Having recently played this game as well as its prequel, I must say that both games are perfect examples as to why the whole FMV "interactive movie" craze of the mid-90s died out almost as quickly as it came. It's like watching a Bollywood movie where you have to click from one badly acted cutscene to the next. To even consider this an adventure game is almost a stretch. Most adventure games have a variety of logic puzzles to keep the player occupied. This game's puzzles are almost nonexistent, and when they are there they're usually based off of really vague (and I mean REALLY vague) clues that you hear maybe once throughout the game. For example, there's one point in the game where you are locked out of your computer system by your not-so-nice coworker Bob, and you have to insert the right word to get back in. Are there any real clues laying around the office? No, of course not. That'd make too much sense. Instead, all you have to go off of is a single word uttered by Bob during one of the game's many cutscenes. What's worse, there are a couple of "puzzles" (and I use the term very lightly here) at the end of the game that involve combining random objects that you would never EVER think to combine, and even then if you do the wrong combination you're dead. The game's storyline appears to me an attempt by the game creators to throw together as many overly controversial subjects as they possibly could. I guess they didn't get enough attention from the media from that fully-clothed rape scene from the first game? This game has references to homosexuality, bondage, and S&M among other things, and contains a fair bit of violence. I must say, however, that the level of violence doesn't quite top some of the death sequences from the first game. Still, the story is lackluster and often borders on nonsensical. If you're looking for a real adventure game, look elsewhere. Much like the original Phantasmagoria, I think it's worth the time just for the sake of pure amusement, so if you're in the mood for playing a game-- I mean, interactive movie-- that is so bad that it's funny, perhaps maybe this might be a good game to pick up.
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.
Waxworks is a first person point and click adventure game made by Horrorsoft, known also for the Elvira: Mistress of the Dark games, which are cited as spiritual prequels to this game. As such, the gameplay and graphical style (right up to the grotesque death scenes) is quite similar to the two Elvira games. However, there have been many, many improvements in this game that puts it miles ahead of the Elvira series. For one, the addition of keyboard controls in this game make navigating the mazes much easier than in previous incarnations, where you were forced to use the mouse controls almost exclusively. In addition, the gameplay itself is much smoother and less prone to totally unavoidable deaths. In previous games, there are numerous times where just walking down an unmarked hallway would result in death, whereas for the most part there are marked traps that can be avoided. That is not to say that dying is not an issue here; you WILL die a lot in this game. So much so that you'll probably have to stop and save every few minutes so that you don't lose your progress. As far as general gameplay progression is concerned, it's much more streamlined and your objectives are, for the most part, pretty clear. You're going to run into a lot of items in this game, but when it comes time to actually use them, it's pretty clear exactly what items need to be used when, something the previous titles hadn't quite gotten right. None of the puzzles require needless amounts of trial and error, and don't suffer from "try using *insert random item here* and see if that does something" syndrome like many adventure games do. That is not to say, however, that the game is perfect. One major nitpick is the cumbersome combat system that was implemented in this game. While an improvement over previous titles, it still leaves much to be desired. Battles are still very much hit or miss, and often times you'll find yourself having to reload your last save file because you missed one too many times. Luckily combat is only majorly emphasized during one portion of the game, and is an afterthought during the rest. The way combat usually goes during each portion of the game is that you'll find yourself getting killed a lot early on in a level, only to find yourself overpowered and killing enemies in one hit after a bit of exploring. The worst flaw, and one that keeps the game from excelling, is that there are many ways to actually break the game in such a way that it prevents further progress throughout the game. I actually had to restart entire levels over again (after having spent a good hour or two playing through them the first time) just because something happened (unbeknown to me) that blocked me from going any further. For example, there is one level in which you are traversing a mine overrun by plant-like aliens. Among the many traps, there is a runaway mine cart that you have to stop by dropping a wooden support beam in its tracks. If you don't know that you're supposed to stop to cart and instead run out of its path, the cart will stop at the end of the track, which just so happens to be blocking off the only way out of the mine. In addition to that, if you drop the support beam in the wrong spot, it could possibly block off another hallway, with no way to get around. There are several game-breaking moments throughout the game, and it will happen without warning and often you'll find yourself wandering around not even knowing that there's no way to progress. If it weren't for the above flaws, this game would have definitely gotten a much higher score from me. It's an immersive and interesting game marred by a cumbersome combat system and a few game-breaking errors. Pick it up if you're willing to look past its flaws, you'll find it's actually pretty good.
