Posted on: February 11, 2010

pattyd0319

Games: 155 Reviews: 1

My favorite

Next to Sanitarium and 7th Guest, this is one of my favorites and I was just thinking of emailing you guys to see if you were going to get it. I probably have played and still own most adventure games from the 90s and early 2000 when I had time to play them. Like a good book, I lost sleep playing this game until I finished it. The ending is a little weak and the story line probably is more appealing to women but if you enjoy haunted house type of games then this is worth the purchase.

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Posted on: May 27, 2012

rogercrocha

Verified owner

Games: 108 Reviews: 2

Nostalgic but mediocre

As a point-and-click graphical adventure it's simply terrible. The game and puzzle design fluctuates between completely obvious and impossibly unintuitive. It's very common to find yourself without a clear picture of what to do next. No wonder it was designed with a very prominent hint system. Clear proof of the poor game design. Certainly rushed into production. The "full motion video" (as it was called at the time) is a gimmick, shoehorned in to capitalize on the CD-ROM fad. The game hasn't aged well. But… it has some nostalgic value.

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Posted on: July 7, 2024

girnny777

Verified owner

Games: 84 Reviews: 1

One major let down

Not a fan. The majority of the game is spent walking around the exact same rooms over and over waiting for a story trigger. There are no puzzles aside from the ending gauntlet, which if you do not have all the required items will lock you into a bad ending. I suppose the gorey finishes were kind of cool. But as far as adventure games go there are many, MANY more that are far superior to this.

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Posted on: March 14, 2011

NecroDomo

Verified owner

Games: 422 Reviews: 1

A classic, but…

Phantasmagoria is a classic but that doesn't mean it's good. I'm going to forget that it was a short game that originally came in seven CDs, because we're talking about the GOG digital version and I'm going to focus in the game itself. I don't mind Full Motion Video, in fact I think I like it, but if you use it, you better use it well, because it needs to be more logical than a movie since you are part of it. Poor acting and some incoherent sequences spoil that, so you can't inmerse youself in the experience nor enjoy it like a movie either. The music does a good job, however it's not enough to help the insustancial plot or the bad script when it comes to scare you. This game isn't scary and, although it tries to be disturbing in various ways, the most it gets it's to be comical. The best I can say is that I didn't get totally bored but the only reason why someone should play this title is for the sake of gaming history knowledge.

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Posted on: December 15, 2011

RogueNightingale

Verified owner

Games: 56 Reviews: 2

Terrible but Worth It

Based solely on its own merits, Phantasmagoria is a terrible game: it's extremely linear, many filler animations last far too long, and the acting is like something you'd see on MST3k. On the other hand, this is one of those games that both earns the moniker "so bad it's good" and surpasses it. If you like laughing at bad movies, you'll love this; I have to say, though, the lead actress does a pretty damn good job at appearing legitimately stressed and terrified. The graphics are at the level that the actors don't appear as if in green screens; it meshes just enough. The music is almost perfect, to the point where I wish GOG.com offered the soundtrack as a bonus, but alas. The story, though unoriginal, succeeds at what it needs to do, with no obvious plot holes (apart from a few graphical screw-ups) or significant leaps of faith. To put it simply, you'll laugh, you'll jump, you'll avert your eyes and occassionally groan, but it's not a bad way to spend five bucks during a sale.

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