Techtite's What Went Wrong --- When Entertainment Goes Awry!

Good ideas, good qualities...BAD flaws; that's the trouble with many promising entertainment products. Every once in a while there's that one product (movie, television, video, or game) which had it all --concept, sound, visuals-- yet fell like a rock because of a few grating mistakes. This regularly updated commentary examines such titles.

With a 4-million-dollar budget, Phantasmagoria was sure to be unlike any game ever seen. It was supposed to be the game to revitalize Sierra On-line, yet it turned out to be a four million dollar thorn in its side. Sierra was sold out to less-heard of software companies, just a few years after its release. As for the game itself, its only longevity is in its own controversy. What Went Wrong?

What Went Right? For one thing: the theme. I'm not just talking about the music theme of the game, which has become a cult classic to '90s adventure game fans. I'm talking about the subplot/theme, of the overall game. Haunted/thriller games were a big sell upon its release, particularly stories involving demons, dark magic, and so on. Among similar defeat-evil-magic games released just the prior year (1994), were Alone in the Dark 3, Heretic, Dragonsphere, Ultima 8: Pagan, and of course Doom. So the subject matter was hardly bad. Gamers loved to fight the forces of evil...particularly, anything that was really really evil.

The story itself was interesting, too. A young newlywed, Adrienne, has just moved into an old house with her new husband, which they plan to renovate. Gradually, she comes to realize that the house hides a very dark curse. Slowly, the house begins to reveal a life all its own, as the newlyweds become the house's next victims. This is a typical haunted house story, and in its basic form, it is more than intriguing.

It's release date was also well chosen --for better or worse-- if only because other dates would have been all wrong. If this game was released too early, it would have been rushed to completion, and riddled with game bugs. Say what you will about Phantasmagoria, but it ran perfectly well on every system I ever played it on, so it was hardly released "too early." On the other hand, had it been released any later, it would have been drowned on the shelf with a plethora of Myst and 7th Guest clones, and rarely noticed at all. By early 1995, such clones had yet to be released in droves, and CD-only games were still a rather novel concept; a perfect time for this game's release. Mind you; it's not like we're reaching for "pros" about this game. It just deserves mentioning that if there was a problem with this game, when it was released wasn't one of them.

It's CGI graphics were very well done as well, particularly by 1995 standards. At times, you would almost forget that the house in the game never existed(!). This "movie set" was a total work of imagination, complete with all the gothic elements of a really exquisite, old-fashioned mansion, whose sets would've cost several added millions in the real world. Props that the actors used were placed on miniscule sets --a bathroom sink, a chair, a small table-- which were perfectly blended into the computer-rendered rooms. While only available in old, 640x480 resolution, most of the computer-rendered graphics are impressive even to this very day.

The lead actress of the game was also perfectly cast, given the project's needs. Victoria Morsell was pleasing to look at, even if she never changed her clothes in 7 game "days"! For a 7-disc game, this main star's appeal was a very good plus. Want some amusing trivia? Morsell and her "game-husband," David Homb, got married in real life! Sadly, it wasn't meant to be, and Morsell married (and had a child with) a man named David Hemingson, in 2000. Too bad about Morsell and Homb not staying together, though. I guess it would strain a relationship to say at parties, "We met as actors in a video game where our characters try to kill each other!"

What Went Wrong? Three words: 4 million dollars! It was also a game sold on 7 CDs. Do the math here: how could a game with the biggest game budget ever seen, with at least 4 times the resources (discs) per game box, and sold at the same price of every other game, ever hope to break even? This was a big expense for Sierra, and for the most part, unnecessary.

"Unnecessary"...? You bet; in all of 7 CDs, the house never changes! Nor do most of the simpler animations, of Adrienne walking from room to room. Furthermore, the first chapters were irrelevant, and a complete waste of the first 4 CDs. Most of the initial "story" needn't have been told at all, with Adrienne doing little more than visiting all the townsfolk for the first time (how many times is it necessary to hear, "Hi, how are you; I'm Adrienne"...?). I'm reminded of other attempts at "haunted house" games, like The Legacy and The 7th Guest, with haunted thrills from the very start. Compare this to the dragging first half of Phantasmagoria, where Adrienne has little more to do than obtain a key from the realtor, which she forgot to get. Such a chore was a total waste of disc space.

Warning to game designers : Never use quantity over quality. It's an old trick used to this very day; imply the game lasts and lasts and lasts, simply because you filled the game with a bunch of tedious tasks that water down the whole game's appeal. After all: The Longest Journey spanned 4 CDs, yet lasted much longer. Did it help sales any that this was a seven disc game? No; if anything, it only increased expenses.

A small "spoiler warning" : Keep in mind, the whole rest of this article is a "spoiler" of sorts, and yet the game is no longer for sale anywhere, so it matters very little...

