History VideoGame / PhantasmagoriaAPuzzleOfFlesh

''Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh'', commonly known as "Phantasmagoria 2", is a 1996 InteractiveMovie and InNameOnly sequel to Creator/{{Sierra}}'s ''VideoGame/{{Phantasmagoria}}''.

* MythologyGag: At one point, Curtis gets an announcement in his mail about Adrienne Delaney's newest book. [[spoiler:Considering the book is titled "Coping With Loss", it's clear the events from the first game really took a toll on her.]]

** Presumably due to a bug, there's one point where you can only progress by right-clicking, something you don't need to do at any other point of the game, when left-clicking should have worked. (You can use a right click at any time in the game, but it does the same as a left click.) According to a mailing list maintained by the developers while the game was in production, the right-click puzzle is ''intentional''. They actually thought that having a right-click do something exactly one time in the game was a clever idea. (There is a ''very'' oblique hint implying that this was meant as a kind of InterfaceScrew)

* StraightGay: Trevor exists somewhere between CampGay and StraightGay. He's got all the speech patterns and mannerisms you'd expect from a gay guy in fiction, but they're subdued enough that he doesn't quite count as camp.

* TallDarkAndHandsome: Why, our protagonist Mr. Curtis Craig, of course! He's quite the apple of many of his co-workers eyes at his job, and it isn't that hard to see why.

* WalkingShirtlessScene: Curtis gets one after having terribly creepy hallucinogenic bondage sex with Therese, with scratch marks and bumps all across his chest.

* AlliterativeName: Curtis Craig.

* AndIMustScream: [[spoiler:Paul Allen Warner ends up as a severed head hanging in Dimension X ''and still alive'']] in TheStinger. He gasps with a look of terror on his face, lacking the capacity to do anything else.

* ArtificialHuman: [[spoiler:Curtis, to replace the ''real'' Curtis. As a result, he has a hard time connecting with people, but gets the consolation prize of being sexually desirable to everyone he meets, man or woman.]]
* AssholeVictim:
** Bob is the SitcomArchnemesis that everyone in-game hates, and when he gets killed the characters seem more affected by such a gruesome death being done in their office more than the actual person who was killed.
** Curtis's therapist is pretty useless, and her reflections on their sessions behind his back make it pretty clear she's not particularly interested in his wellbeing.

* TheBeastMaster: Curtis is somehow able to command his rat to fetch his wallet out from under the couch, using a granola bar to lure it in. [[FridgeBrilliance It's eventually revealed that]] [[spoiler:Curtis is an alien made from dead rats and that could have given him a telepathic connection toward rats.]]

* BigBad: Paul Allen Warner. [[spoiler:However, Paul Allen Warner's status gets [[HijackedByGanon hijacked by the Hecatomb]], and Paul Allen Warner is treated like nothing more than an afterthought by the end of the game]].

* BreakTheComedian: Trevor, a DeadpanSnarker extraordinaire who enjoys things like comical puppets, trading cheeky emails with Curtis and telling spectacularly ridiculous stories. However, as the story goes on and the bodies start piling up, Trevor's witticisms start seeming like deliberate attempts to keep him and Curtis from going insane from stress as they delve deeper into the mystery. Once Trevor realizes how much danger they're in, though, all jokes are off: his last email to Curtis is a horror-stricken "FORGET WYNTECH AND GET OUT OF THERE NOW!" [[spoiler: In his final scene, a deeply-shaken Trevor decides to go to the cops and blow the whistle, soberly warning Curtis to stay as far away from the action as possible so he doesn't get hurt. And then the Hecatomb murders him.]]
* BreakTheCutie: Let's face it. Curtis Craig received this in one form or another for his entire life. [[spoiler: Which is a part of the Hecatomb's motivation for killing people. See the GrandTheftMe entry below.]]

* BuryYourGays: Trevor doesn't make it to the end of the game.
* CampGay: Trevor is a fairly realistic example, although it's implied he's [[InvokedTrope intentionally playing up the stereotype,]] as he [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness completely drops it once things get serious.]]

