Phantasmagoria

Wow. For a video game this is by far one of the best that I've played with live-action storytelling. They really need to turn this into a film with the same level of grit and rawness. For a trip down memory lane, I watched the entire game on YouTube. It still beats most horror films that are out there.

I feel like it's not easy to find given how old the game is, but if you can get your hands on it, It's worth giving a whirl. Also I have to really give credit to the soundtrack. The song, "Rage" pretty much sums up what the story is about. In fact I think it was one of the first MP3s that I have a played! Well done. 10/10.

It is rare to find a video game of this magnificent quality and design now a days, let alone back in '95! The plot is interesting enough to draw you into the game, and captivating enough to keep you there. Of course, the plot may seem simple and overused to some, but that is the beauty of Roberta Williams's work! In all of her video game titles, including this one, she takes well know tales and puts them together in her own lyrical, unique way, successfully turning something old into something new!

So here it is. A recently married couple, one a successful writer, and the other an accredited photographer, move into an abandoned Elizabethan house on the Massachusetts coastline, searching for peace and quiet for each of them to pursue their crafts, and their lives. But the house holds a dark secret. (What self-respecting abandoned Elizabethan house doesn't?) Why are the locals suspicious of the house? What is behind the locked door to the attic? Why did someone wall up the entry to the house's small church? Who are the people lurking about the carriage-house? What really happened to the previous owner? You may have seen or read of this kind of story before. But have you ever lived it?

And that, dear friends, is the entire basis for this remarkable game. Discovering the clues, unlocking the doors, unfolding the demonic secret of a rash of age-old murders, um... disappearances. But don't think that there is only one way to get from moving day to the heart-wrenching climax. Use your mind! There are multiple ways to solve the puzzles! And if you don't search hard, then you miss clues that, while are not required to finish the game, are required to realize just how tricky Mrs. Williams can be. (Hmmm, now where did that cat go off to? My that rose looks lovely in the moonlight... That cellar holds more than just wine...)

The point and click interface is very simple, probably too simple for seasoned gamers. You move the pointer around. The pointer turns red. Ah! You can do something! That however, is the ONLY reason why this game got a 9 instead of a 10. (Well, that and the, ahem, `bad guy' at the end is. well, to put it simply, corny. It still looks neat though!)

Visually, the game is beautiful. You can actually get the feel of roaming around that creepy old house, the stuffiness of the attic, the dampness of the crypt. The movements of the actors are all... well, acted out of course, so there is little that can be done about the stiffness of how Adrienne walks through the game. The video scenes are remarkable well acted out however, and both Victoria Morsell and David Homb shine, especially in the ending scene. I just hope you don't mind blood, because you'll see plenty of it as you get closer to the house's secret.

And the music! Oh! Such macabre melodies only serve to turn the shivers down your spine into virtual waves!

The game is short, yes. That is IF, you don't take the time to fully explore the game. (Search for Roberta herself! She's in there!) My recommendation: call in sick for work tomorrow, grab some of your favorite snacks, dim the lights, start the game, and by the morning, you'll have defeated one of the greatest and intriguing games of all time!

This is a wonderful piece of work, considering the budgetary concerns. True, alot of the early game is simply getting from point A to point B but it isn't a bad trip. Its not as predictable as some would have you believe either. Its pretty graphic in a cheesy Ed Wood type of way. The story does have enough twists in it to make it interesting. As for it being boring, the purpose of any point and click environment is to make you interact with the game. If you really want to play, it has its rewards. I just wish that the FMV scenes would make the lead female character a bit stronger and the blood looked less like raspberry syrup.

"Phantasmagoria" is an infamous point-and-click adventure game that was supposedly banned in Australia, though I remember seeing it for sale in at least one retailer.

Many of its scenes of violence just seem silly now. The game's macabre sense of humour helps to counterbalance that, however: when an apparently alcoholic woman has a wine bottle rammed through her eye socket and an overweight one is force fed apparently until she dies, you can see it's SUPPOSED to be ridiculous. When the game lets go of humour, there are some cringe-inducingly violent scenes: another woman has her head twisted around in a machine until it breaks, and if you linger too long on one screen, your protagonist will have her head torn apart. The rape scene, probably the game's most controversial moment, is still ugly, though a little improbable: both the parties involved are clothed at the time, leaving you wondering how sex, consensual or otherwise, could have occurred.

Having just played the inferior sequel, "A Puzzle of Flesh", I am obliged to make a comparison. The first title has a more familiar story, but it is told much more consistently, manages the aforementioned humorous tone amid the horror, and even has some genuinely scary moments - one jump scare got me better than anything in any movie with "Insidious" or "The Conjuring" in the title.

The story is a familiar one: a young couple move into a haunted mansion that has apparently been frozen in time for over a hundred years, when all the bad stuff in the house's history went down. Does anybody in real life purchase a home and not bother to remove any of the old furniture? Wouldn't they at least move some of their own stuff in? In the time honoured tradition of haunted house stories - see "The Amityville Horror", "The Shining", and "Burnt Offerings" - the husband starts to go crazy. Your task is to discover what is wrong with the house before he kills you.

There are quite a few interesting touches, like antiquated devices found around the home triggering memories of the evil man who owned the house: a magician named Zoltan, a more intriguing figure than you may have expected.

It's also less frustrating to play than the sequel, ironically because this game uses live action characters, but interposes them on computer generated backgrounds. These are easier to navigate than the photos of sets were in the sequel, though they are also quite ugly.

Overall, the first Phantasmagoria is still a good game, though as a point-and-click adventure title, it has nothing on the best titles from Lucasarts or even its own company (Sierra), and as a horror game, it's merely average.

My advice is to play the Gabriel Knight series instead.

Ok, call me generous (or stupid), but I loved this game. Ok, 'tolerant' is another thing to call me. The idea was good, the graphics weren't bad at all, BUT it wasn't as scary as the hype suggested. I'm happy 'cos it was the only game I could finish in 2 days (not necessarily a good thing). Still, I loved it.