Roberta Williams, creator of the fairly well-known King’s Quest series, set out to make a truly terrifying experience in her graphic adventure Phantasmagoria. The idea was to innovate the point and click genre with multiple solutions to puzzles while at the same time frightening the player with gruesome imagery in the form of CG scenes and Full Motion Video movies. However, what was supposed to be an awesome PC adventure for the ages turned out to be an interactive horror movie with a few watered down graphic adventure elements tossed in.

Throughout the game’s seven chapters, you’ll take the role of a successful writer named Adrienne. She and her loving husband, Don, recently moved into a creepy, old mansion. Adrienne doesn’t really like the place, but Don can’t get over the bargain he landed. Of course, that bargain may have something to do with the fact that all the townspeople claim the house is haunted. Well, one day Adrienne stumbles upon a spooky chapel hidden behind a wall and releases “something” from a box. Coincidentally, Don goes from lover to violent jackass the next day. Gradually more and more is revealed about the history of the mansion and what could have happened to Don. Most of the game is build up for the climatic final chapter, but there are still plenty of chances to add creepiness into the mix.

Phantasmagoria can be pretty freaky at times. You’ll notice subtle changes to spook you like objects missing, bizarre messages appearing on your laptop, or a fortune telling machine that plays eerier music as the game progresses. Other times the game will be more clear in its scare tactics. As Adrienne walks down into the dank basement of the building, she can hear someone sobbing loudly. You’ll keep exploring and hearing the crying until you find a rusty pair of shackles in some sort of caged area. Just the thought of what could have been done here gives you the chills. Or then there’s the unforgettable seance scene where an old lady vomits green slime that ends up talking to you - uuugh! Adrienne will also be the recipient of several gruesome visions of the past master of the house. She’ll fiddle around with some decrepit tools in the broken down green house only to be transported to the sight of a man shoving a garden trowel down his wife’s throat. Or you’ll look into some old flip book device and unexpectedly witness a someone set ablaze. But none of those gory scenes match up to death scene when Adrienne’s head is split in two from some nasty claws that scrape away her flesh. And remember, this is FMV meaning it’s done with live actors! Is your stomach churning yet? But probably the rape scene was the most controversial of all. Even if it’s incredibly phony in that Adrienne's nightgown is lifted up for the wicked act only to fall back down right before the primitive “grinding” occurs, this brief clip got the game in some big trouble.

But one thing I love about the story is that it finds time to break up the spooky atmosphere with comic relief. Most will come from the two reoccurring comedic characters, Cyrus and Harriet. The former is a big lug with the heart of a child and speaks with a goofy, soft southern accent. But you just have to love Harriet with her pointy lawn gnome hat and excellent introductory scene. After Cyrus begs Adrienne to come to the barn, we find Harriet stuck in a hole on top of the small stable area. Her legs can been seen dangling as she screams, “HELP! HELP! THIS HURTS!” in a whiney voice. After helping her, she claims she’d make a great housekeeper while using her hand as a tissue. Now that’s hilarious! There are other smaller scenes of humor too such as the fat real estate agent that after being proven wrong exclaims, “So sue me!”

But in all honesty, the acting could have been better. I mean, you will find the story sequences charming and spooky, but that doesn’t veil that these people really can’t act. Adrienne seems to deliver her lines with a puzzled emotion no matter what she says, and this is pretty bad considering you’ll be spending all your time with her. The rest of the cast tends to be on the same level, but their lack of scenes when compared to Adrienne makes it less apparent. On a side note, that laugh Don’s actor makes at the end of chapter six is the worst sound in the world. I can’t believe people complain about the Tidus and Yuna laugh scene in Final Fantasy X after witnessing a man create that. Maybe the alleged $4 million budget was blown on the countless hours of filming or the gore effects, but Sierra really could have found better actors (see The Beast Within).

Unfortunately during all these interesting story scenes, there isn’t much gameplay going on. The point and click interface of the average graphic adventure has been watered down and over simplified for the game. Rather than having commands like Look, Pick Up, Open, or Talk, we’re given just a simple cursor that turns red when a object can be interacted with. So then most of the time you’ll find yourself wandering around the area and moving your cursor to just find something to look at. While this may not sound so bad, it does get pretty annoying as the screens are overstuffed, only a handful of junk per room can trigger a scene, and very few items are important enough to even bother with. For whatever reason, someone decided it’d be a great idea to ditch more important gameplay and packed in tons of useless FMV onto the seven discs. These include stupid actions like putting on make-up, eating something from the refrigerator, sitting on a couch, or turning a door knob six times before finally saying, “Ugh! It’s locked.” Six times! Well, in Adrienne’s defense she does at one point turn a door knob three times before opening it, so she can’t be too smart. And we won’t go into when she randomly decides to break a hole in the wall.

