Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh

The Good
Well, I haven't played "Phantasmagoria" first part much, but I know that this is one of the games that may look unatractive or unwilling to try, but its bait is more than juicy once you're hooked. Painful experience, but regarding nevertheless. Let's start up with a few facts about the story...

You're playing Curtis Craig, just an ordinary kind of guy who has a job, girlfriend, nice cousy appartment, and a rat. Now, the game starts one year after you've been released from mental institution. You don't remember what actually happened while you were there, or even before that, not as much, but you'll winning your memories back as you'll play throughout the game even more than you'll wish to. Seems like strange things are happening around you, and you seem to be the only one able to see them... and stay alive afterwards. But border between sanity starts to become blur to the point that you question youreself for those horrible deeds. But once murders start to happen, you begin to question a company you work for, and start searching for clues. That's where everything falls on your back.

I'm really a sucker to stories and games that own certain point of confrontation of 'good and evil' within youreself, within your main character, so that's probably the point that attracted me the most... beside the sex scenes, of course, hehehe, just kidding, but they were nicely done nevertheless ;))

I remember playing this game back when it first came out, but I guess I was too young to be able to enjoy something so horrifying, and besides, my thought back then were too different, as I only played shooters or racing games, not anymore, though :) So, when I saw this game, just a few days ago in a local store, I had to take it, plus, it was the last box on the shelves ;))

First thing I spotted was acting. Okay, I know that many reviews, magazines and sited were spittin' upon this game bigtime, but acting in this game was really on a professonal level, or so I've got the impression. Dialogues are interesting, story unfolds very quickly, you can easily notice who are your friend and who aren't, and who wants more than just being a friend. Plus, I checked and noticed that the gal who plays your girlfriend played in quite a few erotic movies, some of them Playboy's, so that's why scenes with her are so well done, hihihi :)

Beside acting and the story, which both suited me very well, only thing I spotted was the music because only by listening to it you could pre-define when will something happen, anyway. A very big plus is that this is 3rd-person point-and-click adventure, my favorite genre ever, so go figure why I liked this game so much. That, and I've learned that people who review games on magazines or such sites, and renowned critics are all a bunch of morons who doesn't care about anything, which is one of the reasons why I never seek an opinion to buy a game in such sources, but rather check MobyGames and some personal opinions from the players. I mean, who can help you the best but a fella player, right?

Oh, one more thing, the graphic. The graphic looked so old and so screwed, I mean, "The Beast Within" was from 1995, and this game is from 1996, so how could they make so crappy quality in newer game? On the other side, I started to like it very soon after I played the game, 'cos it kinda gave me the atmosphere of that year, a certain spark of oldness in a good sense of way. Hey, maybe I was doomed to play in such quality 'cos I only managed to install the game under DOS. But when I finally managed to install it under Windows 98, whow, then it was perfect, hehe, and Sierra is known to make games that do not use DirectX, but are rather windowed in Windowses ;)) That's cool, 'cos you can be on the Internet same time, or writing some text in Word, hehe, I mean, it doesn't focus you solely on the game unless you want it, though :)

Also, this game is really easy, with no hard puzzles at all. Seems like everything's unveiling by itself, though there are some parts that may be tough to guess (some computer codes) due to thing that you must remember some word from way before the point where you'll have to actually use it. But otherwise, this is one easy adventure, more text, less puzzles, and that's simply great!

The Bad
Well, I hate horrors and anything related to such stuff, but in my humble opinion, and good driven story can make a horror game or a movie sink aside, presenting us what we really want - a good compelling story. Though, the atmosphere was intense, but still, they shouldn't use such gruesome elements in such quantity, though, now that I remember, I played it password protected in fully uncensored mode, hehehe.

The Bottom Line
I haven't played such an extraordinary game for months. Beside the fact that I rally enjoy playing adventures with live cast and blue-screen technology, this game without a doubt provides you with fine acting, intriguing story, high levle of atmosphere, tingling music and way too easy interface. But the fact is, it's still somehow more movie than a game itself, so if you, like me, enjoy to watch bunch of FMV scenes and dialogues between characters, you should at least try it, 'cos beneath the horrifying story is hidden another one that will unravel it all.

In general, what this game has to offer is:

The Good
A Puzzle of Flesh surpassed my expectations. Sierra delivers an enticing sci-fi/horror concept with intense and gritty scenes, some fun moments, and at times Hollywood-esque slasher suspense.

Stepping in for Roberta Williams, writer Lorelei Shannon approaches the Phantasmagoria concept with unprecedented (and arguably unsurpassed) maturity. The game's subplots and secondary subject matter are nary seen in today's grittiest movies. Unlike the first game, Shannon doesn't approach the "Mature" rating like a novelty or a crude standard to be pushed for pushing's sake, but rather uses it as license to create dynamic characters who face real problems.

The characters are portrayed in a remarkably lifelike fashion for the FMV subgenre, a style typically plagued by painful F-list performances and zero interactivity. The characters themselves are people you know in real life, not video game caricatures. The interface and puzzles are, by and large, simple and logical, and the game focuses more on main character Curtis Craig's internal problems rather than on exploration and puzzle solving.

The Bad
That said, the puzzles are either brain-numbingly simple or absurdly illogical. The TRUE puzzles, as opposed to other random clicking that results in a cinematic, are few and far between, and about half of them are guessing computer passwords.

For a movie-based game, the locales are visually uninteresting and markedly unatmospheric. While the game's environment is a huge step up from the cheesy computer generated backdrops of the first entry, it doesn't make up for the fact that most of the scenery is recognizable as the hallways and storage closets of a cheap motel. Moreover, there are only about a half dozen locations in the game. This means virtually no exploration and lots of backtracking.

While the characters are pretty intricate, the plot doesn't really unfold; rather, it's revealed through lots of reading of password-protected emails, which really takes the bite out of cinematic reveal.

Just as well, the plot itself is pretty weak. You assume the role of an Average Joe with a troubled past working for a omnitechnoconglomerate that's, surprise surprise, covering up secret and illegal experimentation. A couple people get murdered, and just when a legitimate twist pops up involving the character's self-doubt about his own involvement, he unveils a half-baked paranormal plotline that's not worthy of the 2:00 PM Sci Fi Channel timeslot. Sufficed to say, without spoiling anything, it gets incredibly ludicrous toward the end (or ends, in this case -- you get a choice between two equally unsatisfying story conclusions).

The Bottom Line
A Puzzle of Flesh is a great concept delivered with above-par acting for the genre and gritty maturity. If the main plot were more intricate, the puzzles more involved, and the scenery more visually interesting, Phantasmagoria 2 could have had a place in gaming history as the one that broke the mold and pushed the envelope for content maturity. As it is, it remains a playable made-for-TV movie. Hopefully someone will try to do this again with greater success, but for now A Puzzle of Flesh is a decent adventure game worth a playthrough for fans of the genre. Just don't expect too much.

The Good
To be honest, there's really nothing much about the game that I can say I truly liked. OK, the video was a bit smoother than the original Phantasmagoria. There ... that's it.

The Bad
Let me list the reasons. The film sequences draw from almost every B-Grade horror movie ever made. The acting ... absolutely awful. Did they have to make the disembodied voices sound like Fozzie Bear? Gameplay that largely consists of inane puzzles that really have little to do with advancing the plot in any meaningful way. I never felt any real horror playing the game, except at the thought that I had wasted so much time with it.


The Bottom Line
Think of the worst horror movie you ever saw. Then remove the humour that you usually find in such flicks, and you have Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh.