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.