Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh

aka: Phantasmagoria 2, Phantasmagoria 2: A Puzzle of Flesh, Phantasmagoria : Obsessions fatales, Phantasmagoria: Labor des Grauens, Phantasmagoria: Um Enigma de Sangue
Moby ID: 1216
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Description official descriptions

Curtis Craig is a thirty-year-old man whose distorted childhood is filled with horrors. His father was involved in an illegal, top-secret experiment for a company called WynTech Industries. Nearly nothing is known about the true nature of this experiment; but something in it affected the sanity of Curtis' mother, eventually driving her to suicide. Curtis' father was later shot, leaving the poor little boy with serious behavioural disturbances, and eventually in therapy.

Now, a year after having been released from the mental institution, Curtis is employed at WynTech Industries, whose manager, Paul Warner, has seemingly taken it upon himself to take care of Curtis. He tries to find the cause of his psychotic episodes and the mysterious murders that break out all around him, all the while discovering more and more about his past life and his father's fate.

Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh is not an actual sequel to the original Phantasmagoria, but rather a follow-up that has similar themes and visual concept. The game is more heavy on puzzles and traditional adventure gameplay than its predecessor. The gameplay involves standard activities found in adventure games, including extended conversations with the characters featuring selectable dialogue topics, collecting and manipulating inventory items with the environment, etc. It is possible (and often necessary) to call characters on the phone, as well as check and answer e-mails accessed by Curtis' computer at his workplace.

Like its predecessor, the game has a simple point-and-click interface and employs video sequences with live actors as cutscenes. Short movies are usually shown after each action performed by the protagonist.

Spellings

  • 幽魂 2 - Taiwanese spelling

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Credits (DOS version)

164 People (105 developers, 59 thanks) · View all

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[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 65% (based on 27 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 78 ratings with 10 reviews)

The Interative Adult Horror Game...Kinda

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.

Windows · by Tom Jefferson (2) · 2010

Where Insanity Becomes Normality

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:

  • very fine acting
  • nice backgroundish music
  • some really gruesome scenes, which you may be able to skip by playing at 'low' level
  • intense atmosphere with unexpected events
  • somewhat low quality FMV, comparing to "TBW" which is even older game
  • very easy way of playing which will make you think you're selecting movie chapters rather than playing
  • short endings, but that's why there are two of them, anyway And for final to say, this game sure had some points that caught me unready, but that's why it's rated 'mature', isn't it? ;)) So, be prepared to be frightened a bit more than in ordinary adventure games. The risk is all yours... but I think it was worth it.
  • DOS · by MAT (240759) · 2012

    Murder! Bisexuality! Kinky Sex! A Talking Rat! and Office Politics!

    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".

    Windows · by ETJB (428) · 2021

    [ View all 10 player reviews ]

    Trivia

    Australian version

    The Australian version of Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh suffered the same fate as Duke Nukem 3D: The censorship feature is turned on permanently.

    German index

    On March 31, 1998, Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh was put on the infamous German index by the BPjS. For more information about what this means and to see a list of games sharing the same fate, take a look here: BPjS/BPjM indexed games.

    German version

    In the German version, one video with Therese at the water tank is missing. The game shows the scene in which Curtis drinks water twice instead. There is also a slight difference during another scene in Therese's cubicle.

    Phantasmagoria

    The only connection between Phantasmagoria and this game is that at the beginning of Act 3, Curtis receives a letter about a book signing by Adrienne Delaney, the main character in Phantasmagoria. It is impossible to meet Adrienne, however.

    UK version

    In the UK version, the videos of Bob's and Therese's deaths are based on the "low violence" game setting by default. They are also some additional cuts during the scenes.

    Video

    The Windows version of Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh displays 16-bit videos, while the DOS-edition can show only 256-colors.

    Sexual content

    If you are able to play an uncensored edition of the game, be prepared for a fair share of sexual content, which, at least at the time, was pretty taboo for the gaming industry:

    Curtis has sex with both of his female coworkers, one of which is into S&M and invites Curtis to a S&M techno-nightclub. In therapy, Curtis confronts his gender identity issues, his mother forcing him to wear a dress, and his romantic feelings for his gay best friend.

    Information also contributed by Ajan, B14ck W01f, Virgil and Xoleras

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    • MobyGames ID: 1216
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    Are you familiar with this game? Help document and preserve this entry in video game history! If your contribution is approved, you will earn points and be credited as a contributor.

    Contributors to this Entry

    Game added by Derrick 'Knight' Steele.

    DOS added by MAT.

    Additional contributors: Tomer Gabel, MAT, Jeanne, chirinea, Daniel Albu, Sciere, Xoleras, Paulus18950, ETJB, Patrick Bregger, Maner76, Shamal Jifan.

    Game added March 28, 2000. Last modified January 23, 2024.