Phasmophobia's upcoming prison level looks phantastic

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Being behind bars doesn't mean much to a ghost.

Phasmophobia's upcoming prison level.
(Image credit: Kinetic Games)

Excellent spook-em-up Phasmophobia is shortly due to receive a new prison level, and developer Kinetic Games has showed off the first screens. These are quite dark, but I'll post a link to some enhanced versions afterwards.

Alongside this developer Kinetic said "The Prison will be regarded as 'medium' Asylum being 'large.'" Asylum is by far the largest map in the game, some players would say too big for a team of four, while the School map is the current medium-sized offering, and to quote Goldilocks feels just right.

It can be hard to make out the details on the shots posted by the developer. A helpful redditor brightened them all up, if you're as obsessed with this game as I am and want to gawk.

Enhanced all the teaser images of the new upcoming map from r/phasmophobia

The first is showing a view looking back from the start of the level towards the ghost hunting van (does that van have a name yet, because it should). The second shows a stark-looking cafeteria, filled with food trays that ghosts will no doubt be flinging around, and an upper gantry. The last two shots show a medical ward, and a visitors' room.

The prison level remains 'in progress' on Phasmophobia's development board. Each of the game's environments has its own kinks, whether that's simply objects you won't find anywhere else or the school being wired-up with cameras already. Different objects might seem a weird thing to focus on, but these elements of a level are one of the ways ghosts show themselves and interact with players (a current item on Phasmophobia's To-Do list is adding a chance for objects to be thrown directly at the player.) There's a big difference in atmosphere between a ghost plinking a piano in a street house, and the metal trays, takeaway coffee cups and clipboards that fill this jail.

My biggest question about the prison level is whether we'll see some sort of greater integration of electricity, particularly when you think about things like powered door locks and how prisons are designed so that sections can be quickly isolated. At the moment the only doors ghosts can lock are entrance doors. In terms of electricity, ghosts can trip a generator to turn off the lights in a building, but that's about it: a bunch of prison doors suddenly locking in unison would be a whole other proposition.

As well as the above shots, the Kinetic Games account added that "The cell block(s) are being worked on as we speak." Sign me up for a long stretch.

Rich Stanton
Rich Stanton
Senior Editor

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."