‘Necrophosis: Full Consciousness’ is from the makers of ‘The Shore’ and it arrived on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S earlier this week. Described as ‘a Lovecraftian horror experience’, the game is a first-person psychological horror that puts players in the shoes of Consciousness. Waking up in a crypt of sorts, you begin your journey of wandering through detailed environments to collect objects, work out puzzles and progress through a hellish land.
Within the first few minutes of the game you’re collecting eyeballs and putting them into a demonic-looking creature, who gives you some context as to what’s going on. From that point onwards you wander through vast locations, interacting with grotesque beings and collecting items. Once you’ve retrieved an item – be it a coin or a withered corpse – you must figure out what to do with it so that you can progress through the game. Handily there are clues by way of what looks like balls of dust in areas that you can place an item.
Alongside items to discover, there are poems and texts to interact with that will help you form an understanding of exactly what is going on. These aren’t essential to the game but they help flesh the world out a bit. You’ll likely encounter these when you’re trying to figure out what you need to do. This release comes with an additional DLC, which further expands the world of the game but it’s essentially just more of the same. You can work through the entire game in a few hours, so it’s not a huge commitment time-wise.
The game’s biggest issue is that it’s not always very clear what you have to do. Each area that you wander through is boxed in by an invisible border, which limits the amount of exploration you can do. On the one hand this is a good thing because it narrows down where you have to search, but on the other there are tantalising areas that would be cool to explore and you can’t. More complexity with the puzzles would have been welcome to as most of the time simply talking to a creature results in you receiving an item and being able to progress. There’s not a huge amount of challenge there.
The best aspects of the game are without a doubt the visuals and the audio. ‘Necrophosis: Full Consciousness’ looks stunning and it really does create an immersive hellish world. The characters you meet are grotesque but the game is never truly scary. The audio sets an ominous tone throughout and this helps to build the atmosphere. There’s something quite ethereal and oddly calming about it.
‘Necrophosis: Full Consciousness’ is a great looking game and there is fun to be had, but despite the nightmarish visuals there’s not a great deal to it. The puzzles become repetitive and the wandering around will eventually test your patience, especially when you can’t figure out what it is that you’re supposed to be doing. I would say ‘Necrophosis: Full Consciousness’ is more of a vibe than it is anything else, and if you’re content with spending hours exploring, then you’ll love this game. If you want something a little more challenging and engaging, this game isn’t going to be for you.
Developer: Dragonis Games Publisher: PQube Reviewed on: PS5 Also available on: Xbox Series X|S Release date: 28th May 2026
