It Reaches PS5 Review: A Tense, Claustrophobic Body-Cam Horror

It Reaches, developed and published by Emberflight Games with publishing support from Perpetual Games, is a compact 5 - 6 hour long indie survival-horror title that launches on PS5 on May 26th. It delivers a tense, body-cam-style first-person experience that leans heavily into psychological dread and resource-scarce survival more so than arcade-like action.

You play as Officer Jason Thompson, whose routine police operation descends into chaos inside an abandoned hospital and its sprawling underground facilities. Trapped and hunted by a relentless entity, you must navigate decaying corridors, uncover a dark conspiracy involving unethical experiments, and fight to escape while something monstrous stalks you through the shadows.

The narrative unfolds primarily through environmental storytelling, scattered documents, and body-cam recordings that piece together the hospital’s grim history. Officer Jason Thompson serves as a grounded do-it-all protagonist who is competent, but increasingly desperate and vulnerable. His police training gives him tools for survival, but the horror erodes his composure, making every decision feel personal. The story builds a sense of mounting dread around hidden experiments and body horror, prioritizing atmosphere and pursuit tension over deep character building.

The Gameplay ...

It Reaches blends stealth, light combat, and survival elements in a first-person perspective simulated through a realistic body-cam view that captures every shake, breath, and visual glitch for heightened immersion. Core mechanics include manual breath-holding to avoid detection (with the risk of gasping if held too long), crouching, running, limited inventory management, and environmental interaction for hiding or setting traps.

Combat uses service weapons with satisfying but resource restrictive gunplay, with which precision matters, as ammunition is scarce and the enemies, tough. Puzzles involve navigating lethal traps and manipulating the environment, often under time pressure from the pursuing entity. The game emphasizes choice. You either hide, run, or stand and fight, with consequences for poor resource decisions made.

Your primary goal, above all else, is escape, which requires exploring the labyrinthine and derelict St. Mary's hospital, solving environmental puzzles, collecting key items and clues, and progressing through increasingly dangerous debris cluttered sections. Side objectives revolve around uncovering lore via optional documents and recordings that flesh out the conspiracy. Survival hinges on balancing exploration with evasion. Lingering too long in one area invites the entity, while rushing risks missing vital supplies or story details. Checkpoints are forgiving enough for replayability but maintain pressure.

The Presentation ...

The visual design in 'It Reaches' excels at gritty realism including flickering lights, peeling walls, bloodstained floors, and shadowy underground labs creating a convincingly decaying atmosphere, enhanced by the body-cam filter’s authentic shake and distortion. The sound design is atmospheric featuring creaking floors, distant footsteps, guttural noises, and oppressive silence amplify paranoia. The minimalist soundtrack of low drones and sudden surprises heightens anxiety without overpowering the ambient horror.

The Verdict ...

It Reaches is a solid, atmospheric indie horror outing that delivers tension and immersion. It may not stray far from genre norms, and its relatively short length and linear structure could leaveplayers wanting more, but the body-cam perspective, breath-holding mechanic, and relentless pursuer create memorable scares and satisfying survival loops. It is polished, tense, and worth experiencing for fans of the style.

This game, in my opinion, is best suited for horror enthusiasts who enjoy slow-burn psychological tension, body-cam or found-footage aesthetics (think Outlast meets body horror), and gameplay focused on stealth and resource management over run-and-gun action. It’s ideal for players seeking a few intense evenings of dread rather than a massive open-world epic. If you’re sensitive to jump scares, tight spaces, or disturbing imagery, approach with caution, but for those who crave heart-pounding chases in claustrophobic environments, It Reaches definitely delivers.