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    Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh

    Game » consists of 2 releases. Released Nov 30, 1996

    The second in the Phantasmagoria horror anthology by Sierra.

    Short summary describing this game.

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    Story

    Players take control of Curtis Craig, a middle-aged cubicle worker at a high-tech computer company known as Wyntech.

    The game opens with a full motion video depicting an event a year prior to the game's plot line, showing Curtis in a mental institution undergoing shock therapy. Curtis promptly wakes up, showing the flashback as a dream sequence. The player will soon find out that Curtis' mental issues stem largely from an abusive childhood, inflicted upon him by his mother. His mother committed suicide shortly after, and his father was shown having been shot down in the street, allegedly by his employer, Wyntech; the same company that Curtis is currently employed by.

    Further into the story, more characters introduced. There is Blob, Curtis' pet rat; Trevor, a colleague and best friend of Curtis; and colleague and current girlfriend, Jocilyn.

    As the story progresses, the character's relationships with other colleagues are established. Therese, a blonde haired woman, is shown flirting with Curtis, constantly seducing him until one night, she succeeds, causing him to have an affair; Bob, a rude, snarky coworker who is competing with Curtis for a promotion; Tom, a balding, kind-hearted man who encourages Curtis' work, constantly implying that he prefers him over Bob; and Paul Warner, the boss at Wyntech, who is as mysterious as the organization he's running.

    Soon, Curtis starts noticing strange things going on, specifically while at work. He hears voices, gets phone calls from mysterious people, and even gets punched while nobody is around. Not only is Curtis stressed out enough by this, but murders going on in Wyntech are leaving him feeling as though maybe he is the culprit, that maybe his mental conditions are returning. Curtis makes an appointment at a local psychiatrist.

    At these appointments, past traumas in Curtis' life are discussed, showing graphic full motion videos of flashbacks to his childhood, when he was tortured by his mother. Curtis shares his worries about Wyntech - that he thinks his father was murdered by the company, that he knows something is going on that is far greater than what anyone could possibly understand. He finds hand written notes, stashed inside the walls of his office building, written out to Curtis from his father, and shares them. He explains his fear that perhaps he is just mad, that maybe he is the one committing the murders in Wyntech.

    Suspicious about his employers involvement in all of this, Curtis sneaks into his boss's office and gains access to the lower levels of the office building, where he finds secret labs, holding a portal to what seems like another dimension. Before he can enter the portal, Paul Warner, his boss, catches him. He tells Curtis that when he was a child, he was used for experimentation. Curtis had been put into the portal, and came out a clone, his actual self remaining inside the other dimension. His father was never told, and Paul goes on to taunt Curtis, calling him "inhuman" and a clone, a monster. Curtis proceeds to shoot at Paul with a hidden gun and runs into the portal.

    Once inside, Curtis finds himself alone in what looks like a dark, blueish cave filled with weird lights and odd creatures. After finding his way, he finds his actual self; the self that originally walked into this dimension as a child, years ago; the "real" Curtis, manifested into a monster, the monster that has been haunting Curtis and murdering his co workers throughout the game. The monster explains its reasoning for the murders; that it was trying to drive the cloned Curtis insane so that it could take over his body and return him to their dimension, where he belongs. He promptly kills the "real" Curtis, escapes the dimension and finds Jocilyn waiting for him on the other side.

    He has one final decision - whether to stay with Jocilyn, or go back into the other dimension, where voices call for him to return; if he stays, he will forever be a clone in a world where he doesn't belong; if he returns, then he won't be with Jocilyn anymore.

    Gameplay

    The game plays like a typical adventure game in a 3rd person perspective. Inventory is displayed at the bottom of the screen while objects can be examined by dragging them to the "eye" in the controls. The "hand" icon turns to an arrow when the player can move in certain directions. Item collecting is common, as well as travelling between areas marked on the map.

    The story is told through the use of full motion video sections which (at the time) were considered very controversial, containing child abuse, extreme gore and nudity.

    System Requirements

    WIN 95 CD-ROM

    Minimums: 486DX/4 100. 12MB RAM, 4X CD-ROM. Mouse, SVGA, 16MB Free HD space. SoundCard w/DAC. Supports: Windows 95 supported SoundCards w/DAC.

    Premium performance: Pentium 75, 12MB RAM, 4X CD-ROM. Optimal Perform: P590, 16MB RAM.

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