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Katsunami · 12-12-2016, 10:14 PM

Last year I finished a few old games:

Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (1993, CD Version)
Star Trek: Judgment Rites (1994)
Star Trek: A Final Unity (1995)

Now I can add Phantasmagoria (1995) to that. Just finished it. Epic game with a few flaws.

It's not always logical what you have to do, and I noticed that I had to click the Hintkeeper in the same spots as 20 years ago.

Spoiler:

1. I explored the entire house and the premises and didn't know where to go next. The Hint Keeper said: "Someone in town holds the keys." Turns out that when you click in a few specific directions when outside, you turn in such a way that a car is visible. You only see it when faced one particular way though. Basically, every time you get stuck at the house, someone in town will know something.

2. At another point, I looked over the entire house to find a long object, such as a straightened paperclip to push a key out of a lock. Couldn't find it. Hint Keeper: "In the hayloft, there is something you need." Turns out that after a specific sequence in the hayloft, you have to go BACK UP THERE, look into a hole in the floorboards, and pry a nail from one of the undersides of the boards. That is just convoluted.

3. Final climactic chase. You have to grab a book from a table, but you can only do so at one particular point in time in that room. You need to be out within X amount of seconds, or you get killed. (I missed the 'grab point'; tried too early, and the character left without the book.) You run through the entire chase, and at the end it turns out you can't win the game. When you retry, you start in that room again, without any other option apart from grabbing that book, and the entire chase is omitted, because you already made all the right decisions. You immediately jump to the point where flaw 4 comes in.

4. You always get captured during the chase. There is only one way to escape, and you have to have a certain item in your inventory to do it; if you don't, you die. You can only pick that item up during the chase, but to do so, the character has to stop and search some discarded clothing. *NOBODY* would be thinking about searching some clothing for an unkown item you don't yet know you will need, if a demon-posessed maniac is chasing you.

While points 1 and 2 are just a bit 'meh' and can be remedied by clicking the Hint Keeper, point 3 and 4 detract from the epicness of the game ending; especially point 3. The game should not let you start the chase sequence if you don't have the book, because you CAN'T win.

Grabbing the book and having the item are so essential to winning the game, that the character should grab the book just before leaving the room, even if you missed your 'grab point,' to make sure the lame 'solution' in point 3 doesn't have to occur. The item from point 4 should be in plain sight. It's introduced in the first five minutes of the story, and then never hinted at again. Seeing it again in plain sight would make people realize that they need it.

Well, another game to shelve, although the ending was spoiled a bit by having to mess around with it.

Next will be the Caesar 3 campaign (1997), Baldur's Gate 1 (1998), Icewind Dale (2000), Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001), and Jade Empire (2007), because I have a game in progress with all of them, some over 50% done (and years old...).

Or maybe I'll do Planescape: Torment first, because it's relatively short, and VERY hard to keep running on modern systems.

12-12-2016, 10:14 PM	#29226
Katsunami Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,111 Karma: 34000001 Join Date: Mar 2008 Device: KPW1, KA1	Last year I finished a few old games: Star Trek: 25th Anniversary (1993, CD Version) Star Trek: Judgment Rites (1994) Star Trek: A Final Unity (1995) Now I can add Phantasmagoria (1995) to that. Just finished it. Epic game with a few flaws. It's not always logical what you have to do, and I noticed that I had to click the Hintkeeper in the same spots as 20 years ago. Spoiler: 1. I explored the entire house and the premises and didn't know where to go next. The Hint Keeper said: "Someone in town holds the keys." Turns out that when you click in a few specific directions when outside, you turn in such a way that a car is visible. You only see it when faced one particular way though. Basically, every time you get stuck at the house, someone in town will know something. 2. At another point, I looked over the entire house to find a long object, such as a straightened paperclip to push a key out of a lock. Couldn't find it. Hint Keeper: "In the hayloft, there is something you need." Turns out that after a specific sequence in the hayloft, you have to go BACK UP THERE, look into a hole in the floorboards, and pry a nail from one of the undersides of the boards. That is just convoluted. 3. Final climactic chase. You have to grab a book from a table, but you can only do so at one particular point in time in that room. You need to be out within X amount of seconds, or you get killed. (I missed the 'grab point'; tried too early, and the character left without the book.) You run through the entire chase, and at the end it turns out you can't win the game. When you retry, you start in that room again, without any other option apart from grabbing that book, and the entire chase is omitted, because you already made all the right decisions. You immediately jump to the point where flaw 4 comes in. 4. You always get captured during the chase. There is only one way to escape, and you have to have a certain item in your inventory to do it; if you don't, you die. You can only pick that item up during the chase, but to do so, the character has to stop and search some discarded clothing. NOBODY would be thinking about searching some clothing for an unkown item you don't yet know you will need, if a demon-posessed maniac is chasing you. While points 1 and 2 are just a bit 'meh' and can be remedied by clicking the Hint Keeper, point 3 and 4 detract from the epicness of the game ending; especially point 3. The game should not let you start the chase sequence if you don't have the book, because you CAN'T win. Grabbing the book and having the item are so essential to winning the game, that the character should grab the book just before leaving the room, even if you missed your 'grab point,' to make sure the lame 'solution' in point 3 doesn't have to occur. The item from point 4 should be in plain sight. It's introduced in the first five minutes of the story, and then never hinted at again. Seeing it again in plain sight would make people realize that they need it. Well, another game to shelve, although the ending was spoiled a bit by having to mess around with it. Next will be the Caesar 3 campaign (1997), Baldur's Gate 1 (1998), Icewind Dale (2000), Return to Castle Wolfenstein (2001), and Jade Empire (2007), because I have a game in progress with all of them, some over 50% done (and years old...). Or maybe I'll do Planescape: Torment first, because it's relatively short, and VERY hard to keep running on modern systems. Last edited by Katsunami; 12-12-2016 at 10:24 PM.