I've been playing The Other Side since the update broke the game, here's what I found
I decided to give it a try, and obviously it's directly compared to phasmo a lot, so here's what you need to know about it.
If you're looking for a different game from phasmophobia to play until this is all fixed, here's how they differ:
For ghosts, TOS has 18 currently in its Identify mode. It goes without saying that phasmo's roster is much larger.
IMO, a lot of them feel very much like phasmo ghosts, they've all got their zero evidence tells and behaviors, some hunt faster, some slower, some are weaker to 'smudge' (holy water in this game) etc.
There's a few cool ones like The Forgotten, which has very minimal presence and activity until it suddenly hunts, becoming active and aggressive afterwards. Pretty scary on the larger maps, and I haven't had it be quiet for long enough to be boring when I've faced it.
There's also The Doppelganger, which I remember being a requested feature back in the day. I won't talk too much about their powers here to not spoil the surprises, just wanted to give an example of a ghost I thought was cool.
Overall, there's a bunch of unique ghost mechanics not present in phasmo, but I think phasmo still edges out roster wise, as 29 ghosts is hard to beat.
It goes without saying more will be added with time, but here's where I want to talk about the equipment, as this is where the game really shines:
The equipment feels so smooth, it's amazing. Even before the recent update with the janky delays, the equipment in phasmo pales in comparison. You've got slots with hotkeys and indicators for turned on equipment in your slots, and, best of all, you've got a BOX!
Yes, for larger maps, or any map for that matter, you can put all your equipment in a limited storage box you can buy and carry it! It takes up both hands so it has to be dropped like a phas tripod before you do anything, but this completely changes everything about large maps. I saw maps in this game that were way larger than phasmo and I was scared having flashbacks to my old days carrying items from the truck to the other side of Prison in phasmo, but it ended up feeling great to play with this box addition.
Oh, and the equipment itself? The flashlight, UV light and the rest of the light sources are actually raycast.
The phasmo flashlights look like PNG overlays with a brightness radius, which imo doesn't look very good for a horror game. Flashlights in TSO have depth, changing in projection size (depending on how far it's cast), cutting through the darkness.
And the temp gun? It works like a temp gun! You can point it at objects, you can point it at rooms from a distance without going into them. You have a more basic room thermometer that works like phasmo and that one is more convenient for screenshotting thermal evidence.
The gearing up UI is smooth to use and immersive, and you have a slot limit vs an item hard limit for bringing stuff which is cool. Wanna fill all your slots with sanity pills? Sure I gusss, why not. There's no freebie equipment if you don't add any to the box so you are given the freedom to screw yourself over (there is a 'free' beginner box set you can drag in)
(Free in quotation marks because you pay a tax cut at the end of your contract for it, so it's bargained anti soft lock.)
Everything in this game feels in-world. You've got a laptop you buy from, with your stores being webpages you can tab close, your journal is a smartphone with various useful apps and you get little smartphone notifications for completing objectives etc.
It sells its late 2000s ghost hunting show aesthetic really well imo. Your camera is your phone camera, it's got a selfie mode and you can add filters just for fun if you want.
Huge edge up over phasmo on equipment imo.
....Now we get into safehouse and character customization!
Character customization is rudimentary, no different face types yet like phasmo, but the models, and (equally limited admittedly) clothing choices look better and some of them can be colored any color you want.
Safehouse customization is completely insane. There's multiple locations you can buy, from grungy basements to cozy lodges to whole ass art galleries.
You buy furniture, pets, all kinds of things to decorate with, and it has a simple effective snap grid building system for alignments.
You can even move and customize usables, like your laptop and item crate, and your vehicle.
It's got vehicle customization too! You can buy and recolor a pickup truck, van, truck etc. Some cars have more storage space so you can bring more in, but I think they have higher fuel cost or something? Not sure as I'm still on the default one, but it's neat.
More indepth vehicle modding will be added later it seems.
Finally, to end this whole yapfest off, it's got an ENTIRE other gamemode, Cleanse.
Here, evidence becomes multilayered and you need to collect and report it on a 1-4 scale.
For example, Writing 1 is just scribbles, Audio 1 is just incomprehensible gibberish or ghost moans whereas their 3 equivalent would be complicated speech in written or spoken format, like entire sentences.
Once you have all you need, you plug it into a spinny electric black box and take it to the ghost room. If you are successful it does a partial cleanse, lowering ghost aggression.
To do a full cleanse, you must find and pick up ghost artifacts with a device. This makes the ghost hunt usually as it tries to use up the last of its manifestational power to kill you.
Once you have all the artifacts, it's over. The location falls dead silent, the ghost room temps slowly climb back to normal and you can celebrate.
If you fail, it starts a hunt, increases ghost aggression and you need to go charge the thing back at the truck. It's got limited charges so be careful.
Super fun gamemode, I quite enjoy it.
Finally, I'd like to wrap up with a few cons or things I'd like changed:
Ghost model is tied to the locale. There's no random ghost model, if a locale has a clown, that's the clown ghost locale forever.
I think this makes scares a lot more predictable which is a shame, it's got some thematic building but imo I'd like a random model system like phasmo more for the long term.
Manifestation events are a little limited at times. Really enjoying the audio design of the game, the knocking felt 3d at times and made me check, but it seems it doesn't have as many manifestation varieties as phasmo like shadow forms. There's some good ones but combined with the predictable ghost model, I think it might make scares get a little old. I'm desensitized to phasmo after playing it for so long, but there's definitely a bit of spice and variety in a manifestation scare you can appreciate even if it doesn't actually get you.
That's about it, I'd really recommend giving it a try as I've been having tons of fun on it, even if phasmo is all fixed up later I think I will play both from then on.
I'd love to hear your thoughts if you've played and how it compares to your phasmophobia experiences.