* ChickMagnet: There's only two people in the office who ''aren't'' into Curtis in some form. Hell, even Trevor [[spoiler:and Bob, [[WordOfSaintPaul allegedly]]]] wants him.
* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: [[spoiler:While she obviously [[GoMadFromTheRevelation went nuts because of it]], Curtis's mother could somehow tell the boy was an alien monster and not really her son.]]

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: There's quite a few in this game. In one given example, [[spoiler: Therese is stabbed, gagged, held up by a hook and electrocuted to death ''in her own blood,'' with her cries of help being ignored as people assume she's working with a client]].

* TheCutie: Trevor Barnes, Curtis' adorably [[DeadpanSnarker snarky]] best friend who's always there for him, no matter what.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: Oh...man! Curtis Craig defines this trope. His mother dressed him like a girl, subjected him to electric shocks while he was strapped to a chair, as well as chased after him with a knife with the intent to kill him. She kept on calling him "a monster", which was apparently her reason or excuse for abusing him. Curtis ultimately finds her having committed suicide. His father seemed to neglect him, kept looking at him with sad eyes, and tried to protect him from his mother - but not enough. He is shot to death by [=WynTech=] goons, and Curtis finds his dead body. It is later revealed that his father worked with Paul Allen Warner on experiments with a portal between dimensions. While no one was looking, PAW grabbed young Curtis and [[spoiler: tossed him into the portal. Curtis apparently came out, but he was never quite the same. The reason for that is... you know what, you should look at the TomatoInTheMirror entry below.]]

** Curtis is led to believe that he's a murderer with no memory of his crimes. [[spoiler: He's not, and he's not even aware of his ''actual'' dark secret. See the TomatoInTheMirror entry below.]]

* DepravedBisexual: Therese is a dominatrix who regularly frequents an S&M club. Not so bad by itself, but otherwise she comes across as a complete nutcase. [[StalkerWithACrush She stalks Curtis to make him her new lover]] and goes so far as to break into his apartment and install a bondage body harness in his bedroom without his prior consent while he was away. When he objects because he ''has'' a girlfriend (Jocilyn), Therese tells him that she's welcome too because she finds her a 'real cutie'.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: It's implied that Curtis's mother sub-consciously knew that Curtis was an unnatural imitation of her real son and that the conflicting emotions of love and revulsion drove her insane, causing her to torment the boy and finally kill herself.]]

* EvilIsVisceral: The Hecatomb, the hallucinations he causes, the deaths he causes, his projection, and his real form, [[spoiler:the original Curtis Craig.]] Everything about the Hecatomb defines this trope.
* EvilTwin: [[spoiler:Inverted;]] the game's main villain is [[spoiler:the original Curtis Craig]], while [[spoiler:the hero]] is an alien who has taken on his form.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: [[spoiler: The original Curtis Craig. He started out as a young, innocent boy, got thrown into a transdimensional portal, was used as a guinea pig, and ended turning into the Hecatomb, a cannibalistic monster with psychic powers and a hunger for murder.]]

* GayBestFriend: Trevor Barnes to Curtis.
* {{Gayngst}}: Curtis outright admits to have this in one of his therapy sessions, confiding that he's attracted to Trevor as well as Jocilyn, and has polyamorous fantasies about the two of them.

* HeteronormativeCrusader: Powell, who expresses her disgust at Curtis and Therese's "strange way" of showing affection through [[BondageIsBad bondage and pain]].