Now let's talk about Adrienne...who, to be blunt, is quite frankly one of the weakest "heroine" concepts I've ever seen. Adrienne begins the whole game by entering a dark, spooky room that (hint, hint!) was sealed shut with bricks. DUH! While the rest of the game paints Adrienne as relatively weak and dependant, she decides to explore this spooky, closed-off area with no notice to her husband...ever!

She then opens a box that was sealed shut ---DOUBLE DUH!-- releasing a demon that possesses her husband, slowly, for the rest of the game. Adrienne must eventually kill him to save herself...when she was the reason he got cursed in the first place! Asking a silly question, here: Why didn't Adrienne try to save her husband? Instead, while she does find a way to destroy the demon, she only does so after killing her husband, making his death even more unnecessary. Did I mention that all this poor guy's troubles are entirely Adrienne's fault? Who are we supposed to root for here?

So spoilers notwithstanding: Adrienne slowly marches from her home, with no husband, a dilapidated house, and little to show for it...the end. If such a finale was meant to be scary, it is scary only in its implausibility.

So ludicrous was this story's end, many gamers initially thought it wasn't the "real" finale at all, believing there was something they did wrong in the game. It was inconceivable to them that Roberta Williams, the game designer of unmitigated classics like King's Quest, released a game with an unhappy ending. Who would possibly want to spend over $40, to see an unhappy ending? Sierra was oblivious to this rhetorical question, and often was rather flippant about it; even the official hint book superficially muses, "Sometimes life's a bummer, isn't it?" This is one of the stupidest game design decisions, in all of game history; a 4 million dollar budget, just so gamers can learn that, "Life's a bummer." There's a word gamers have for game titles this disappointing: RETURNED! So much for Sierra getting their 4 million dollar budget back. Bummer.

Warning to Game Designers: Yes, many people watch TV and movies with unhappy endings, though that's because it costs them peanuts to see them...! Would they pay $40 to see the same unhappy ending? NO! It's that simple.

Rule #1 for $40+ games: Happy endings. Period.

Roberta made a worse snafu, however, adding shock-value gore that was overdone even by most R-rating standards. It takes a true mastermind in thrillers to deliver nail-biting horror, without resorting to el cheapo, shock value gore, and Roberta was too inexperienced with horror storytelling to do so. So the game had such scenes as a ghost ramming a garden tool into his wife's gashing mouth, or a "Game Over" animation where a demon was seen ripping open Adrienne's head. Perhaps these scenes would've at least appealed to the gore-movie crowd, if they did not look so fake....though this is beside the point. Such worthless gore led to little more than a review by U.S. Congress, of games like this one and Night Trap, which helped inspire the need for a ratings system in games. This inspired the ESRB ratings on games sold to this very day, and while that seems like a success (of sorts), it still was a dumb idea to have so much gore, in a game that did not require it. Even The 7th Guest was scarier, with less gore.

Warning to Game Designers: If you're making an "R-rated" game, it'd better be for a far better reason than cheap shock value. Gamers are beginning to see cheap shock value from miles away, like the pointless R-language in Kingpin (which was not a critical success). Compare such a game to Thief: The Dark Project (which was a critical success), which used maturity to tell a more mature story. Without a strong story, you're left only with Adrienne going "eek" when she sees something grotesque. Forget about it.

As for the game interface...I'm sorry, did I say "game" interface? The only interaction is via a limited, one-icon cursor, controlling all actions. Click everywhere the wand highlights, to do everything possible. Click, click, click on all highlighted areas, go to the next room, repeat until next disc. Even with 7 discs, it's all over, surprisingly quickly. The good news is that a DVD-player version of the game (like Dragon's Lair or Tender Loving Care) would be quite easy, due to so little interactivity between the user and the game. However, in 1995, a limited interface was the whole problem; too little interactivity! Click, click, click...game over! For me, this experience, in my first time playing, lasted merely one weekend. Seven discs of game...and one weekend!!!

Warning to Game Designers: There's a very good reason why 3D game interfaces are becoming more and more common. It's because such environments give total control to the user: where to walk, who to talk to, where to explore, and what to do with what you find there. I can only imagine how a 3D accelerated, "virtual" version of Phantasmagoria would have panned out. Sadly, it wasn't to be.

6 years later, there are still many questions as to how a legendary game force like Sierra was so quickly sold out to a never-heard-of software company, in 1998. After all, Sierra was a game company that had been in business since 1980, and the dawn of graphic-adventures themselves! What economic tragedy could befall a major game company, in a mere 3 years? I can only make a wild assumption; a 4-million-dollar one. I will always blame the "hub" of Sierra's ill-fate on Phantasmagoria; a money pit that was nothing but trouble, for gamer and company alike.

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What Went Wrong?

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Phantasmagoria