on.

11Emily Wants To Play

It looks like an office room with bad lightning and a safe that has been opened.

Four players
Walking simulator

Emily Wants To Play has jumpscares and is a horror extravaganza. As a pizza delivery man or woman, you find the house you're meant to deliver pizza to is empty with the front door wide open.

Related:Best Horror Games For Kids

You and up to four other people must survive this wicked house and escape. This is a small indie game meant to give you an exciting experience in a short amount of time.

10Unfortunate Spacemen

Nine players
Investigation

This is a free-to-play game where you and your friends must keep each other alive and escape various different locations as a monster lurks in the dark. One person is the monster and no match is ever the same.

The game provides bonus story modes as well as randomized objective situations with the main goal of surviving or killing. Unfortunate Spacemen has proximity chat just like Phasmophobia, except now one of your friends is the ghost.

9GTFO

Four players
Difficult

You don't just shoot zombies in this game. GTFO focus' heavily on the atmosphere, making players use their heads to complete objectives and avoid unnecessary fights. The game is designed to be difficult so you must think of different strategies to survive.

The game is an early access horror FPS different from its predecessors. These are ghost hunters without a budget. Stealth and conserving ammo play huge roles in surviving the odds for each mission.

8In Silence

A table with a tank of fuel in it, and another player in front of you. The room is dark.

Six players
PvP

At first glance In Silence looks the most like Phasmophobia visually with similar graphics and play style. In Silence is a team-based game where one set of players must survive and defend themselves while the other seeks to kill everyone else.

One player controls a blind beast who can only use sound to their advantage, which makes the proximity chat the game offers way more intriguing. This game is a mixture of Phasmophobia, Dead by Daylight, and Friday The 13th all in one.

7Pacify

Four players
Strategy

Pacify is becoming a unique classic horror game after various gaming YouTubers played it in 2019. With the same graphics, your team of ghostbusters must exorcise a ghost or possessed woman by collecting items and burning them.

The devs make sure it isn't just a run and scream game, but that there is purpose and story in the cracks if you look close enough. They are constantly updating the game and have created a new mode with a different supernatural situation the team must confront.

6The We Were Here Series

We Were Here Together holding walkie talkie and candle

Two players
Escape room

There are no ghosts in the We Were Here series, but there are puzzles and walkie-talkies. Who doesn't love a good walkie-talkie? These are games where two players must use communication and trust to help both of them escape elaborate puzzles and buildings.

The two players have been separated with only a walkie-talkie to explain what's going on and how each person should escape each room. The first game is free, with the other two being affordable and well worth it.

5Deceit

Six players
Social deduction

Have no fear, another free-to-play game is here. Deceit is like an escape room, who-dunnit experience. You and your friends have to escape while figuring out which one of you is an entire demon.

The great thing about this game is that nobody is completely defenseless as there are weapons lying around for everyone to take dibs on. Vote out who the team thinks the monster is and decide if you can trust your friends!

4Labyrinthine

Four players

Labyrinthine is a horror game centered around sticking together above all else. Friends are stuck in a peculiar maze with spine-chilling visuals and complex puzzles inside. The group has to complete said puzzles and learn about the history of the maze, all the while something creeps in the dark and watches.

That which stalks and lies within the maze can only be found by playing the game. Labyrinthine is an early access multiplayer online horror game. The developers claim to be super fans of co-op games and horror games and made sure to combine these experiences effortlessly.

3Folklore Hunter

Unlimited number of players
First-person shooter

Instead of looking for ghosts, you are hunting mythological beasts in Folklore Hunter. You and your friends get to play as hunters that live in cabins in the forest. These seasoned hunters look for prey different to deer and moose.

Related:Best Horror Games Set On A Boat

Hunt down the beast in the forest before it finds you and kills you. The creatures are made to have unique AI systems, allowing you to watch them in their natural habitat and use your senses to track them down and watch their change in patterns.

2The Blackout Club

Four players
Indie

In The Blackout Club, you and your friends play a couple of teenagers in the suburbs trying to uncover secrets about the town. Your tight-knit group of teen friends is taking it upon themselves to figure out what the heck is going on in this weird and small town.

The Blackout Club contains narrative, customization, and lots of special tools to defend against whatever is lurking in the dark. The missions themselves are procedurally generated so every time you log on you are experiencing a new sense of exploration.

1White Noise 2

Five players
Team-based

White Noise got people interested back in 2014, so much so that a second one was released in 2017. In White Noise, a player controls the enemy. This is a 4v1 game where survivors must fend themselves against whoever is playing the monster.

If you die as a survivor, you are able to continue helping your friends as a ghost. There are plenty of tools and stats to pay attention to like battery and stamina