Ghosts is a real-time live-action horror game from the makers of Zoom horror movie Host

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And you have to play at exactly 10pm

Ghosts
(Image credit: Limited Run Games)

The makers of the scarily topical Zoom-based horror movie Host are back with a real-time, live-action horror game called Ghosts.

Calling back to '90s FMV (full-motion video) games like Night Trap, Phantasmagoria, and Double Switch, Ghosts aims to bring an oft-forgotten genre of horror games into the modern age with creature design by Trevor Henderson (SirenHead) and fabrication by Jim Henson's Creature Shop (Labyrinth / The Dark Crystal).

In Ghosts, you play as a TV producer camping out in the broadcast van for a failing cable channel while a presenter and some ghost hunters explore a haunted building. Your job is to monitor activity in and outside the building to keep you and your cohorts safe. Unfortunately, it isn't just ghosts you need to worry about, as sightings of the mysterious Long Lady have been increasing in your area, and it's said that if you make eye contact with her, you're dead.

What's really interesting about Ghosts is that it plays out in real time starting exactly at 10pm local time, so everyone's experiencing the game at the same time. If you load the game before 10pm you'll be met with the classic TV test card signaling that the broadcast isn't live yet. And if you quit the game before it's over, well, you've got some blood on your hands.

"Last Halloween, frustrated by the neverending lockdown situation in the UK, like a lot of people I turned to video games for escapism," writer and director Jed Shepherd says of the origin of Ghosts.

"Looking specifically for horror games to freak me out, I re-discovered the live-action video games (FMV) of the '90s... Games that dared to try something a bit different and really pushed the capabilities of the game systems of their time.

Ghosts

(Image credit: Limited Run Games)

"It suddenly dawned on me what I had to do - I had to make a live-action video game starring my friends Emma, Haley, Jemma, Radina, and Caroline and make it as scary as hell. I want to make you afraid of even looking at your Nintendo Switch but feel absolutely compelled to play the game anyway to help the ladies survive."

Ghosts is a collaboration between Shepherd, Limited Run Games, and Visible Games, and it reunited the cast of Host: Haley Bishop, Radina Drandova, Jemma Moore, Caroline Ward, and Emma Louise Webb. Expect it to hit PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC on February 22, 2022. You can back the project via the official campaign here.

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Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick
Staff Writer

After earning an English degree from ASU, I worked as a corporate copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. I got my big break here in 2019 with a freelance news gig, and I was hired on as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer in 2021. That means I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my home office, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.