Phantasmagoria (PC) Review

Phantasmagoria (PC) Review

Date Released: 24 August 1995

Date Played: 7 July 2019

Introduction:

Phantasmagoria is one of those games that I've played through several times over the last 25 years.  When I was a kid and this game originally came out I didn't have PC that could run it, so I was totally out of luck when it came to playing it myself.  Luckily, I had a friend who's parents seemed to buy him everything he ever wanted (didn't we all have one of those?) and along with pretty much every video game ever made, he also happened to have this one. I spent a good part of the summer of '96 sitting next to him in front of his computer while trying to avoid the scorching heat outside as we worked our way through the game. The internet was in its infancy, but like everything else, my friend had access to it. Sadly, neither of us had the brilliant idea of trying to look online and find out what we were supposed to do when we got stuck in the game.  It's something we all take for granted now, but at the time it was a completely foreign concept. This led us to the classic adventure game loop of getting lost and not knowing what to do.  So, we spent hour after hour trying to brute force our way through the game without any outside help. After getting hopelessly stuck one night towards the end of the game, I went home to sleep.  The next day, when I came back, my friend had finished the game without me!  Needless to say, I was pretty angry with him for making me miss out on the conclusion to the game.  I choked down my frustration and we moved on to something else.  

A few months later, I had finally saved up enough money to buy a decent PC (which was incredibly expensive at the time) and was looking forward to finally get to play some awesome games at my own house for once.  I traded some Magic the Gathering cards to my friend for a big stack of big box PC games that he wasn't playing anymore and was thrilled to start off my collection with some killer titles that he seemed not have any sort of emotional attachment to whatsoever.  In the pile was Phantasmagoria, and it was the very first game that I installed on my new PC; and when I saw the opening cinematic play out in all of its campy glory, I knew I was in for a treat. The next day, I beat the game.  Even now, when I go back to play it again, it feels the same as it did all of those years ago and is still a fantastic and thoroughly entertaining adventure game that is one of the best in the genre.  

Phantasmagoria was written and designed by the legendary Roberta Williams.  She and her husband founded Sierra online and were basically responsible for inventing the graphic adventure game.  Before that, everything was text based and required typed input commands.  When they added graphics to that formula, the point and click adventure game was born and was the genre of game that reigned supreme on the PC for several years. For eight years Mrs. Williams waited for technology to advance far enough to enable her to make the horror game that she had envisioned in her mind and after writing a 550 page script, hiring a team of more than 200 people, and pumping $4.5 million dollars into the project ($3.7 million over the original $800k budged) Phantasmagoria was born. This game feels like it's the culmination of everything Roberta Williams wanted in a game and is, by many, considered to be her best work. 

The game was met with mixed reviews at the time but was a commercial success despite a cut-scene involving a rape that spurred a fairly large amount of controversy.  Although Sierra repeatedly stated that the game was only intended for adult audiences, several large retailers refused to carry the game. While this scene is pretty tame by today's standards, it was shocking that it was part of a video game at the time. The video game industry was still viewed as something exclusively for children by most of the public and there was a strong backlash from more conservative parties in reference to topics and features they deemed immoral being featured in media for the youth. This caused Phantasmagoria to gain a somewhat dark and seedy allure that continues to this day.

Graphics and Presentation:

Normally, I wouldn't begin my review of a game with the graphics, but in the case of Phantasmagoria, they seem to be the component of the game that most people remember. They were a huge selling feature when the game came out and were the biggest draw for the public. When you first open up the physical box the contains the actual game, you're greeted by an entire folio of CD-ROMs. There are 7 in total, more than I can recall seeing in any game I've ever encountered in my entire life.  The reason for this is because the game was filmed like a movie in a $1.5 million dollar bespoke studio with a cast of twenty-five actors who all performed in front of a blue screen.  This was all digitized and and added to the game both in terms of cut scenes as well as actual gameplay in classic FMV (full motion video) style. The real actors are visualized on the screen and are inserted into pre-rendered 3D backgrounds.  As you click to move your character, from location to location, actual video of the actors plays as you see them walk, interact, and talk about the intended target. You'll explore the disturbing mansion, surrounding outdoor areas, and the the local town as you point and click your way through the beautiful environments.  It's a striking visual style that was mind-blowing at the time of it's release and still holds up extremely well today while many other FMV games absolutely do not.  With over 1000 different screens, several different locations, dozens of items to interact with, and hours of dialog it's no wonder that the number of CD-ROMs is so bloated to accommodate the sheer amount of content in the game. 

