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At one point, I was being chased down a narrow corridor by a flaming head Guardian who was trying to eat me. After falling through the cracks right by the doorway, I restarted at the other end of the corridor. Unfortunately, this meant that the Guardian lay between me and the next checkpoint.

is a massive asynchronous multiplayer game that casts players into procedurally-generated temples and tasks them with retrieving the sacred relics hidden within deadly chambers. Intrepid adventurers will dodge scores of hidden traps, leap treacherous chasms, and flee relentless guardians through branching paths until one of the relics are claimed or the devices of death overwhelm them.

Explore the perilous halls of each temple alongside the phantoms of fallen players. Use their successes and failures to your advantage to reach the precious artefacts that eluded them.

There are three modes to play. Adventure allows players to find relics and earn reputation points. Classic mode is a rogue-like one where temples become increasingly difficult as you get farther in.

This form of multiplayer also means that you can travel into the dangerous dungeons with friends and try to complete the runs with support rather than entirely alone.

The game will also receive cross-play between Xbox and PC, as well as a bevy of new updates in the future. Phantom Abyss first launched in early access on Steam on June 21, 2021.

’ Early Access journey is young, which means there are plenty of opportunities for the development team to optimise the experience and fill in the blanks along the way.

Is there in the later course a whip with speed thrust, or how is that explained? I don't want to shout Speedhack, but it sounds very strange.

While the ability gives you some pretty good mid-air horizontal movement, it is outclassed by most other movement options. Not a useless ability, but it doesn't have much utility either.

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Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.

The cleverest players will use the phantom runs of failed attempts from other players to their advantage Phantom Abyss and avoid the missteps and mistakes that led to their doom.

You are not alone in your task, however. The temple is filled with the spirits of other adventurers, rendered as ghosts. You’re not playing with other people in real time. Rather, you’re seeing a recording of their run.