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Disappointing

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 15
Date: November 11, 1999
Author: Amazon User

I expected more from the master Roberta Williams. Phantasmagoria was a disappointing exercise, a boring game limited rather than helped by its FMV graphics. The game actually began pretty well, but the introduction of two useless and annoying characters in the middle of the story, and a lack of interesting game play twists killed all interest I had. Only one chapter through the sequel, Puzzle of Flesh, and I was bored out of my mind. The characters were not believable, and the plot dull and lifeless.

Waste of an afternoon

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 7
Date: April 25, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This game took me only a few hours to go through. I found it disappointingly simple. I could easily figure out what was going on and what I needed to do. I found Myst more challenging. Save your money.

Short and Simple

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 19, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This was my first experience in games of this genre, and I'm rather disappointed (I'm more of a fan of the likes of Ultima, Homeworld). In both P1 and P2 the story lines are exciting, but the overall puzzles presented are rather simple. The control panel in P2 was the most difficult, and it was more annoying rather than challenging. The interface also makes for a rather liniar, simplistic game. My greatest complaint, however, is the time it takes to complete the games. Each game took less than 10 hours to complete, and they have absolutely no replay value. Perhaps a newer game in this genre would be more satisfying (Blood of the Sacred..., et. al.)

I returned the game to Sierra, and got my money back.

HELP

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 12
Date: May 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I ORDERED IT MAY 3rd AND NOW ITS MAY 13th AND I HAVENT GOT IT YET WHAT HAPPENED?

Doesn't live up to its expectations...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: June 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I am a huge fan of Roberta Williams, her King's Quest games have offered me hours of entertainment since I was about 9 years old. When I heard that she was taking on a more "adult" project featuring real actors and a gripping, horror-based storyline, I was more than excited. However, I received nothing but disappointment.

The graphics in this game are most impressive (considering the time that the game was created). They feature real actors who are placed in front of a blue screen with a cartoon-ish backround and props projected behind them. This gives the game a fairly realistic effect although at times the actors look so out of place in front of their backrounds that the occuring event is everything but real.

As far as the acting goes..it's about what you'd expect from a game which resembles a B horror movie. Most of the acting is barely believeable (although Adrienne, the main character, is not horrible) and the characters themselves are most annoying.

The story was just awful...cliched and robbed to the core, I found absolutely everything in this game to be entirely predictable. It focuses around a couple, Don and Adrienne, who move into a huge, spooky house on an island. The house was owned by a creepy count named Carno and it is said to be haunted. All of the islanders are afraid of the house and none of them are too keen on talking about it (with the exception of one eager old woman who serves as the "revelation of the evil within" source seen in all movies of this sort). The story proceeds just as you would predict. Without giving anything away I'll just tell you that Adrienne discovers ghosts, secret rooms, and a demon which has been wreaking havoc on the house for years. It borrows heavily from Stephen King's "The Shining" (as in..the house turns the husband into a raving psychopath). For anyone who is not too familiar with the horror genre, Phantasmagoria may provide a few hours of good story. To fans of classic horror movies and games, Phantasmagoria will become stale before the end of chapter three.

This brings me to the gameplay. The game itself is divided into 7 chapters (each chapter contained entirely on its respective disk). While this may seem as though it allows for a massive game, it must be said that each chapter can be completed in a quick half hour, even by the most inexperienced of adventure gamers. The puzzles that each chapter requires you to solve are completely lacking in challenge. They are solved by the use of obvious items in Adrienne's inventory and no logical thought is necessary. There was actually a chapter in the game which focused entirely on buying a bottle of Dran-O from the village general store and returning it to your husband. Yes - that's it. Later - a puzzle comes up where the very item you need can be found a single screen below and it is not hidden in the very least.

To fans of blood and gore - this game may serve as an enjoyable "shockfest". There is more than one moment of senseless violence which is not limited to beheading, faces being ripped open, and the funneling of human body parts down a woman's throat. For those too squeamish to even imagine such things, the gore can easily be censored with an in-game option requiring the entry of a password (to protect the little ones' virgin eyes).

Overall, Phantasmagoria lacks in every area required to make an adventure game reach "classic" status. The story is predictable, the gameplay simple and stale, and the characters annoying. For huge fans of senseless violence and B-movie horror plots, this may serve as some sort of "cult classic" piece. All others, don't waste your money.

Now if only it loaded cleanly...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: June 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I remember staying up for a month playing these games when they first came out... They were just that fun. To those who would nay-say, let me give you some advice: work yourself to the point where you're nearly passing out from lack of sleep, grab a cup of coffee, and start playing P2. When the little rodent starts talking to you from nowhere, tell me you don't jump out of your skin and I just may have to call you a liar. Then again... It has been years since I last played. :) My only complaint with this set was that I had an extremely difficult time getting the game to run on my (apparently) too buff system... DX9 and P1/2 just don't like each other.

