Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh

The Good
For those people to young to remember, it was not too long ago that computer games were made on floppy disks and video games were made on cartridges.

The CD-ROM revolution slowly, and with plenty of goofs and pitfalls, forever changed both industries because CDs and DVDs can store much more programming then a disk or cartridge and still be profitable for the software developer or published.

One of the first major differences was that CD based games could now have full motion video or even CGI animated sequences.

It did not take long before a slew of games attempted to bring the, mostly, computer world of adventure gaming into this new age.
Characters would be brought to life with voice actors, in environments that reflected the CD storage capacity.

Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of the Flesh was one of the more daring and ambitious projects to combine full video and CGI graphics with the traditional 'point n' click' graphic adventure games. Technically, the game is a masterpiece with the game environment brought to life with B-minus actors, full motion video, digital images and even some CGI animation.

The story itself is also groundbreaking for a computer game. It beautifully weaves together dark horror and science fiction elements with something taken out of “The Office” and tosses in a soap opera love triangle, kinky S&M nightlife and an identity crisis to boot.

The Bad
Yup, this computer game was taking us to a more ‘adult’ and ‘realistic’ environment then had been possible prior to the CD-ROM revolution. However, it was not without its minor and rather huge faults.

The difficulty level involved with the puzzles was uneven. Most were pretty easy except for illogical limitations, i.e. you can only open mail in your apartment’s living room. Other puzzles were nothing more engaging in a series of conversations with your co-workers.

Yes, the co-workers are certainly an interesting bunch of people. You have your two girl friends, the overweight office bully, the gay best friend, the friendly supervisor and the totally insane and corrupt boss. There are plenty more characters to interact with, but it can get a bit tedious talking to the same people all over and over just to get little bits of information or to help move the story along.

On the flip side, some of the puzzles are too hard. I am thinking of two in particular; one involving a seemingly simply tool chest and the other, near the end of the game, can only be solved by sheer dumb luck or reading a walkthrough online.


The Bottom Line
Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh demonstrates a tremendous amount of ambition and it shows.

The graphics and sound are amazing, the storyline is, for the most part, engaging and the game shows a real desire to appeal to an older demographic with its graphic violence, blood and gore, workplace puzzles, soap opera love affairs, mental illness, gender identity, gay best friends and a wild techno S&M nightclub.

It would have been nicer if some of the puzzles were a better developed, if some of the lines were a bit less corny and if their was more exploration possible.

The Good
Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh is a FMV (Full-Motion Video) adventure game that puts the "graphic" in the graphic adventure game genre.

Much like the first Phantasmagoria game, this game is set in the same universe but is not a direct sequel, the player bears witness to a mid-1990s environment awash in a digital sea of mature content.

The player takes control of a 30-something office nerd, who works for the same shadowy corporation as his late father, as his average workday becomes tainted with graphic violence, blood & gore, multiple murders, mental illness, romance, bisexuality, kinky S&M sex and even a bit of gender identity confusion tossed in for good measure. Suffice it to say, this game earns its "Mature" (17+) classification rating.

Progress in the game requires the player to travel to various locations, interact with various people and collect numerous items needed to solve an assortment of point and click, puzzles.

Fans of say, the Kings Quest franchise (a much more family friendly adventure game series by Roberta Williams) will quickly pick up the game play mechanics and the quality of the FMV was quite impressive for a video game at that time.

The story smoothly combines science fiction and horror elements that fans of of the genre will be familiar with. If you watched the X-Files and read Stephen King novels in the 1990s, then this game's story should hit many familiar notes.

The Bad
Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle Of The Flesh can take awhile to get going, storywise. Much of the initial game play involves you doing office work and chatting with coworkers (in person and on the phone). Gamers without patience may have a hard time getting to the more adult sci-fi/horror elements in the game.

The quality of the game's puzzles is also very uneven. Either the puzzles you encounter are too easy, or (near the game's end) so incredibly difficult that you will probably have to read a playthrough to get past.

Last, but not least, the technology used to create the FMV and 3D inventory images has not aged well. It looks better then the first Phantasmagoria game, and again, was quite ambitious for the mid-1990s, but some of the impact of the game may be lost to gamers used to the next generation gaming hardware capabilities.

The Bottom Line
Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh is an ambitious point and click, graphic adventure game from the fine folks of Sierra On-Line. Think King's Quest, if the quest involved used FMV and featured a serial killer and an actual S&M nightclub. Does the ambition pay off? Well, mostly.

If you can accept that the game's storyline starts off slow, the game's puzzles have no middle ground when it comes to difficulty and yes, the FMV and 3D graphics are a product of their time, then Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle Of The Flesh will be worth your time.

If nothing else, playthrough the game just to enjoy the B-minus acting, the gory details, the frank sexuality, the water cooler conversations and a talking pet rat name, "Blob".

The Good
Sierra was one of the major players for graphic adventure games and as computer games slowly moved over to a CD-ROM format, companies became to toy around with game environments that featured full motion video, digitial sound and images and a cast of real actors, some of which were more famous then others. For its day, this game has an impressive budget, a high degree of interactivity, an impressive storyline, decent acting and a willingness to dive into some taboo subject matter; i.e. mental illness, child abuse, kinky S&M sex, gender identity issues and, yes, even some bisexuality.

The Bad
The use of full motion video meant lots of CDs and that the programmers had to limit what you could interact with. Puzzles range from the mundane (talking to people over and over) to the incredibly and unjustly hard or illogical (trying to open mail or a tool box or one of the last puzzles in the game). The acting is, even at its best, average (providing some unintentional humor). At times the horror-science fiction storyline does not always seem to make sense and much of the 'adult' content is actually pretty tame.

The Bottom Line
Graphic adventure games are not as popular as they once were, and this game -- while groundbreaking in so many ways -- is not without its flaws and spoof-worthy jabs. It will probably be difficult to run on a modern pc and even then, it might be best to simply enjoy the walkthrough spoof on youtube.