Ufophilia [IMPRESSIONS] – Close Encounters of the Rough Kind 

On paper, Ufophilia is exactly the game I have been waiting for. As a long-time lover of The X Files, the pitch is incredibly strong: it is essentially Phasmophobia but with extraterrestrials. Instead of hunting ghosts in suburban living rooms, you are tracking down visitors from the stars, which to me sounds like a fantastic idea that should be a guaranteed hit. But after spending a few hours with it, the execution feels off – the potential is clearly there, but right now, it is buried under some clunky design choices. 

Check out some screenshots down below: 

The most immediate issue is how awkward and inaccessible the gameplay loop feels. In similar investigation games (I’ll be using Phasmophobia’s gameplay as a regular point of reference here), you usually have a journal or a notepad accessible at the press of a button to track your evidence on the fly. Here, that vital information is trapped on a laptop back in your starting caravan, meaning you’ll find yourself constantly trudging back and forth from the location to the caravan just to cross-reference evidence or double-check what a specific reading means. It breaks the immersion and turns a tense investigation into a tedious commute, and whilst noting down things manually is encouraged, it’s not something I always want to do when playing a video game. To make matters worse, you can’t even check this information while holding an item, which adds another layer of unnecessary frustration to the interface. 

The learning curve is also steeper than it needs to be, largely due to a bare-bones tutorial that only hints at the majority of the game’s mechanics. It doesn’t actually teach you how to use all of the equipment at your disposal, effectively throwing you in the deep end and forcing you to stop and read text descriptions to understand what your tools do. This is instantly off-putting, and even when you do read up on them, the descriptions on the laptop aren’t always completely clear in how you can effectively tie them into the gameplay loop. 

Speaking of the gameplay loop, Ufophilia operates on a distinct ‘phase’ system, which, in fairness, is quite clever. You don’t just walk in and start snapping photos of aliens carefree, but have to perform individual tasks to deduce what type of alien you are up against and how best to approach them. First, you have to investigate the area to try and find the room where the alien might be, and then you’ll use tools to detect specific phenomena which help you deduce the alien species. Once you think you have identified it, you’ll put out equipment (such as bait) which will help you snap photographs of it undetected. Finally, you trigger a signal in the van to make the alien manifest physically so you can take the required photos. It’s very similar to what you might have seen in the likes of Phasmophobia, but Ufophilia adds a bit more intricacy to each step of the process… it’s kinda cool 

However, the investigation process itself just ends up feeling a bit fussy and confusing. Specific aliens give off certain evidence, so using the right tools is imperative, but in my playtime, I frequently encountered what seemed like multiple types of clashing evidence. There are some interesting ideas – like how different temperatures on the thermometer might indicate different alien types – but figuring it all out just feels awkward. 

Check out some screenshots down below: 

Once the alien is active, however, the difficulty spikes aggressively. The entities are incredibly hard to outrun, and in around two hours of play, I only succeeded in a mission once, and to be honest, I feel like I fluked it. Sure, I managed to snap some photos on other runs, but I was constantly getting abducted, forcing me to lose all unlocked Roswell Points (the currency needs to unlock new levels and equipment) from that mission in the process. The game desperately needs a balancing patch or a more in-depth tutorial because it is currently very hard to identify where the alien is exactly or how to stay safe. On the bright side, there is less risk involved than in other games of this genre… you don’t pay for your tools, so failing a mission doesn’t bankrupt you. Every cloud has a silver lining, I suppose. 

Perhaps the biggest shame is the lack of multiplayer. The co-op chaos is the biggest appeal of games like Phasmophobia, and its absence here makes the rough edges stand out even more. At least there’s a decent selection of levels to play through though – some of which MAY have been inspired by Phasmophobia – so you won’t be short on content playing alone. 

Ultimately, Ufophilia is a little bit underwhelming. I plan on playing a bit longer to see if I can master the mechanics, but unless you are a diehard fan of the genre looking for an alien twist and possess a lot of patience, I would wait to see if the developers release some patches before considering a purchase. I didn’t actively dislike the game at all and I can absolutely see the potential, but right now, it’s just a little TOO rough to fully enjoy. 

Developer: k148 Game Studio 
Publisher: JanduSoft 
Platform(s): PlayStation 5 (Played), Xbox Series X|S, PC 
Website: https://www.jandusoft.com/ufophilia/ 

What are our ‘Impressions’ features?
As a small part-time team with busy lives, we can’t always play every title to completion for a full review. Instead, our ‘Impressions’ features serve as a snapshot of our early experience with the full release of a game. We dive in for roughly 1 to 2 hours to get a feel for the mechanics, the presentation, the atmosphere, and the vibe of the game, all whilst offering our initial thoughts to answer the question: has it hooked us enough to want to keep playing?