1. Jungle Book (SNES)(Platformer)2. Metal Combat: Falcon's Revenge (SNES)(Light Gun Shooter)3. Might and Magic VI (PC)(RPG)4. Revenant (PC)(RPG)5. Neo Turf Masters (NGPC)(Sports)
6. Fatal Fury: First Contact (NGPC)(Fighter)
7. Pac-Man (NGPC)(Action)8. Golden Axe (Genesis)(Hack and Slash)9. Blood and Bacon (PC)(FPS)
10. Gain Ground (Genesis)(Strategy)11. Flicky (Genesis)(Platformer)12. Zombie Shooter 2 (PC)(Top-Down Shooter)13. Phantasmagoria (PC)(Point and Click)Beating Phantasmagoria as my 13th game this year was unintentional but still fitting.
Phantasmagoria is one of those famous (or infamous) FMV games, developed in the mid-90s at the height of the live actor craze by game designer Roberta Williams for Sierra. While it plays as a point-and-click adventure, the game built upon the horror plot lines that Roberta had tinkered with throughout her career. She actually considers this her favorite of all the games she worked on, and admittedly, there is some pretty incredible stuff here for the medium considering the time.
How does it play? Well, it is a point-and-click, so you'll wander around, finding a few items, and solving puzzles. Often times you're reduced to waving the mouse pointer over the screen to find what you can interact with, though usually objects stand out pretty well. The game is also fairly linear in terms of what you
have to do, but a large portion of the world is open from the first day, and part of the fun of the game is going out and exploring all the little things that you didn't realize were there. There's a lot of hidden stuff in the game that serves to bolster the story, so it almost behooves you to seek it all out, even if it means you're going to witness some unpleasant and gory sights.
To make things easier, the game features some fantastic backgrounds that are obviously computer generated but in a way that is actually rather beautiful if unrealistic. And once you get tired of staring at these backgrounds while your character slowly moves about, there is a useful fast-forward button to help you swiftly navigate around. This is a godsend, and you will want to use it. While the puzzles aren't all mind-numbingly hard, there are some things that have to be done in a specific order, so you can fake yourself out at times. For instance, it took me forever to grab a soup bone in one chapter, despite the large 'FREE' advertisement. I was only able to get it after buying drain cleaner.
As for the plot, it involves a couple purchasing a new home, only for the husband to become accidentally possessed by a demon, who happened to have been released by a magician about a century before. Over time, our heroine learns that the magician grew paranoid, murdered his wives, and eventually succumbed to his own horrors and fears, leading to the demon to be temporarily sealed. It sucks that you screw up and release it, but sometimes that's just life.
Since this is FMV, it's worth noting the acting, which ranges from pretty good to pants on fire awful. Thankfully, the lead actress is actually very good, as are bit players like the shopkeeper, the old man who gives you advice, and the telephone guy. Then there are the stinkers, like the gross and hammy real estate guy. And then there's the outright awful, which is the husband. His maniacal laughter after committing ax murder is pretty much the tip of the iceberg, but I generally found him pretty lacking. There are also a couple of homeless people that you end up hiring as caretakers, and while they add some levity, I'm not entirely sure they were supposed to come off as corny as they did.
Oh, speaking of the homeless mother and son, for some reason they also had the worst time with pixelation. I noticed several times their sprites were of significantly lower quality in scenes. I don't know why that is.
Anyway, this game is also famous for several "adult" moments: a sex scene in the intro, a rape scene halfway through, and then some violent murders and gore sequences towards the end of the game. The gore...well, after watching Tom Savini's work or films by Lucio Fulci, it's not that bad. It is well executed though, particularly the famous face-rip scene. The rape scene is more disturbing, and while the husband does a terrible job of handling things by suddenly going all wide-eyed and weird, it's the lead actress' sobbing afterwards that really serves as a gut punch. That's the only time in the game I felt I needed to get up and walk around for a bit before coming back, because it's intensely uncomfortable, even with the guy trying his best to...do whatever it was he was trying to do. I don't really want to call it 'acting' because that would insult actors. This is followed by our heroine getting dressed but still obviously reeling from what has just been done to her. She makes it believable.
Phantasmagoria is a mixed bag. At times it's goofy, perhaps unintentionally. At other times, it can be violent or even devastating for some people. However, I found myself enjoying it. It's a game that encourages exploration, even when your task is as simple as going to buy drain cleaner. Is it flawed? Yes. But it was still something I'm happy to have experienced.
