Phantasmagoria
This game is infamous for two things:
#1: It is known amongst players for mainly about the protagonist looking into all the mirrors brushing her hair. And man, there are mirrors EVERYWHERE.
#2 Originally it took no less than SEVEN CDs. Yes, you heared right. Imagine the box-set. And the frustration when one of the CDs just got corrupted. And in those days that was quit common.
Well, what to tell as review?
The "Day 1" - although I suspect some meddling there - is good and spooky introduction, IF you do a lot of optional stuff, which will be necessary stuff in later chapters. Details change in mirrors, there are some dram-sequences, voices out of nowhere, and unseen ghost-hands grabbing towards you.
The last chapter is actually supposed to be rolled back when you're done with it as a large movie. Creative. And you can die A LOT. Even if you know the sequence. Under gorey circumstances (they are quite well done).
Unfortunately there is only one save per playthrough, but fortunately if you die, you can reload the autosave from the point you were still alive.
A nuisance with the game is, that sometimes it relies on the notorious adventure-game-mode pixel-hunting, even though the objects are quite large, and most are obvious. Still, the telescope-lense and the paper-knife for me were less-than-obvious.
The biggest problem as far as I see is the middle part, where nothing much happens, the tense do not really grow, only the returning features really work (like the drowing ob absint, the fortune-telling machine etc.), and you eventually rely on "let's do that today too lacking any meaningful action" solution, which frotunately do not contain oh-so-many possibilities, if you can filter out the real useless ones (like those pesky haribrushes, face-creams, other womanly stuffs, the toilet, the stone harp, the tv etc.)
But the whole thing is somehow so simple and elegant still like the Dallas, so it got so popular, they made a much better sequel... Well, the Puzzle of Flesh had nothing to do with the original "Roberta Williams' Phantasmagoria" aside 1 actor and the "interactive movie" concept. I personally wouldn't call these two games an "interactive movie", but would name them as "live action adventure games".
PS: This game is perfectly fine for younger audience, like 12-15, the only possibly problematic part is the softcore rape sceen for the 12-13 audience. And not just to them, but also those in their 30s.
The P2: PoF I'd suggest to a somewhat more mature audience, like 15-17, or anyone who likes B-category trash-horrors (most zombie-horror, animal-horror, or anyhorror from the '80s, like Brain Damage, Hellraiser 2, or Blood Gnomes). I LUV this game for its mature contents, like light sex-sceens, the S&M club, and the homosexual relationship between Curtis and Trevor (man, in this game everyone is into the protagonist!). Not to mention its many easter-eggs, like Invaders minigame, Ping Pong minigame. And the zounds of optional things to do. And so on, but let me play it again first, Sam.