In addition to this, the game contains a spooky Gothic soundtrack that contains Gregorian-style chants that were performed by a 135-voice choir.  The music is not only intense and haunting, it's quite memorable and really helps fill out the over-the-top presentation of the entire game. This is quite apparent from the opening cinematic of the game that really turns everything up to 11. During the more tense moments of the game, you can always count on the choir's ooohs and ahhhs to add to the atmosphere in a very chilling way.

For a point-and-click adventure game, Phantasmagoria has it all in the presentation department. It is still the most atmospheric, best looking, and coolest setting I've ever seen in a game from the genre and hangs up there with Myst for a memorable experience. Yes, it's an FMV game that was all the rage at the time and I know that that can be a bit of a black mark on a game.  But, this is one of the best examples of doing-it-right that is out there and you shouldn't let all of those other terrible games turn you away from this one.

Story:

You play as mystery novelist Adrienne Delaney (Victoria Morsell) and her photographer husband Don Gordon (David Homb) who have purchased a mansion in a sleepy little down in New England.  The mansion itself has been on the market for some time and the couple were able to procure it for next to nothing due to its history of a 19th century magician named Carno (Robert Miano) committing a series of murders there. It's a classic horror story device that we've all seen again and again, and you can tell Roberta Williams is trying to pay homage to the concept. Once the couple arrive, Adrienne begins having nightmares involving the unfortunate past in the mansion.  Her loving husband, Don, supports and consoles her and she begins to feel better. As she explores the mansion and surrounding areas, she begins to uncover mysteries, clues, and strange messages about the the horrific events that took place. After discovering a secret altar hidden in the mansion, Adrienne accidentally unleashes an imprisoned spirit that possesses her husband.  As she continues to explore the estate over the next several days, her husband begins to behave more and more strangely and aggressively towards her, finally causing her to fear for her safety. As you continue to delve further into the mansion's history, you begin to learn that Carno practiced black magic and as the mystery unravels, you'll get to relive the gruesome and elaborate ways the Carno committed his murders and see them first hand in some of the most outrageous set pieces committed to any FMV game.  If you have your wits about you, you'll get to uncover the horrific past and the mansion's secrets to save not only your husband, but also yourself.

Despite the game being more well known for it's graphic presentation and controversy, the story, setting, and acting are the real stars of the game.  All of the locations in the game are expertly crafted and feel real despite them being nothing more than pre-rendered graphics with performers in front of a blue-screen.  The art design has a whimsical but creepy nature that evokes not only memories of Tim Burton, but also Dr. Seuss and is a welcome addition to the atmosphere. The performances by the actors are all very good despite them not being "big names' in the industry and they carry the game. David Homb's performance as Don is the real standout and watching his descent into madness is fantastic.  His acting is so over the top that it borders on cringeworthy, but it's perfect in this scenario. I wouldn't have it any other way.  On the other hand, Victoria Morsell performs Adrienne in a very demure and subtle manner.  She's made out to be the typical weak female lead (at first) and you really begin to sympathize with her and her situation of being under all the weight of not only her progressively more insane husband, but also that of the mansion itself. It really makes you feel like your in an old horror movie, and it's very enjoyable if that's your cup of tea.

Gameplay:

Despite the game being a huge departure and step up in terms of story and presentation, the gameplay is still point-and-click adventure through and through with almost no innovation. You wander around from screen to screen looking for objects to collect and items to interact with in order to solve puzzles or gain access to blocked off areas. Luckily, the puzzles aren't as esoteric as your average adventure game of the time (excluding chapter 7).  You'll still spend a lot of time picking up items and trying them on every other object you come across hoping that you'll somehow figure out how to advance.  Unfortunately, there are still a few puzzles where if you do them incorrectly, you can soft lock yourself and won't be able to finish the game without restarting or loading a previous save (I'm looking at you sliding the newspaper under the pantry door puzzle).  Fortunately, there is a "hint master" represented by a red skull on the bottom left of the screen.  You can click him for clues whenever you need help.  At first he is rather vague and will only give you a slight hint on how to solve a puzzle, but if you're still not able to figure out what to do, his clues get more and more blatant.  Sometimes this is to the point where he flat out tells you the solution. Other times, his clues are still so vague that you'll continue to be stuck even after exhausting all of his dialog options on the subject. This hint master is a really nice addition to the game and I wish more adventure games employed something like him.  However, the temptation to use him too often is pretty bad and I wish he had more of a limit, or a timer, or something else to keep you from just clicking him instantly the second you get stuck.  Even though the game has it's difficulty toned down, less non-sensical puzzles, and a literal helper to aid you, there are still several times you will get lost and won't know what to do. Don't feel bad if you have to resort to looking up a walkthrough online, there are a lot of small objects you need to interact with that are quite easy to miss.  