* {{Jerkass}}:
** Bob, to the extreme. "Stealing files" is the worst Curtis accuses him of when the detective asks him what Bob did to wrong him, but Bob straight-up ''sabotages'' Curtis's computer and was preparing to brick his entire hard drive when he got murdered. Mind you, Curtis did not even get to find out what Bob was doing in his cubicle, which is why "stealing files" was his worst accusation.
** Curtis. As you go through the game it's really hard to feel sorry for him at all. He cheats on Jocilyn with Therese and tries to cover it up, withholds evidence and obstructs justice, and proves to be no better than Paul Allen Warner in that area.
** Detective Powell. As detailed under PoliceAreUseless, she is terrible and unprofessional at her job as well as a very vicious, unsympathetic individual overall, harassing Curtis with no actual proof just because he acts strangely. One can not really blame Curtis for obstructing justice if the main police unit involved in the case is this awful and incompetent.
* JerkassHasAPoint: Curtis after Jocilyn says he's acting weird following Bob's murder. He says, "Oh, I'm sorry, Joss. I guess finding disemboweled dead guys in my cubicle just throws me right the fuck off."
* KarmaHoudini: Doctor Marek, the man who put Curtis through at least a year of torture, and was apparently in league with Paul Warner, only gets his comeuppance in a dream-like scenario; the real one goes unpunished.
* KavorkaMan: Curtis, as mentioned is decidedly attractive to all the characters despite being ridiculously plain in both appearance and personality. This is apparently a new development, since he's just as confused at everyone he knows suddenly coming on to him as the audience.
* LackOfEmpathy:
** Curtis most certainly has this. He compares the death of Bob Arnold as road-kill found on the road. He also admits to his therapist that he truly feels no connection to people. He apparently considers his pet rat Blob to be his only family. There are reasons for this, however. That, and he does have moments of actual empathy.
** Paul Allen Warner. Just about every scene involving him in some way demonstrates this trope in disturbing ways. One particularly creepy example takes place shortly after Bob's murder. If Curtis goes back into [=WynTech=], he will find PAW working in his office. That's right, PAW is working in his office, on the heels of a gruesome murder, one that took place in the cubicle farm next to his office, and one that caused trauma to a large number of his employees and leave work for the rest of the day. Is that awful or what?
* LimitedWardrobe: Curtis seems to wear the same grey pocket-T every day.
* LonersAreFreaks: Curtis is most certainly a loner, and at home he treats a pet rat named Blob like the only member of his family. He has a few friends in the workplace, like Jocilyn and Trevor. It turns out that he has reasons for living like this. This trope becomes a problem for Curtis when Detective Powell questions him about where he was when a murder happened. He tries to explain that he spent the night in his home with Therese. Unfortunately, he is unable to tell her where Therese lives because he does not know that. Also, he does not want to explain to her that Therese broke into his home and he not only did nothing about it, but he engaged in bondage sex with her. Detective Powell can tell (maybe) that Curtis is a loner and she is convinced that he is serial killer because he is a loner.

* NiceGuy: Tom Ravell, who is the only one of Curtis' coworkers apart from the somewhat-irritating Jocilyn who doesn't verbally abuse him, stalk him, conduct evil experiments with an interdimensional portal, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking or waste his time with a pointless story about potatoes]].

* ObviouslyEvil: '''Paul. Allen. Warner'''. If you can't figure out he's evil in some way within the first minute of meeting him, you're not exactly a good judge of character. This is apparent even before he's introduced:
## He casually dismisses the environmental damage caused to a species of fish in the company's efforts to get needed ingredients for drugs in an email message.
## He gives a cover story for the lower levels of the building being restricted and he backpedals in an email message - "We are trying to keep you out, I mean in!" (Strange, you would think that you cannot backpedal in an email message).
## Curtis calls Paul Allen Warner on the phone to let him know that he completed an assignment, and Curtis is told "Well done, my boy! Well done! I am going to keep my eye on you!" (PAW says this in a rather creepy way).
## Curtis goes into PAW's office and finds a lot of mounted animals on the wall (Which is creepy, because why would anyone want to mount animals on the walls of his or her company office?).
## Curtis remembers how he heard Paul Allen Warner yell "I'll kill you, you son of a bitch!" to someone who is imploring him to stop doing something that's obviously immoral.
** To reiterate -- All these examples take place at the beginning of the game ''before you actually meet the guy''. And after you ''do'' he spends the entire game acting as suspicious, creepy, and sinister as possible, stopping just short of regularly breaking into [[EvilLaugh diabolical laughter]].
* OnlySaneMan: Surprisingly, [[GayBestFriend Trevor]]. He's a pretty efficient hacker and, at the game's climax, tells Curtis he needs to get the hell out of [=WynTech=]. Why he decided to wait around in the highly isolated store room just to tell Curtis not to go to [=WynTech=] is another matter though... If he had just gone to the police before that, the outcome of the game might have turned out better.
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Therese gets an odd foreign accent on a few lines. The actress' real name is (according to Website/TheOtherWiki) Ragna Sigrun, which is Icelandic. So presumably that's her ''real'' accent slipping in through her put-on American accent.

