Phantasmagoria

Phantasmagoria, for its time, was a marvel. This game captivated me and my brother for days. Truly a work of art that we, many years later, still can't forget. GOG, please make it available for Mac as well, if you can. I'd love to buy both of the games to relive the magic, but not on Windows :/

Whoever said games are getting more violent and horrific clearly never played this gem from the mid 90s! A fantastic jaunt from start to finish, there are only a few things I would say against it: 1. Why does Adrienne wear the same outfit every day? IN fact why does everyone wear the same outfit every day?! 2. The game is INCREDIBLY confusing at times. At one point I had to find something to remove some mortar and I was stuck there for about an hour searching every area in the game for items! >:-p Then again it was a good kind of frustrating. 3. Adrienne has the shortest memory EVER! At one point she witnesses a gruesome and startlingly viceral murder and runs away to freak out, but then immediately afterwards she's all like "tum-te-tum, I should get some shopping done". In the later chapters I wanted to slap her every time she forgot something she'd been bald facedly TOLD five minutes before! :P Then again, it makes it a little hilarious. :) 4. The final chapter has some parts that you have to do in a certain time limit and the time limits are RIDICULOUS! I died so many times, but every death was incredibly nasty and my mouth actually fell open in shock at one of them. Seriously, play this game! Play it play it play it! :-D

To say I enjoyed this game would be underestimating the thrill of it. I bought it when it came out and well remember all the controversy over the content of the game etc. Well, I think the warnings on the box should have stopped complainers before they bought it! Many people bought it and griped because it was scary. Well, duh, read the box labels! I love playing this game and am now buying it again from GOG and appreciate them offering it. Phantasmagoria is an atmospheric game supreme! You are there! I love starting it up and walking Adrienne outside to listen to the wind howling and weird bird sounds! I never get tired of doing that! I love to have her get in the car and drive to the little town and listen to the car tires on the gravel. I love her arguing with the real estate salesman. When she sits on the bed and hands appear from nowhere and grab her, it's a thrill to behold! I never grow tired of the music and the panoramic view of the large room in the mansion when Adrienne enters. Speaking of music this game is way over the top in quality and weirdness which is what it's supposed to be. I also love the carnival theme. I buy carnival and puppet show themed games from bigfish. Carno was a traditional blue beard (like in Grimms fairy tales) and the concept of his theatre performances were definitely drawn from The "Theatre Du Grande Guignol" of old France. Look it up on Google. The silliest complaint I've read yet was that some gamer didn't like seeing Adrienne brush her hair and put on lipstick. I think it's great and helps develop her character. She has to be a girly girl or there wouldn't be any story. If she were a Wonder Woman or a Lara Croft she'd kick tail and the game would be over. She has to be scared or there would be no point to the game. My only suggestion to Roberta Williams would have been to have Adrienne dress in some different clothes on different days! Thank you, GOG, for making this game available and I can't wait to get it downloaded!

I played this as a child back in the day, I grew up on horror, sci-fi, and fantasy, so this didn't see so different. Playing again now, I gotta say that it still manages to hold up decently enough. Graphics look a bit off because they are quite pixelated with the modern resolution upscaling, and the final sequence is still rough with how they handled it. But everything else is the cheesy, yet fun game from the FMV era that you can expect. Though the catch here is that this one has a bit better writing than the usual bunch.

I bought this because I still have the 1995 original CDs but Windows 10 doesn't like them. This, Phantasmagoria 2 and Gabriel Knight 2 were the most sought after games back then. Thanks for making them work for Windows 10!