Conclusion:

Although I'm not a huge fan of the point-and-click adventure game genre and it's esoteric gameplay loop drives me crazy, Phantasmagoria is still a fantastic game and is by far my favorite in the genre. While I feel the gameplay is dated and the FMV was a relic of the past, the game is very immersive and interesting and is still entertaining today.  The campiness surrounding the game and the performances of the actors as they develop and go through their story arc really helps drive the game forward through its 7 chapters and the controversial scene that almost prevented the success of the game is pivotal for setting the tone of the game and it wouldn't be the same without out it. It's an important part of gaming history and plenty of people out there have nostalgia and an odd fondness for this game that I feel is warranted.

If you like FMV games, campy horror movies, point-and-click adventures, or are just a video game aficionado, you should definitely give this one a try.

Final Status: Completed 

Final Score: 8/10 (Everything is great except for the slightly dated gameplay)

 

Kolibri (32X) Review

Kolibri (32X) Review

Date Released: November 1995

Date Played: 4 March 2022

Despite playing this game when it originally came out and once again about 12 years ago, in my mind Kolibri was a free-roaming horizontal shmup in the same vein as Fantasy Zone or Defender.  While it does have some of those elements, it actually has more in common with the Ecco the Dolphin series and focuses on exploration, cryptic puzzles, and tricky maneuvering rather than high intensity shoot 'em action.  This makes more sense because the game was developed by Novotrade, the same team that made the Ecco games.  Being one of the few exclusive games for the Sega 32X, this game has developed a bit of a reputation in the collecting community for being very unique, beautiful, and hard to find.  It commands a rather high price if you want a physical copy (especially if you want it complete in box). Despite it being highly sought after in the collector's community, I've never heard anyone who has much positive to say about the gameplay, and since it's release, it has elicited a mediocre response from both the critics and the public.

You play as a hummingbird who is happy living his hummingbird life.  The first level involves freely flying around the horizontally scrolling area trying to figure out what to do (just like the first stage of Ecco the Dolphin).  There are no real threats or any dangers other than the single toad hanging out at the bottom of the screen who will gobble you up if you get too close. Other than a fire, dash, and the occasional special ability, there really isn't anything too complicated about the controls and you'll mostly be holding the fire button as you explore. After several minutes of confusion, you'll eventually figure out that you need to kill the bugs hovering around several groups of flowers spread out throughout the level and then drink from them. This will lead your hummingbird buddies to them to get their own dring, and once they are all found, some great catastrophe occurs and the world is in danger (once again, just like Ecco).  From this point you will work your way through the game encountering a variety of levels with different gameplay elements.  Some levels will be auto-scrollers that can zig and zag all around, others you have to explore and kill all enemies, many are puzzle based where you have to find items required to unlock paths and advance, and some are just simple side-scrollers.  The one common element that carries through all of them is the way you control the hummingbird.  Enemies are fast and fly in from above, blow, behind, and will assault you constantly.  The hummingbird controls kind of awkwardly and seems to have strange inertia at some points and at others will stop on a dime.  This makes dodging the enemies and their projectiles more difficult than it needs to be. I never really got the hang of it and rarely felt like I had complete control. While there are several different weapons you have access to by collecting the various orbs floating around the levels, many of them are based around a homing shot.  This is essential, because turning around with the hummingbird is poorly implemented.  If you're holding down the shoot button (which you will usually be doing), the bird won't turn around if you press the opposite direction of the way you're currently facing.  Instead, he will just strafe backwards, often crashing into the enemies behind you that you were trying to turn and shoot.  If you want to turn, you have to stop firing, THEN press in the opposite direction.  This takes a few frames of animation and feels very clunky and slow. Since you're being assaulted constantly from all sides and a breakneck speed, you constantly need to stop firing (which will lead to an enemy hitting you) to turn around repeatedly, or just kind of hang out in the center of the screen and attempt to dodge while your homing shots take out the bad guys. The other shots that only fire straight ahead are a death trap because you can't turn to fire quick enough unless you already know from where the enemies are going to be coming. Most of these enemies are bugs like bees, flies, beetles, centipedes, and wasps.  But you'll also encounter frogs, lizards, other birds, and even some aquatic type creatures.  You'll be able to grab orbs that grant you an extra hit and bank up to 5 of them at a time, but most of the time, you're in 1 hit death territory.  The brief length of the stages, the fast enemies, and fast deaths make the game feel inexorable.  When you die you start back at the beginning of the stage with infinite lives, but it usually won't be long until you die again and have to start over.  The very repetitive gameplay loop truly sinks in as you do the same tasks over and over.  It won't be long until you've had your fill and will be ready to take a break.  Luckily, the game has a password system that lets you pick back up at the beginning of the stage. So, if you have enough patience, you'll eventually make it to the end. Sadly, the game just isn't that much fun, and very few will like it enough to make it that far.

