Roberta Williams' Phantasmagoria

The Good
The video capture was mind-blowing at the time. Pre-render backgrounds were decent, if somewhat out of place with the live-action. The music was fantastic. An original score, featuring a huge choir at many points, created the overall feel of the game.

The Bad
The violence was more disgusting than scary. Scenes of torture-killings detracted from the macabre feeling Williams seemed to be going for. The point and click game design made the game to easy (as did the 'hint master' character). The 7-disc bundle was a red-herring in terms of game length -- multiple disc merely prevent constant switching for the various video sequences.

The Bottom Line
Robert Williams, the creator of the King's Quest Series and designed for Phantasmagoria, promised a game where gaming quality would not be sacrificed to support the new video-capture marvel that would be here new series. Too bad she couldn't deliver. Rather than top rate horror adventure, Sierra gave us a pretty-to-look-at, boring-to-play disaster. The acting was sub-par, the puzzles were insultingly simple for any gamer, and the overall 7-disc experience was over in a matter of hours. Truly the beginning of the end for the Sierra empire.

The Good
Phantasmagoria gave me the chills. I did NOT want to play this game after dark, and one of the movie sequences gave me a nasty nightmare. Granted, this was seven years ago, when I was a bit younger and a fairly novice adventure gamer... but the ability of this game to just suck me into its world has stuck with me for all these years. The music was creepy and appropriate, I loved the attention to detail, and for a video game the acting wasn't too bad. The house in which the game is set has a life of its own. But most impoartantly, this is one of the handful of games which I would THINK about even when I wasn't playing. Like a good creepy novel, I both anticipated and dreaded finding out what would happen next. Immersion in the setting, and immersion in the story... for an incurable escapist like myself, this made Phantasmagoria one of the most memorable games I've played.

I don't know about the rest of the world, but I appreciated the censoring feature... Of course, after watching the censored scenes curiosity got the best of me and I watched ALMOST all of them in the original gory versions as well.... except one. I'll probably never go back and watch that one, and I appreciate the feature being there so that I never have to.

The Bad
The sheer number of disks promised more gameplay time than was delivered, and some of the disks were so short that I became aggravated at having to change CDs so frequently. In most multi-disk games, finishing a disk seems like a relief, gives me a feeling of accomplishment. Finishing the first disk of Phantasmagoria felt good, but after that it just became a pain.

At the time I played the game for the first time, it seemed appropriately difficult. However, going back through a second time after getting a few more adventure games under my belt, I realized that this is a very easy game. Which can be a good thing and a bad thing. It's not necessarily bad to lose yourself in the beautiful atmosphere of a game without having to think too much... but in general, I'd like to be challenged a bit more. I did finish all seven disks in about a week (couldn't tell you how many hours this far after the fact, but it was quick) and wondered at the time if it was worth my $60... But the game shouldn't cost anything NEAR that much now, so have fun for a week!

The Bottom Line
Fun, creepy, intriguing. Unlike any other game I've played. But unfortunately a little short and easy.

The Good
Adrienne Delaney and her husband Donald have justed moved into a large mansion. Adrienne hopes that the gothic setting will help her to write a novel, while Donald is hoping to test his skills as a photographer. Alas, supernatural forces get in the way.

If you played an adventure game before, then you should have no trouble picking up this game's basic mechanics. The player takes control of Adrienne as she interacts with various Nonplayable Characters (NPC) and picks up just about everything that is not nailed down, in order to solve various puzzles.

Gameplay mechanics are simple and user-friendly. The game also looks great. Phantasmagoria takes advantage of the CD-ROM medium to offer up extensive Full Motion Video.

Thanks to Blue Screen technology and CGI, the game's characters and locations are certainly more realistic then adventure games designed with traditional, cartoon-style graphics. What about the atmosphere and the overall story?

Well, you will certainly feel alone in the mansion. The loneliness is helped by the fact that Donald is noticeably absent, only to become steadily more erratic and violent as the game progresses.

As the story unfolds, you learn that the mansion is indeed haunted, with the past lives of its former residents weaving a tangled web of jealousy, betrayal, murder and demonic meddling.

This game is certainly not for children or people who get offended easily. By the time you complete the game, you will have seen quite a bit of blood, gore and what can only be described as extreme domestic abuse.

This last point is one reason why the game is controversial. The main antagonist had a nasty habit of abusing and eventually murdering his wives.

The heroine in the game becomes the victim of domestic abuse herself through her husband. The most infamous scene is where the heroine is essentially raped by her husband.

I think that the intention was to deal with the problem of domestic abuse without being exploitative. It succeeds in doing so, mostly.

The Bad
Phantasmagoria is a game that has not aged particularly well. The graphics will not impress modern gamers, and, even by the standards of 1996, the quality of the Full Motion Video is sometimes medicore.

One of the NPCs in the game is developmentally disabled, and it's cringy to watch. Even though I suspect the designers felt that they were being progressive for featuring a disabled character.

Domestic abuse is a serious social problem and while I commend the designers of the game for wanting to deal with real-life problems, it's cringy to watch.

Especially when you consider the fact that after the heroine is raped by her own husband, she does not respond like a person that was abused in such a manner.

She does not call the police and she seems more annoyed and shocked about the rape than anything else.

Last, but not least, is one of those adventure games where it is possible to make the game unwinnable. In the last chapter of the game, if you fail to collect one of two religious artifacts, you will not be able to defeat the final boss.

This can be frustrating because the game does not make it clear that you need one of these artifacts and, near the end of the game you cannot go back and pick up one of these items. So, after playing the game for several hours, you may find yourself unable to complete the game because you are missing one item.

If you do beat the game, you are treated to a fairly short ending. Frankly, I was really expecting a better ending. It ends up a rather depressing note too.

The Bottom Line
Phantasmagoria is a classic Sierra adventure game that combines Full Motion Video with Survival Horror elements.