Poltergeist Watcher Review (PC)

Having spent a lot—and I mean, like, a ludicrous amount of time keeping a watchful eye on Chica from the Five Nights at Freddy’s series, I like to believe that I have that “all-seeing” eye — particularly when it comes to hawking over surveillance footage and, in some cases, shoddy mechanical doorways that lack the power to function properly. On that basis, it was only natural that I would eventually try my luck at Poltergeist Watcher, yet another hidden object-type horror game that promised to deliver a truckload of paranormal shapeshifters and psychological trauma in short bursts.

In a similar vein as Five Nights at Freddy’s, minus the fact that there are no doors to keep an eye on or short circuits to prevent from overheating, Poltergeist Watcher depicts the events of an unruly spirit—an entity that has the power to morph into objects, and ultimately tamper with your train of thought over the course of a single night. Unfortunately for you, you have the responsibility of keeping a watchful eye on the mansion that keeps the wandering foe imprisoned, which means that you’ll need to carefully alternate between camera feeds, and keep tabs on the events that take place throughout the twilight period. It sounds easy, for sure, but boy — wait till you get a load of this playful little demon; it’ll do all in its power to make your job a living nightmare.

Poltergeist Watcher has just launched on PC, and so, if you are curious to learn more about it, then be sure to read on for a few pre-purchase advisories. Let’s jump right in.

Always Watching

In short, Poltergeist Watcher lumbers the weight of the spiritual world on your shoulders, in the case that, as the watchman in a seemingly desolate mansion, you must figure out how to outwit the spirit that has taken it upon itself to alienate your frame of mind. As this rather unfortunate soul, your shift begins with a simple goal: to gloss over the CCTV feeds that post up in each quarter of the estate. As you progress deeper into the night, this goal eventually transitions into a slew of extracurricular tasks, such as solving basic puzzles around the house, as well as remembering important things, including the last-known whereabouts of the poltergeist, and the most likely location where they’ll circle back to. It’s a memory game, if anything, and it asks only that you keep your eyes peeled—a quest that has numerous psychological consequences and curveballs.

Like most, if not all spot the difference games, Poltergeist Watcher presents you with the occasional menu to navigate—a basic slider that allows you to highlight certain changes to the environment, whether it’s a slight change to a portrait, or an entirely different item that has miraculously sprung out from the woodwork and onto the canvas. To this end, you have to keep track of a good portion of the objects in each camera feed, and then rely on your own memory to whittle down the subtle differences in their composition with each passing turn. It’s a simple concept, and yet, one that bears a significant weight to it, more so if you fail to connect the dots and identify the problems in front of you.

Luckily, there are several hints to help you along the way—detectors that allow you to pinpoint certain items or noises of interest. Can’t complain there.

Blink, and You Might Just Miss it

While Poltergeist Watcher isn’t the most technically demanding game out there, it does feature its own share of difficult scenarios; for example, the items on the board are often tough to spot, and therefore, you must have a keen eye for detail in order to solve a lot of its tasks. If, however, you fail to whittle down the correct objects and paranormal activities, then you are made to rewind the clock and start from scratch—a consequence that can not only lead to frustration, but the loss of serious progress, too. But again, it’s a game that spans several nights, and so, even if you do fail to make ends meet and identify the solution, it isn’t as if you have to travel back all that far to redeem yourself. And honestly, that’s a major plus in my books.

There is a slight downside to all of this: the sound. As it turns out, Poltergeist Watcher is incredibly quiet, which can make certain tasks all the more difficult to complete. What makes it even more tedious, rather inconveniently, is the fact that you also have to locate the origins of the occasional knocking sound—a job that can be ridiculously easy to figure out due to the timidness of the environment and its natural ambiance. It’s so quiet, even, that it’s hard to paint it as a “true” horror game, for it lacks the basic audio quality of a full-fledged fright fest. Don’t get me wrong, it can deliver some pretty creepy moments, but I wouldn’t quite go as far as to say that it’s unsettling enough to make your neck hairs stand on edge. But hey — you can’t win ‘em all, right?

The Shift That Doesn’t End

There isn’t really a point to Poltergeist Watcher, other than to see how long you’re able to survive before one of the several ghosts capitalizes on your mistakes and sends you back to the beginning of the shift. To that end, the only thing that you do, really, is continue trucking forward, solving small issues until the night either reaches its climax, or a nearby poltergeist finds you and prevents you from going any further. On a good day, though, a shift should take you anywhere from sixteen to twenty minutes to complete, though this mostly depends on several factors, such as the camera feeds that you’re given to operate, and the behavioral patterns of the spirits themselves. Regardless of the circumstances, the win criteria is essentially one and the same, and so, gameplay-wise, there isn’t a tremendous amount to master.

Poltergeist Watcher is a bit of a slow burner, I’ll say that much. As a result of this, it might be a bit off-putting for those who’d soon rather dive into a fast-paced survival-horror game than gradually chip away at a few generic tasks. Of course, I opened this review with a direct reference to Five Nights at Freddy’s — and for good reason, too. Having said that, where the aforementioned cult classic makes a genuine effort to cram as much as possible into two-minute bouts, Poltergeist Watcher instead opts for a lengthier approach, in the case that, seventy percent of its scares don’t tend to happen until ten, maybe even eleven minutes after the shift begins. And even then, it’s easy to miss out on a lot of the horror aspects, as a keen observer will be far less likely to rock the apple cart, so to speak.

Verdict

Poltergeist Watcher provides a memorable and often chilling dive into the phenomena of modern-day ghost hunting, and it blends the basic concept of searching and finding with an atmospheric sense of terror surprisingly well, all things considered. Again, it isn’t the most physically demanding game in the world, but it does require some basic level of mental preparation and psychological analysis — and that’s, you know, fine, so long as you don’t mind keeping your eyes stapled open for extended periods of time. And when I say extended periods of time, I don’t mean one or two minutes straight, but twenty at the bare minimum.

I’m on the fence with this one, truly; on one hand, it generates a fairly good-looking experience that can be enjoyed without having any prior training in the field, but on the other hand, it doesn’t do anything to keep you invested for the long haul, much less make you feel the need to come back and complete any leftover tick boxes on a checklist or two. It’s a one-and-done sort of game, is what I’m saying, and so, if you’re looking for something that’ll keep you grinding for days, weeks, and perhaps even months, then you might be disappointed in the world that Poltergeist Watcher conceives from its relatively bite-sized canvas.

When all’s said and done, you could certainly do a lot worse for a mere $6. Needless to say that, if you enjoy games like Midnight Monitor, Observation Duty, or, for argument’s sake, Five Nights at Freddy’s, then you’ll probably get a kick out of this one.