The Occultist PS5 Review: A Dark, Intense Supernatural Trip With One Hell of a Catch
Within minutes, the game grabbed me, pulling me straight into a dark undercurrent that is a thing of absolute beauty. The suffocating atmosphere, the thick sense of not knowing, and the stellar narration do such a phenomenal job of setting you up for a creepy mystery. You are instantly dropped into a world where a gorgeous mix of dense forests, ancient buildings, and forgotten towns practically begs to be explored. It is a tense, highly atmospheric setup that hooks you right from the starting line and refuses to let go.
[Specs] [Gameplay] [Performance] [Settings]
The Occultist PlayStation 5 Review
- Developer: DALOAR
- Publisher: Daedalic Entertainment
- Official Website: Daedalic Entertainment Franchise
- UK Store Link: PlayStation 5 Store / Xbox Store
- Genre: Action-adventure / Survival Horror
- Release Date: April 8, 2026
- Download Size: 19.78GB download size.
- Trophy Information: Platinum trophy with 25 trophies.
- Game Style: Action-adventure gameplay.
- Camera Perspective: Full 3D game world, you play in first person and have a full 360-degree camera and movement.
- Story Presentation: All cutscenes and story are in-game.
The Occultist PlayStation 5 Review
As an Occultist, you can see and hear things that other people cannot, and it can be things that happened in the past. It’s a game where you follow the story (it’s a good one with great twists) and do simple puzzles, and with enough freedom in between to find collectables. A lot of the time, you are finding objects and items to then use to get other items or open doors, etc. Find objects and interact with them via a 3D viewer. You will spend your time trying to find secret areas and routes in a world that is quite huge. Hidden collectable medallions, gospel fragments, and altars are all over the world. Your trusty torch will help in the many dark areas. There is no direct combat per se; you are releasing or unchaining lost souls, and some can haunt you by chasing you.
The book you carry is like your menu of all information, it fills in with story and puzzle elements, and the like. Swapping skills and abilities is a radial menu you bring up. Vera Viso is your pendulum that can detect anomalies, reveal secrets and hidden objects. It vibrates and lights up when close, and then looking through the glass part shows. What I like a lot is how viewing the world through the pendulum changes what you can see and can have objects appear; it generally just plays and looks cool. Tempus Fugit is an ability you unlock that lets you manipulate time with certain traces of Anomalies. Excellent voice work throughout. It’s also the voice actor of Geralt from The Witcher 3, so you are in good hands. Mini game segments where you have to do things like balancing as you cross logs or beams. I wish it were a bit more open-ended and not follow this thread throughout, but it does a great job of telling a story.
Having the game in first person does make it more tense, but you do lose a lot of it when crawling, as the camera goes crazy, it doesn’t line up right and is generally bad. When running, you do have a look behind the button. Unfortunately, if you are prone to motion sickness, this can trigger you or if you don’t like quick movements. You see animations of items being used, but you don’t see your character doing it, and it’s slow and unskippable. You are never sure when the game saves or when it last saved.
The Occultist PlayStation 5 Review: Performance & Fidelity
- Visuals: Awesome graphics. The world has a dark undercurrent, but it is a thing of beauty. I love the mix of forests and old buildings, and towns to explore.
- Frame Rate & Performance: The movement around the world is generally fine, but there is a slight slowdown and invisible walls that can be a bit of a bummer.
- Audio Experience: The soundtrack is subtle at times and then crazy intense at others. Excellent voice work throughout. It’s also the voice actor of Geralt from The Witcher 3, so you are in good hands.
- Immersion Features: For more immersion, the rumble is well implemented, and the game uses the speaker for sound effects.
Settings, Customisation & Control Details
- Display Settings: Video settings – Gamma slider and HDR.
- Input Issues: Weird things kept happening where the game wouldn’t recognise inputs on the settings menu; it randomly happened a few times and on different screens.
- Accessibility Supports: Colourblind support and intensity slider. Subtitle support and the text has three sizes.
- Camera Comfort: Head bobbing and shaking intensity option, and you can just elect to turn it off.
- Motion Controls: Motion sensor integration that can be turned on and off.
- Control Schemes: Familiar controls for the genre, and it feels natural to veterans, but also easy to pick up for new players. Quick time events are in the game, from an accessibility point, you can’t turn them off, but you can make them hold or tap, from a gameplay point, you don’t get told about them, and it doesn’t make it clear of its tap or a hold.
- On-Screen Assistance: Tutorial pop-ups as you play, and at times, button prompts will show.
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The Occultist PlayStation 5 Review
Summary
GOOD STUFF
Within minutes, the game grabbed me completely because the atmosphere, the thick sense of not knowing, and the narration do such a brilliant job of setting you up. The world has a dark undercurrent, but it is an absolute thing of beauty, and I completely love the mix of deep forests, old buildings, and massive towns to explore. What I like a lot is how viewing the world through the Vera Viso pendulum changes what you can see and makes hidden objects appear; it just looks and plays incredibly cool. To top it off, you get excellent voice work throughout the entire experience, and since it is the legendary voice actor of Geralt from The Witcher 3, you know you are in perfectly good hands. The gameplay itself is a great mix of a solid story with great twists, simple puzzles, and plenty of freedom to hunt down hidden collectable medallions, gospel fragments, and altars.
BAD STUFF
It is a massive bummer that the movement around this huge world suffers from a slight slowdown and annoying invisible walls. The perspective also causes major issues because having the game in first person makes things tense, but you lose a lot of that tension when crawling as the camera goes absolutely crazy, fails to line up right, and is just generally bad. If you are prone to motion sickness or hate quick, jerky movements, the look-behind button when running can severely trigger you. It is also highly frustrating that you see slow, unskippable animations of items being used without actually seeing your character do it, and the game leaves you guessing because you are never sure when it saves or when it last saved. To make matters worse, weird bugs keep popping up where the game randomly refuses to recognise inputs on the settings menu across different screens, and the quick time events give you zero guidance, never making it clear if you are supposed to tap or hold.
FINAL VERDICT
The Occultist delivers a thoroughly engaging narrative packed with great twists and a brilliantly atmospheric world that pulls you right into its supernatural mystery. While I deeply wish the exploration was a bit more open-ended instead of strictly forcing you to follow a single thread throughout, the excellent voice work and clever pendulum mechanics keep you thoroughly hooked. It is a bit of a shame that the package is held back by a crazy, misbehaving crawling camera, random menu input glitches, and unskippable item animations that slow down the pace. Ultimately, it is a very atmospheric and spooky ride that horror fans will easily pick up and enjoy, proving itself to be a journey well worth taking despite its mechanical flaws.
