There are games about ghost hunting, and there are games about aliens. But what about a game that you look for proof of aliens? This is JanduSoft’s UFOPHILIA. I want to thank JanduSoft for allowing me the opportunity to check out the game.
In UFOPHILIA, you play as an investigator who is out to catch evidence of extraterrestrial phenomena. It’s not a matter of proving they exist, it’s about getting the picture to prove it…and survive.
Now. Onto the game itself! When it comes to the game’s controls, it can be a bit confusing, as the buttons you normally use in a first-person style game are not being implemented here. Unfortunately, the bane of my gaming existence, there’s no true tutorial telling you how to do much of anything. The most you get is a prompt that always comes up telling you how to turn on the flashlight. There is a training level, but it really offers little guidance.
Sound is alright, there’s some decent ambient sound effects, but the use of loud stings is unwarranted, especially when they use something that almost sounds like the BLEGH! effect from Sinister, you know, the lawnmower scene.
Gameplay-wise, if you’ve played Phasmophobia, you pretty much get the idea of what you’re supposed to do; for those who are not familiar, you use paranormal investigative equipment to investigate the location you’re in. What evidence you do find, along with paranormal occurrences, will help you determine what kind of Alien is causing the anomalies. Once you are sure you know what alien it is, you then activate a device that will shield your presence to the alien, allowing it to manifest so you can get a picture of it, but if you’re not careful, you’ll be abducted.
Overall, I want to like UFOPHILIA, and at the same time, I don’t want to like it. I feel there’s a possibility that there’s some jank to the gameplay overall, the difficult controls, and no true randomness to the events of the game, as it seems the alien type will change, but the location you’ll find them seems not to. At the same time, it is strangely kind of fun.
On my scale of 1-10, because UFOPHILIA has a mix of good and bad, it’s truly hard to put it on the scale. It’s not good, but at the same time, it’s not bad. I would say, try at your own risk if you’re not willing to overlook some of the negatives about this game.
UFOPHILIA is out now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
