And this was a surprise to me because, when I play a "Gabriel Knight" game I expect to be confused. I know those games will have a lot of historic information and it's difficult to digest all the information much less remember it. But with Phantasmagoria, I wasn't confused too much when I played the first game. I always had a pretty good idea what was going on, and I instantly knew what was flashback and what was presently happening. So I didn't expect to be mentally lost in the 2nd game. But boy, I was! Figuring out what was flashback and what was currently happening was tough at times. And as for the storyline, when we get to chapter 5 I'm confused about everything, and when you get to the top secret room I have no idea what's going on even after it's explained. My mind was just completely lost from there to the end.

Is Curtis an alien? How did Jocelyn get a gun? How come the mutants didn't know that it wasn't Curtis who killed them? How did Paul Warner get in the night club? How did Paul Warner even know about the nightclub and that Therese worked there? Did Curtis drive his mother to insanity or was she just insane? How did Curtis authoritatively tell the cop to leave his house and make it work? I would think trying to order around a cop would be a bad idea, especially a mean, tough cop who is absolutely certain in her mind that you are the killer. What exactly happens to Curtis during the bad ending?

Did you actually finish the game? Most of the answers are revealed near the end.

Yes I did. The answers may have been revealed, but I didn't understand. Or at best, I may have partially understood. I guess I don't understand science fiction very well

The game explains all of this:

Curtis is an alien replica.

Jocelyn got a gun because that was a mental attack that the Hecatomb used on Curtis and the game made that obvious.

Paul didn't get in the night club. The Hecatomb killed everyone who was murdered.

Curtis' mother knew he wasn't the right one.

This question is inane.

What happens to Curtis is the bad ending? What ending is that? There are two and neither one is worse than the other.

Ending A: Curtis goes back to the other dimension.
Ending B: Curtis stays on Earth. The writer stated in an interview that Curtis isn't going to degrade into some sort of blob or something, he has full control of his form. It was just a weird way of saying "he's never going to be normal and probably still going to be into weird and dark things."

http://anthonylarme.tripod.com/phantas/p2intls.html
Here's an interview with the writer to try and clear up some things.
I can't find the interview that explains Ending B so I can't find the exact quote about it, but that was what was said.


Edit:
Actually, it is in that link. I went back and checked. Here's the quote:

"I think Curtis will always be attracted to the dark side of things, both because of the abuse he suffered at the hands of his human mother, and because he will never really belong in the human world. I think he and Jocilyn would probably stay together, but I don't see him being the best husband around. He may take on a double life yet again, depending on whether or not he wins his inner struggle with good and evil. I could see him going either way - becoming a loving husband and father...or becoming a serial killer. After all, he has all these alien powers that can potentially be lethal. No, he won't mutate. He's got too much control over his form to do that. It's his mind that we have to worry about. As to whether he can have kids with Jocilyn, who knows? That would be sort of a fun plotline, wouldn't it? Little half-alien spawn all over the place!"

If Game's climax needs to be explained, it is proof that the game was not well written.
PHanta 2 is like a Uwe Boll movie, it has a trainwreck fascination because of sheer weirdness, but at what it is trying to do it is a failure.

I think I have to agree with this. I know some of the commenters on Saxcat's LP said they didn't understand it, either. So I know I'm not the only one.

WHAT?! YOU SAID YOU WERE CONFUSED? :)
If you play the game with care and attention, you'll know that Phantasmagoria 2 has a very original and immersive sci-fi story, unfolded with the right pace along chapters.
As many said here already, all the "hints" and "tips" are given along the adventure, so you should be able to understand what's going on when you get, at least, past the middle of the game (50%). And the beauty of this game is that it keeps you in suspense from the start to the end. Ah, and the end is so nice and well conceived. GREAT plot, by the way!

Guess the majority of us here understood the game, which means it was indeed well written. :)

It was around B-movie quality.
What might have led to "confusion" is, the game lacks expositions. Oh, the horror!

A B Rated Movie is being generous.
I've played Phant2... and possibly because I much prefer Phant1...

When I played Phant2... I expected... more... horror. Not... scifi... alien clones....

Should not have been called Phant2. Should have been called something else. Like... Shivers 3.

I personally enjoyed both games! I even still have both of the original game discs that I use to play it.
Phant1 installs and works with no problems.
Phant2 requires a more indirect approach to help it work but eventually it does.
And I play each one regularly just in case I missed something the previous playthrough.

Yeah; because I am a Sierra Addict - I still have both, as well. But only have Phantasmagoria 1 installed (crazy that in this day and age you can install all of these games - even the ones that were on multiple CDs... on an external drive, that has 1TB of space) :D

So true!
I have all the collections of Space Quest, Police Quest,, Kings Quest, Quest for Glory and Gabriel Knight and Leisure Suit Larry.

The more I play it, the more it makes sense I guess. Some things make more sense with replay it seems. For example, at first I couldn't understand why the mom was saying "Give me back my son!" but after you've already played the game that makes sense. Also I had missed some things. Until I watched a Let's Play, I didn't know you could go into the office on day 5 and see that scene with the Hecatomb before Trevor gets murdered and get the code for the door to the room where the Dimension X entrance is. So yeah, it makes more sense with replayability.

But I still don't understand some things. Like on day 3, is Curtis actually in the asylum again or is he hallucinating? And the dimension C part of the game was awful in so many ways.

But the game has a good storyline and up to the Dimension X part it's quite fun. I also like that there are multiple endings