Phantasmagoria

For those of you who played this game when you were young, you know what to expect. For those of you interested in this game, you probably noticed the opinions can be very split on this one. Here are my personal pros and cons to why i think this is a 4/5 (and i love the game personally) Pro: - Dire atmosphere - Cheesy FMV, likeable main character - Unique gory "kill scenes" Cons: - not the most original or well thought out puzzle design If you want to know what all the hype back in 1995 was about this game and you enjoy the FMV era of adventure gaming i say go for it. If you are an adventure purist and you want a really good adventure with clever and interesting puzzles, i say this may not be the best choice. i love the game, in big part due to the nostalgia factor, but im trying to be somewhat objective thus i gave it "only" 4/5.

This could be one of the best point and click games ever made, but sadly critics panned it due to it's "poor" acting and horrible "script", but that's not true, the acting is very decent, the script is good and the game itself is great. It's similar to The Shining but it's more supernatural and more gruesome, the puzzles are pretty fun and challenging and the epilogue made my heart beat 100 times faster than normal so, if you are looking for a great horror point and click game then you should get this ASAP!

I bought this game at the height of the "multimedia" and "interactive movie" craze. There was a glut of these games for a while which made it difficult to know how Phantasmagoria stood out against the crowd. Replaying it in recent years reveals what a gem this game really is. First and foremost, the technology is astounding. The art and film direction are truly superb. This was obviously a very meticulous production, and the inclusion of minute details, ancillary scenes, and additional animations reveals that the designer (Roberta Williams, the most prolific adventure designer in history) wanted this to mimic real life, not just a movie. The fusion of film and CGI are very good and the world has a very heavy and self-substantiating feel to it. Most of the acting is quite superb, and is highlighted by a wonderful female protagonist who is strong, inquisitive, and assertive, yet feminine and vulnerable. Her husband, the antagonist, also performs very well and is a convincing foil who becomes more and more detestable as he gradually falls from grace. Supporting characters range from great to cringe-worthy, but all-in-all the main and supporting cast are very complimentary and fit in well with this world. This game is a little on the easy side compared with Sierra's other games, making this an outstanding choice for first-time adventure gamers. There is much to love about this game for horror and detective fans alike, and I would highly recommend this for married couples looking for an immersive fiction to dive into and solve together as a team. It's a true tragedy that live action games didn't proliferate beyond the 90's. Other projects (like the excellent Casebook series by Areo Cinematic Games) rekindle this spirit but serve as little more than McNuggets of interactive fiction as compared to this work of genius by Roberta Williams. It has become one of my most beloved Sierra adventures and I very highly recommend playing this, alone or with a friend, with the lights out on a spooky evening!

First of all you gotta understand this is 1995. This simple fact makes the quality of the game unbelievable. Take a look around other titles of that year and you will get it. This is probably the first PC game with real actors (that were not single framed like Mortal Kombat), and it spanned over 7 CDs at the time because the videos were too large. The script is 5 times larger than a regular movie because of the possibilities. They took hours in a blue screen studio recording all the scenes and the result is quite amazing, the scenery looks real and well integrated with props and characters, although it uses only 256 colours. Nonetheless it has a beautiful art direction, an interesting story, and shocking violent sequences, sometimes really graphic (one could disable that feature with blurry overlays, but the torture is still there) and there is even a controversy rape scene that lead the game away from several stores. But what I like most is the atmosphere, created specially with the outstanding music/sound fx and the small doses of madness that the game gradually inserts in the story, building tension from a very calm and peaceful environment to disturbing moments of terror. There is mystery, there is magic, secret passages, clever puzzles, jokes and fear. If you are not a moronic kid looking for 60 fps 4K shootings, buy this game, you won't regret it.

Phantasmagoria stands as a testament to a specific period of video game history. It was the 90s, CD's had just started to hit the mainstream, and game designers were catching on to the idea that they finally had enough media space to include video recordings of live actors. Phantasmagoria was one of the first to do this, allowing you to control real people in a horror movie. It has a plot ripped out of The Shining. Adrienne and her husband Don have moved to a new house and Don has gotten possessed. As Don spirals out of control he becomes abusive and erratic, even raping Adrienne in one scene that caused a lot of stir back then. As Adrienne you have to save yourself and undo the curse left on the house. Of course, you won't be doing a whole lot besides watching videos. One of the drawbacks to this format, which was why it was quickly abandoned after the glamor wore off, is that you can't really do much but sit back and watch pre-scripted videos, with little or no input. Much of the action in the game involves getting Adrienne from one point in the game to another in order to watch the next cut-scene. Also, this game being one of the earliest to utilize the technology, the videos themselves aren't the best quality. Compression technology was still in its infancy, and even though this thing came on 7 CD's, it's still a little hard to watch sometimes. Still, don't get Phantasmagoria for the game, get it to experience a piece of gaming history. A period where the word CD-ROM meant instant attention.