Phantasmagoria 2: A Puzzle of Flesh

released on Nov 30, 1996

All Curtis wants is to live a normal, happy life, but something seems to have other plans...


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I love this game. It can be cheesy and campy but I absolutely love the characters (and the actors that played them) and the silly story. I only think the endgame section brings this down from being a 5 star for me. Playing everything else up to that point has been such a pleasure over the years and it is one of three 90s FMV games that are on my top 30 favorite games list. I love the silliness of the game, the amazing little details that are worked in (like the email system complete with the tone of email you want to send and the responses you get back from your co-workers), and Curtis' growth over the course of the game.

Categorically worse than its predecessor in almost every way: where Phantasmagoria was quite straightforward for a PC adventure game, the sequel is irritatingly obscure at every moment. If you attempt to go through this game without a guide, be prepared for a miserable time. I got stuck for no less than an hour because I hadn't thought of showing every character every item in my inventory. Most of the game's puzzles consist of typing in passwords that are no more logical than someone said them to you in a cutscene once, or, you found the words somewhere in the world. If that sounds like every adventure game ever, you're not wrong, but somehow they're even worse in practice here. At one point you go to a particular location and are turned away by the police in a way reminiscent of any video game telling you "you can't do this right now; try something else", maybe leading any regular person to go elsewhere in the world. Well, not so in this game—inexplicably, the solution is to just click the area again and this time the cop won't be there because ???.

If the puzzles aren't bad enough, somehow the game has a user interface so much worse than Phantasmagoria 1 it's astonishing. Navigating through the world is regularly frustrating, and the mouse cursor might be the worst I've ever seen in a video game. I guess it's supposed to be your workplace's logo, the negative space of a W contained in a circle, but it just kinda looks like pointy teeth to me. It sucks real bad. Navigating through the inventory is a chore, and you will have to play around in there for solutions.

On top of all this, the audio mixing might be the worst of all time in a video game. I'm willing to believe the horrendous mix between the videos and music are ScummVM's doing, but that aside, the dialogue in cutscenes frequently range from an inaudible mumble to loud screams. I felt like I needed a volume knob to ride the entire time.

If I'm being nitpicky to a degree I wasn't for the first game, ultimately the reason is thus: whereas the first game was charming and engaging, there's really not a whole lot here to love. There's some intrigue in the conspiracy behind your workplace, but it's all an overwrought mess that's not all that fun to uncover. The death scenes are fun in a goofy slasher flick type of way, but that's about it. I guess the game does have a scene with a titty or two and some bondage scenes, which I suppose is rather wild for a video game in 1996, but also: so what. However, to its credit, the game does have a kind of surprising gay romance subplot to it that's handled astonishingly sweetly. Arguably the only sincerely affecting scene in the whole thing.

At the end of the day, sadly, this just isn't a very good game. There's certainly some value to it in the way that there's value to a lousy horror movie, but unlike the game that came before it, I doubt you'll be coming out of Phantasmagoria 2: A Puzzle of Flesh with much sincere respect for it.

I won this game through Steamgifts.

I really enjoyed this game! Even though it's a year older than me, it has really stayed great even though the quality is what it is for a game from the 1996s.

I really liked the story, it was interesting and the acting only made it better, because it was really well done. I also loved the ending song Rage by Gary Spinrad.

Even if you decide not to play this, check out the song! It was a jam!

Spoony will never see the gates of Heaven for how he treated this game.

One of my all-time favorites, the peak of FMV adventure games in one of the weirdest, most fucked up packages. The acting on display is actually above and beyond what you expect from FMV games, and compared to Phantasmagoria 1's incredible display of the stupidest people of al time, Phantasmagoria 2 is entertaining from start to finish, and the endgame is a SLAM DUNK winner.

This game rules, Curtis is one of the top 10 best gaming protagonists, Blob Gang Rise Up.