The game is very beautiful in terms of it's visuals and features a vibrant and colorful nature setting that is quite charming and is the biggest draw of Kolibri.  You'll travel through forested areas, underground caverns, waterfalls, and more as you work your way through the game's 20 gorgeous stages.  Most of these are very appealing but do tend to blur into each of them not only because of their similar settings, brief lengths, but also the obtuse gameplay elements that are featured that force your to replay them over and over.  Before long, the game feels like a series of frustrating challenges that are loosely strung together that just piles on the frustration to either lull you to sleep with boredom or to make you want to rage quit.  To add to this, the bizarre soundtrack does nothing to elevate the experience.  Instead of being light and whimsical like you would expect in a colorful game about a hummingbird, you're greeted by a dark an ominous song on the title screen.  I guess this is meant to foreshadow the environmental disaster theme that the developers were so adamant about shoving in your face in both this game and the Ecco games.  It's a worthwhile soap box to stand on, but I feel like it's pretty heavy handed in these games and isn't really presented well in either case.  It's pretty much, "Earth Good!, Pollution Bad!" without much more nuance on display.  The rest of the soundtrack is mostly ambient nature sounds with some light background music.  It's fine most of the time, but is nothing if not boring.  When things do ramp up, the music doesn't get much better and is mostly forgettable.

Whenever I play this game I can't help but imagine that the developers were commissioned to make an exclusive game for the Sega 32X, but were out of ideas, funds, or time and just said, "Take Ecco the Dolphin, make it a hummingbird, and pump it out as fast as possible."  Because the game hits on so many of the same frustrating puzzles, ideas, cryptic objectives, and themes that there's no way it was a coincidence.  If you're a big Sega collector, this is one you'll probably have to track down sooner or later.  But, if you just want to play a fun game about a hummingbird, I would advise you to steer clear of this one.  If you like Ecco the dolphin, this game is worse.  If you've never played Ecco the Dolphin, it's not very good either and you should avoid it too.  

Final Status: Played

Final Score: 5/10 (great visuals, gameplay and music are pretty mediocre)

Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters (Gameboy) Review

Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters (Gameboy) Review

Date Released: November 1991

Date Played: 1 March 2022

Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters is the sequel to the classic game from the NES.  It was the last game in the series for 21 years until the 3rd game in the series arrived on the Nintendo 3DS.  While the game is obtuse, clunky, and not the most fun experience by today's standards, it was highly venerated at the time of its release and was even voted as the 18th best Gameboy game of all time by Nintendo Power.  

Once again, you play as the classic protagonist, Pit, who is more well known from his presence in the Smash Bros. franchise than he is from his own game series.  Gameplay is pretty much the same as the original NES game where you platform your way vertically upwards as the screen infinitely scrolls horizontally.  For example, if you were to just walk to the right, the game would just loop forever.  As you jump upwards from platform and platform you can work your way upwards towards the stage's exit.  It's a unique approach to gameplay and I have always thought of it as working your way up a series of platforms on the outside of a cylindrical tower.  You can work your way left or right as you circle the outside, but will have to eventually make your way to the top. It's the biggest feature of the 8bit Kid Icarus games and is synonymous with the series. The real question is whether this system is any good.  I can't help but feel that if it were more fun we would have seen it in a lot more games that came afterwards.

