Phantasmagoria

Make no mistake this is a terrible game. Some might consider it worth a playthrough since it remains a sort of infamous landmark in gaming history, and at this price you might make a case for it. Unfortunately it's also a dull and frustrating experience that might have you cursing at the screen and punching your keyboard. If you're curious about this title because of the controversy then believe when I say that in this day and age the more questionable content is tame in comparison to some modern children's games. After all curiosity killed the cat or in this case curiosity waisted the cat's money.

Phantasmagoria is a game that shall forever remain imbued in my memory. No, not because it is a stellar game and a timeless classic from days gone by, but because it's a game that is so bad that I can't help but look back on it and chuckle. It's also a perfect example of exactly what was wrong with the whole full motion adventure movement of the 90s. The game was originally released on a whopping 7 CDs, each of which represented a day in the life of Adrienne Delaney and her wacky adventures living in a haunted mansion previously owned by a crazy magician. Now, judging by the amount of physical media originally required to play the game, one would assume that you'd at least get a pretty lengthy adventure to immerse yourself in, right? Well, that's where I was dead wrong. Each disc takes about 15-20 minutes to get through (some even less), and the whole game can be beaten in under two hours your first time around (and even shorter if you decide you want to play through it all again). I can only begin to guess why this must be, but something tells me it has a little something to do with the fact that a lot of the animation sequences are repeated across each disc. And let me tell you, there are a lot of extremely redundant sequences throughout the game, such as countless views of Adrienne adjusting her hair in a mirror, or just blankly staring at--I mean, "examining"--objects in the game. But hey, at least the game can be saved by an interesting story and decent acting, right? Oh, but drats, they couldn't even get that right. What you end up with is little more than a vulgar display of violence, which leaves me feeling like they were trying to stir up controversy just for the sake of stirring up controversy. This game and its sequel (A Puzzle of Flesh) are, to me, abominations of the adventure game genre. So why didn't I rate the game any lower? Well, to be fair, there were some bits in the game that were actually so bad that they were amusing. So I guess if you're looking for a game that's "so bad it's good", this game might not be such a bad choice after all.

Phantamasgoria would possibly make decent fodder for an MST3K-style hazing, but little more than that. If the graphics ever looked good, they certainly haven't aged well. The interactivity is minimal and mostly confined to the ability to move from empty room to empty room, receiving occasional awful FMV scenes (the acting is amazingly terrible). There's some mild thrills to be gotten from the gory death scenes, but you can simply watch those on Youtube if you care to.

Just get the wallpaper, otherwise the game is only waste of time.

I bought this game in '96 (I think) and ran it on my then brand new Pentium 166 MHz top-of-the-line PC. Still, it was sluggish at times. Full Motion Video was all the rage then, but it just doesn't feel right in this game. The story is predictable and the puzzles not very interesting. From what I gather, Sierra re-used part of this game's engine in the second installment of the Gabriel Knight saga: The Beast Within. There it worked much better, and was complemented with a much better story. Sins of the Fathers, the first GK-game, just came out on GOG. If you like FMV games, I'd recommend waiting for The Beast Within instead of playing Phantasmagoria.