Posted on: December 31, 2010
ArseneLupinIV
Verified ownerGames: 13 Reviews: 5
Strong Start. Trips up in the End.
I had looked forward to playing Phantasmagoria for a long time. I remember when I first saw the game in the nineties. At a whopping seven discs, I thought this is going to be one long mystery/horror game. I hope it's a good one. Unfortunately, I didn't have a computer powerful enough to run it and by the time I did, technology had become too advanced to run the games. Thanks to GOG, I finally got the chance to to play this game. Regrettably the game was a mild disappointment which was unfortunate as the game started with an immense amount of potential. What started as a very interesting mystery tale devolved into a pointless slasher flick by the end of the game. The puzzles are minimal and rather simplistic. This was truly more a movie than a game as moving the plot along consisted of clicking on the necessary hot spots or just walking into a location. I would have been OK with that as the mystery slowly unfolded as you accomplished each task for the day. However, towards the end it is possible to complete one chapter without finding out anything about the back story of the mystery. I had to beat the game, then find out what I missed, and then go back and replay the chapter to get the whole story. The acting is fairly well done, but I found the violence to be quite over the top and brutal. The last few chapters felt like padding just to add something to the game, hence the excessive violence. Had a little more emphasis been placed on the story as opposed to the gore factor, this would have been a very good game. As it stands I give it a B-.
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