Good puzzles, but FAR too gory

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 17, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This series has a lot to offer, but the clever puzzles, interesting interface, and almost good enough writing aren't quite enough to make up for the really overdone and hideous (and not particularly logical) violence. P1 also bears the burden of aiming all the violence towards women, most of whom are mindlessly chirpy and submissive. P2 is more blatant and just celebrates gore as an end in itself. Unless you're a fan of the "blood & guts/woman in peril/shock me baby" genre, you're not likely to be enchanted by the series.

Lovecraft stylistics with King's idleness

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Honestly, I was disappointed by the game.
The 7 CD pack goes away in less than 3 hours and so vanish the money and all hopes for a week's creep show.
The game lacks the least amount of imagination which would fill in the first 4 CDs of an average perfomance. But the laziness of Roberta Williams was evidently packed up by plenty of running around the castle and 4 houses of the nearest village.
Despite the miss in scenario, I would suggest running through the game for 2 basic reasons: to enjoy one of the rare samples of a plain storytelling computer implementation, and... to have your friends freak with a ravenous story-ending.

Trashy - but very enjoyable

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: August 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

These are two rather [weak] but very enjoyable games - here is a review of each one.

Phantasmagoria is a rather basic interactive movie/graphic adventure in which you play Adrienne Delaney who moves into an old mansion estate with her husband Don Gordon. She then learns of the estates twisted past and Don becomes increasingly abusive toward her.

The interface is basic - you click around the screen, examining objects, which may be put into your inventory to use later by clicking on them in your inventory which makes the object your cursor to use etc.

The graphics are live action actors on a 3d background, are mostly quite grainy but not bad for 1995.

The soundtrack is amazing, some fabulous orchestral scores. Fantastic.

The game is very graphically violent, but there is a censorship option.
The first three chapters leaves you wondering why the game is rated Mature however the next three chapters your questions are answered as everything Adrienne researched in the latter chapters is now seen. Some scenes in the game are truly [strange] and disturbing and by the last chapter you start feeling very nauseated, especially if you do it the hard way.

The only annoying things about Phantasmagoria are that it's to short and easy. The first time you play, you can finish it in six to eight hours, but it's worth playing again because there are plenty of movie scenes and a few "Easter eggs" you can miss the first time round. The second time you play if you know exactly what your doing and view everything there is to see you can finish it in four hours fifteen minutes.

Overall great game deserves its mature rating - recommended.

Phantasmagoria: A puzzle of flesh is also a rather basic interactive movie/graphic adventure in which you play ex-mental patient Curtis Craig who's been out of the mental hospital for exactly one year; he now has a good job and a great girlfriend.
However now he begins to have hallucinations, first an invisible hand punches him at his desk and his rat begins to talk to him. Then one of his co-workers is brutally murdered and all evidence points to him. Playing as Curtis you must set out to prove his innocence and unravel the mysteries of the company you work for.
Meanwhile you're cheating on your girlfriend with hot S&M babe Therese. Sounds [weak]- it is, but it is also very enjoyable, however not so much as the original because it's not as scary.

The interface is pretty basic. You click on highlighted hot spots, which will more often than not trigger a movie sequence. You can collect objects and click on them, which will then make the object, become your cursor, which enables you to use them in the game environment, examine with the eye icon, etc, etc.

The puzzles are also pretty basic, apart from a few password cracking puzzles which are mainly difficult because you don't know when you're supposed to crack each one within the game.

The graphics are your usual pixelated movie sequences and unmoving back grounds however in high colour it's better quality than most games of its type.

The game like the original is very graphically violent however there is a censorship option, which will cut four of the most violent scenes and three of the [physical ones].

As I said this isn't as scary as the original but there are a few jumpy moments, a disturbing mental hospital scene and a gory, disturbing murder scene, which I found scary.

There is a fair bit of replay value mainly for the sheer heck of it because it was so enjoyable the first time but also because there is a whole "Easter egg" system in which you can click around "unclickable" places etc to trigger funny movies and weird things like Curtis picking his nose which is a laugh, you can also get scored on the Easter eggs you find. However unlike the original you will see almost everything the first time you play.

It can be finished for the first time in about eight to ten hours - a bit more if your really bad at puzzle solving. The second time you play, if you know exactly what your doing it can be finished in approximately five hours so it is a slight improvement on length than the original even though its only on five CD's while the original was seven. If you want to find all the "Easter eggs" however it could take you forever - you will need a guide.

There is also a fair bit of humour in this one, mostly coming from Curtis' mate Trevor, who cracked me up. There was a lot of great one liners and jokes coming from him which was refreshing because in the original there was next to no humour at all.

Overall despite the bad ratings this game got I found it to be very enjoyable and am sad to say I have replayed it several times, but it definitely deserves its mature rating!

To sum up two great genuinely scary games which you'll want to play again and again.

Great game w/ good acting and cool graphics

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: August 07, 2000
Author: Amazon User

the only problem was the story was a tiny bit hard to follow till you think it over after you beat it and the ending wasnt at good as it could have been but this game is great wait wondering which game im talkin about in this set lol? im talkin about number 2 a puzzle of flesh i havent gotten to play my copy of number 1 yet hehe.the game is great curtis craig is the man and this game rocks go get it if you can still find it! extremley gory and scarey!

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