Hopefully you’ll just hit that skip button on those unnecessary scenes and find your way to the actual puzzles. The only problem here is that there aren’t many and they’re pretty easy. For example, you find a telescope lens on the road. On the next screen there’s a telescope, and you just know it’s missing a lens before even looking. Phantasmagoria also boasts multiple ways to solving puzzles, but it’s not interesting. At one point you need a holy symbol. You can either get a cross or rosary beads. The latter are fairly easy to find, but the cross requires you to go into town and trade in an antique pin before knowing that you even need a holy symbol. Or earlier you find a key jammed in the other side of a locked door. You can either put a newspaper under the door, poke the key out and slide the paper with the key towards you or poke the key out and use a fireplace poker, which you’ll be guaranteed to have by then, to grab the key. What’s the point? Unlike most graphic adventures, this one doesn’t have a score, so it’s not like you can earn more points doing it the hard way. It’s just a waste that they actually recorded extra footage for Adrienne to use multiple items on the same puzzles. That was precious disc space that could have been used for more puzzles!

Even with the effortless puzzles and waste, the biggest insult has to be the Hint Master lurking at the bottom left corner of the screen. Simply clicking on this crimson skull gives you painfully obvious clues to already unchallenging puzzles. These hints include lines like, “There’s a useful tool in the dinning room” or “There’s something different in the conservatory.” The game warns you not to call for the Hint Master’s help too often or you’ll spoil the game, but I think it’s a little too late for that.

Luckily there is light at the end of the tunnel. The final chapter simply rocks. The entire thing is so go!@#$! fast-paced with one pissed off demon out for blood. The great thing is that you’re in control the entire time. You don’t just watch Adrienne save her own hide; you have to guide her. I mean, if you’re watching a bunch of horny teenagers be mowed down by a man with a machete while you’re on the couch eating popcorn, you’re in no control and you won’t get the same feeling. In this last chapter of Phantasmagoria, you’ll feel obligated to help out Adrienne. It’s the control over this character that makes you begin to sweat as the slimy beast slowly comes to kill you. You’ll be nervous knowing that you have to stop it. While all I was really doing is pointing and clicking, I couldn’t help but feel satisfied by the finale.

With all these FMV footage, you have to remember something. Back in 1995, this was pure unmatched beauty. Because of the graphical appeal, Phantasmagoria’s secondary goal after telling a horror story was to bedazzle the gamer with exquisite visuals. This is why we lost puzzles to pointless scenes like petting a dog or a cranky old man scrubbing his boat. We’re supposed to be in awe at the FMV accompanied by the computer generation backgrounds. While a bit grainy, you really can’t get much better with FMV. The backgrounds themselves are simply beautiful, but unfortunately lack animation (we’re talkin’ none). But when you put them together, it’s pretty ridiculous. Essentially Sierra shot footage of actors and then pasted them on backgrounds. The results make the FMV look jittery and sometimes you’ll notice problems when characters are interacting with objects that aren’t really there. It looked great then, but now it’s outdated; especially the horrendous midi format music that tries to be atmospheric music. It’s just pitiful.

All in all Phantasmagoria was a horror movie that entangled you with its slow build up and explosive final chapter. But that doesn’t really mean you’ll want to trudge through the game itself. The watered down graphic adventure aspects make this ride a breeze and also an insult with the inclusion of the Hint Master (did people really need him?). In addition, there are just way too many useless scenes that could have been money well spent on more chills or thrills. You’ll probably beat the game in under three hours and wonder where the hell the gameplay was on those seven discs. If you play it, just try to enjoy the FMV movies, but don’t expect much else. If you’d like a great FMV graphic adventure, then I’d recommend Sierra’s superior The Beast Within. Its first of six discs probably has more gameplay than this whole damn package!
Graphics: 9
Story/Plot: 9
Action:8
Overall: 10
Grade: B+