The original Phantasmagoria was a unique and interesting concept, the use of live actors superimposed on to game environments was justThe original Phantasmagoria was a unique and interesting concept, the use of live actors superimposed on to game environments was just beginning to become a thing and that is part of where it's charm came from.
As for the second game, A Puzzle of Flesh, it brings nothing new to the table and actually suffers from a lot of other problems. This time around the backgrounds are much more realistic looking then the first game.
To begin with, the movement in the game is awful. I don't know if it's the layout of the rooms, the context sensitive areas for the arrows or the angles, but moving around in A Puzzle of the Flesh constantly feels painful.
Other terrible issue with the game is the amount of inane events in the game. While Phantasmagoria had interesting events and plot devices you can optionally reveal through the progress of the game, either during chapters or special events, A Puzzle of Flesh has a ton of content and events that all rely on worthless actions such as calling someone from a phone or flipping one of your co-workers the middle finger.
This wouldn't be so bad, if it weren't for the fact you have absolutely no context on what you are supposed to do next to actually progress the story line. You simply have to slog through a mountain of garbage until you find the right action that will send you on your way.
A number of the puzzles, while using loose logic are completely unnecessary. A great example is when you first play the game, before you leave your apartment you need to find your wallet. If you search under your couch, you'll find your wallet, but in order to get your wallet, you need to use your pet rat. But your pet rat won't come out from under the couch, so you have to use a granola bar to lure him out to get your wallet to leave your apartment.
The above described puzzle is all fine and good, but the entire time I am doing this, I am asking myself, "why didn't he just reach under the couch?" or "why didn't he just move the couch", instead we have to rely on a basic logic puzzle that is stupid in order to get a wallet that would have taken 10 seconds otherwise.
Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh failed because of dumb writers and a director who didn't realize a large portion of their game was unnecessary and annoying.… Expand