In his search for 3 treasures, Pit will have to fight a wide variety of enemies by shooting them with his bow and arrow. Many of the enemies you face will be familiar if you've played the first game. You'll encounter the fear inducing reapers, upside down pots of infinitely falling snakes, the ever present 8-bit bats, and plenty of other odd monsters from mythology. As you work your way to the top, you will be entering many different doors that contain puzzles, challenges, shops, and the necessary upgrades.  Sadly, many of these upgrades can only be acquired if you've completed some sort of task in the game's level before entering. I'm not exactly sure how these work, but it seems that it has something to do with how many enemies you've killed in the stage.  Since you have no way to know what type of room is behind each door, it's a crap shoot when you enter.  Of course, the doors close after you leave the room, so If you accidentally went into the shop without enough money, too bad.  You're not going to be able to buy anything.  Need that important arrow upgrade from your father?  Too bad, you accidentally walked into the room before killing enough enemies and you get nothing.  It's all extremely frustrating and if you haven't memorized all of the room locations, you'll need a guide to help you.  You basically need to begin every stage by farming up a bunch of money so you'll have it already if you accidentally walk into a shop.  This should also help you grab those upgrades from your father because you've already spent 15 minutes mindlessly killing the same snakes over and over again so, hopefully, that will fill the requirement for you to get an upgrade. It brings the pace of the game to a crawl and some sort of different door sprite for each type of room would have made the game much better.

Speaking of guides, the game is broken up into 3 worlds of 3 stages with a final dungeon at the end of each of them before going into the final boss encounter.  These dungeons are convoluted mazes with traps, ruthless enemies, and paths that loop back on themselves to confuse you even more.  So once again, you're going to need the power (NINTENDO POWER!) to help you through them.  While this sort of thing was very common back in the 8-bit days, I feel like most people don't really have the patience for it these days.  It really pads out the game and makes it feel like a slog. I thought about pulling out some graph paper to make my own maps, but then I remembered there are plenty of walkthroughs online.  Needless to say, I was shocked to see that the dungeons were so complicated that they couldn't even put them into a text format and instead had to make bespoke maps of each one of them.  After looking at one of these maps, I had to laugh to myself because it's just so blatantly designed to troll the gamer. To add to this, the bosses at the end of each stage are incredible bullet sponges taking around 75 hits each to kill.  It's almost a comical how long these fights take and it's more of a battle of endurance rather than skill. If you die, you're sent back to the beginning of the stage which can be a little demoralizing, but at least you have infinite continues.  So, if you're willing to just bash your head against the wall until you get it right, victory will eventually come.

The gameplay is fine but is nothing to write home about.  Pit feels a little slippery and some of the trickier platforming is more harrowing than it needs to be.  Also, the game suffers from a fair amount of slowdown and screen flickering when there are too many enemies on the screen. The graphics look fine for a Gameboy game and it's nice to be in a the setting of ancient Greece instead of the standard fantasy and sci-fi settings of so many other games. The music is upbeat but not very memorable and can be a very repetitive and grating on the ears. I eventually turned down the sound so I wouldn't have to listen to the music anymore. On a positive note, the game isn't as brutally difficult as the NES game, but it's still quite a challenge and you'll die a fair number of times. As you clear each world, you'll receive a health upgrade which will help out a good deal. However, you'll still feel underpowered and ill-equipped most of the time unless you're able to fully find all the upgrades and grind out enough money to buy plenty of healing potions (You'll have to kill 250 snakes to buy a single potion, by the way). 

Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters just isn't a very fun game.  The normal stages of each world are mostly tolerable, but each world's final dungeon is painfully frustrating.  There are enemies that turn you into a helpless eggplant with no ability to attack until you find a cure somewhere else in the dungeon. Many times you'll get transformed, be forced to back-track 5 screens to get cured, fight your way back to where you were only to get transformed again, forcing you to repeat it all over. This honestly happened to me almost 8 times in a row in the second dungeon and almost drove me mad.  It's a baffling mechanic and the fact that it's featured in every single dungeon is shocking. If it weren't for these maze-like dungeons the game would be ok, but considering they take about half the game, it really brings down the whole experience.  

The older I get, the more I realize that a lot of these handheld games we played as kids just aren't as good as we imagined.  While I never played this game as a child, I firmly believe that this game would fall into that same category.  If it really is the 18th best Gameboy of all time, that makes the Gameboy one of the worst systems ever made with hardly any good games.  Is that the case?  I don't think so.  I just think this game was highly overrated at the time.

Final Status: Played

Final Score: 5/10 (...meh)