The plot is so easily telegraphed that you can figure it all out within the first five minutes of play, but there are seven whole CDs to be filled. It should also be no shock that the same demon that inhabited Zoltan has inhabited Don, whom Adrienne must outwit in the climactic chase sequence of the final chapter.Īs any horror fan can tell you, suspense is all in the buildup. (The “Phantasmagoria” is the name of an escape trick wherein he’s tied to a chair and must escape before his head is sliced by a swinging blade.) Each of his ladies died under tragic circumstances – it should be no shock that he was possessed by a demon and murdered them. As Adrienne eventually discovers, the mansion was previously owned by a magician named Zoltan Carnovasch, who had more wives than Henry VIII. Furthermore, Adrienne’s sleep is disturbed by gruesome nightmares. As Adrienne begins to explore around the mansion and discover all of its secrets, Don gets possessed by an evil spirit and begins acting psychotically abusive.
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It is, of course, haunted – as if the room full of weaponry and the functioning electric chair weren’t some kind of tipoff. Donald Gordon and Adrienne Delaney, a young married couple from Boston, find an astonishing deal on a gorgeous mansion out in the boonies. The story of Phantasmagoria is cribbed almost directly from Stephen King’s The Shining. It’s an admirable attempt, but like practically every FMV-based game, it falls victim to two things: terrible production values and incredibly sparse gameplay. If King’s Quest IV dared to make gamers cry, Phantasmagoria dared to give gamers nightmares. Phantasmagoria was to be something different, a truly adult horror story. It didn’t help that, by most accounts, the game was pretty bad.īy the mid ‘80s, Roberta Williams was still mostly known for her fairy tale style King’s Quest, with a few dalliances in murder mysteries with the Laura Bow games. History eventually confirmed that FMV-based games were an evolutionary dead end, however, marking Phantasmagoria as a call-to-arms for a war that never happened. It’s certainly revolutionary in combining full motion video of live actors with the framework of an adventure game. Still, while Mystery House and King’s Quest remain important landmarks – the former for introducing graphics to text adventures, the latter for implementing full visuals and character controls – Phantasmagoria doesn’t command nearly the same respect. Very old man who was eye-witness to horrible murders as a child.Would it be too harsh to criticize Roberta Williams? She was undoubtedly a pioneer of the adventure gaming scene, but years and years of genre evolution have revealed that maybe she wasn’t the best game designer. He and Marie planned to kill Carno and run away, but their plan was foiled. She sought to get rid of Carno, but her plan didn’t work. After discovering that Carno murdered his former wives and daughter, she feared for her and Gaston’s lives. She claims to have supernatural talents - palm reading, Tarot cards, and seance.
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He was kind and loving, till Adrienne set free a demon. Tough, protective strict woman, who makes sure no one bothers Malcolm. He was good person and loving husband and father, till his obsession of black sorcery caused him to be possessed by a demon, thus turning him to vicious, homicidal maniac. Nothing horrific is revealed, so no worries! Templeton compiled this nice chart of the characters who appear in Phantasmagoria along with a picture and brief description.