Posted on: February 12, 2010

AgentSpork

Jeux: 130 Avis: 3

Seriously flawed.

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.

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Posted on: March 14, 2010

malkav11

Jeux: 507 Avis: 6

Avoid

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.

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Posted on: May 5, 2025

Samuelkos

Possesseur vérifié

Jeux: 16 Avis: 3

Skip it

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

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Posted on: February 11, 2010

akg1486

Jeux: 51 Avis: 4

Experiment that paid off later

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.

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Posted on: June 4, 2015

Hanglyman

Possesseur vérifié

Jeux: 444 Avis: 141

A Significant Game, But Not A Fun One

Phantasmagoria is certainly a historically important game- one of the first FMV games, one of the first really big games spanning multiple CDs, one of the first to feature adult themes and explicit gore. But that doesn't make it a good game. The graphics are ugly and terribly fake, not blending at all with the live action parts. The characters inexplicably never change their clothes even though days pass. The acting is bad, really, REALLY bad, to the point where it's almost so bad it's good. The plot is convoluted yet cliche at the same time. The gameplay is a mess, and it's the sort of game where you wander back and forth hoping to trigger something rather than actually working towards a goal. The entire game seems to go out of its way to portray the main character as a very weak, helpless victim, powerless against her possessed husband and any other dangers she encounters- while this might be a way of building suspense, depending on your point of view, I found it frustrating and slightly offensive, and it gave the whole game an uncomfortable aura. I guess that could be considered a plus for some, but for me, it wasn't. So what's good about it? Aside from the entertainingly bad acting (I'm thinking of the lady in the gnome hat in particular), there's a reason this game is known for gore. While most of the game's gore is surprisingly tame, the death scenes at the very end are mind-blowingly graphic and merciless, far worse than even the majority of horror movies at the time, or possibly even today. It's actually very jarring and uncomfortable to go through the entire game with this character, only to be suddenly and brutally reminded that she's, well, made of meat. That sudden shock is probably the most effective thing in the game (and, given the game's time limit in the end, you're likely to see it several times), but not worth struggling through the rest of the story to experience. Better to just find it on YouTube if you want to see what made the game famous.

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