It is November 2024. An old friend of mine reached out to me and told me to download Phasmophobia so we can play it together. Of course, I had heard of the game beforehand, given that Phasmophobia has been in early access since 2020, but it had recently come to consoles in October. We hadn't really had a game to play together since the heyday Apex Legendsso i downloaded the game and in the following weeks i saw a reunion of The boys (not to be confused with the comic series).
My high school friends and I had a new game to play, and because of that it would easily be my most played game of 2025. There's a good chance it will remain my most played game for this year (or at least I don't see it making the top 10). We spent weeks getting good at the game, and most of us had a couple of prestige levels under our belts. Every co-op Phasmophobia the session is filled with incredibly stupid antics. We went from playing every night around dinner for weeks to playing a couple of times a week to now where we play once a week or so. It's only natural, given the sheer number of hours we've put into the game, that Phasmophobia's 6 Tanglewood Drive remake is set to release on March 3rd. I've welcomed every map rework lately, but this one hurts.
Why Phasmophobia is processing Tanglewood
Developer Kinetic Games has given a few looks at the map and described its goals/why it's even remaking Tanglewood. It wants to highlight Tanglewood's graphics and gameplay, making it more comparable to newer ones Phasmophobia maps and reworks, increase the map's replay value and align it with the studio's vision for the game's future full release. Part of this drive is to remove the various stock assets still in the game, which is understandable. On paper, I fully understand why Kinetic Games is remaking Tanglewood, but on paper, Kinetic Games has always known that this would upset parts of the fan base.
Alongside announcing the release date for Tanglewood's remake, Kinetic Games reiterated that:
“We knew when we announced that 6 Tanglewood Drive would be getting a makeover, it would be a hot topic among the community due to its popularity and the place it holds in the hearts of players. With the work that has now been done on this new version, we believe we have only enhanced what makes the map so special.”
This message is directly to me, and players like me, or especially those who have been playing longer than me. And while I understand the desire and need to fix it, I don't think changing a map can “improve” what makes it special. Tanglewood is special not because of its specific setting, but because my friends and I spent weeks on the map honing our game skills, because we know that map like the back of our hands, and because it's the warm-up map for all sessions of Phasmophobia. It still may be and I try to reserve judgement, but you can't manufacture what made Tanglewood special.
If there is a possibility where players can keep/access Old Tanglewood and New Tanglewood, I think that's the easiest solution. At least I hope Old Tanglewood comes back a few times during the year.
Who is that character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Start
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s) Medium (5.0s) Hard (2.5s) Permadeath (2.5s)
Tanglewood's remake looks good, but it doesn't look like Tanglewood
If you told me that the images released of New Tanglewood so far were a completely different map, I would have believed you. The front of the house is pretty much the same, but the hallway looks completely different, the living room looks like it's from a completely different era, the kitchen loop is gone, and the van (which has annoyed me for years when the ghost starts honking at it) is replaced by a completely different car. I don't even know about the nursery that saved me from one Phasmophobia ghost hundreds of times since I first started playing.
At first glance, Phasmophobias changes to Tanglewood just don't sit well with me. Maybe when it's released I'll feel differently – I was on board Phasmophobias other map revisions since their announcement – but the changes are much bigger than I expected when it was first mentioned.
Kinetic Games says it tried to “keep the core design of the house as familiar as possible”, so there are no drastic layout changes (outside of the kitchen), and that “the redesign has given 6 Tanglewood Drive a much richer personality introduced through new interactions and landmarks that players will notice from their first steps inside.”
Kinetic Games has also said that there are a host of new audio features in the Phasmophobia for Tanglewood and that there are still “excellent locations” within Tanglewood to loop ghosts. Apparently there's even a dryer jingle. The expanding sound features are perfect for me, as well as adding brand new interactions, but just… New Tanglewood is not Old Tanglewood.
So I'm firmly on the side of the fanbase that Kinetic Games knew would be upset about big changes at Tanglewood. I get it, but I don't like it. But when the Tanglewood remake releases, I have no doubt that my friends and I will be checking it out. I just don't know if it will capture the same magic. We've, of course, talked about it from the teasers that have been released so far, and we run the gamut of opinion. I am, perhaps, on the extreme end of not liking it, while another friend is on the extreme end of being open to it. The others are somewhere in the middle, and if anything, how our pendulum swings represents how important it is Phase as a game is to us. We all want the best because we love it so much.
Kinetic Games says “Trust,” and while I'm immediately skeptical of this, I choose to trust that what makes Tanglewood special isn't gone. I just know that I will miss Old Tanglewood, no matter how much I like or dislike New Tanglewood. I can also guarantee that I will be spending a lot of time at Tanglewood until March 3rd.
Source: Kinetic Games
- Released
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29 October 2024
- ESRB
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T for Teens // Blood, drug use, violence
- Developer
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Kinetic games
- Publisher
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Kinetic games