* PoliceAreUseless: Initially averted, but quickly played straight to the point of being painful to watch. The only time you see the police in action after Bob's murder is Detective Powell, who is not a credit to the force for many reasons including the following:
## She allows Paul Allen Warner to get his office back to work the day after the murders, ruining the crime scene, and all she does in ''threaten'' him with an obstruction of justice, no actual action is taken.
## She latches onto Curtis as her prime suspect with absolutely no evidence aside from [[LonersAreFreaks he acts a bit weird and suspicious]], ignoring the idea his odd behavior may have something to do with his cubical being the site of a horrific murder. She also questions him alone every time despite being convinced he's a homicidal maniac.
## She lets Curtis know he's her prime suspect and intimidates him with a warning that if she finds any shred of evidence to point to him, she's locking him up. She then never puts him under surveillance of any sort, or does any sort of actual interrogation.
## After Tom is killed, Curtis told her he overheard Paul Allen Warner and Tom arguing about Warner forcing everyone to come in to work the day after Bob's murder, the argument including Warner threatening Tom's life, and he suspects a company conspiracy is to blame for the killings. She never even considers the possibility he may be on to something. Hell, it's almost as if she deliberately refuses to consider it purely because Curtis is the one who said it.

* PsychoPsychologist: Dr. Marek is a complete psycho running a hellish BedlamHouse where he tortures his patients. He's also in league with a CorruptCorporateExecutive and merrily sacrifices his patients to be consumed by interdimensional aliens. [[spoiler:He also bugged his colleague Dr. Harburg's phone to keep tabs on Curtis.]]

* ReallyGetsAround:
** Curtis, courtesy of the powers of the KavorkaMan, sleeps with both Jocilyn and Therese, starts visiting a bondage/swingers club with the latter, and has his best friend Trevor declare his undying love for him [[spoiler:although Trevor dies before their relationship can become physical]].
** Therese as well, being a frequent patron of an S&M club in town.

* ReplacementGoldfish: [[spoiler:Curtis is an alien who has shapeshifted into the form of the real Curtis, who has been trapped in fake!Curtis' home dimension.]]
* RidiculouslyAverageGuy: Curtis. At least in the first part of the game.

* TheShrink: Dr. Harburg.
* SitcomArchnemesis: ''Bob...''. He's a rival employee of Curtis, both dislike each other, and they're simply fighting over a promotion at work. [[spoiler:It is such a pity that Bob found out in the hardest way possible that [[WrongGenreSavvy he was not in a sitcom]].]]

* TomatoInTheMirror: [[spoiler:Curtis is actually an extradimensional alien. The real Curtis never left the alien dimension, and has mutated and developed psychic powers to torment the clone Curtis with past dimensional barriers.]]
* TheChewToy: Curtis Craig is either this or TheWoobie. You decide!

* ThisLoserIsYou: The game flip-flops on this with Curtis. On one hand, almost the entire office has the hots for him (maybe even Bob if you believe what his actor has to say about the character,) but on the other hand he's still a geeky loser and TheChewToy, regular referred to as "Rat Boy."

* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler: Tom Revell goes into [=WynTech=] to type up a report of Paul Allen Warner's conduct, so he can send it to the Board of Directors and take down PAW. This would be fine, except he is all alone in the cubicle farm in the middle of the night. One would think he would take precautions after a murder occurred across the room a day earlier and PAW told him "YOU ARE A DEAD MAN!" But no, he did not.]]
* TorturedMonster: The Hecatomb turns out to be [[spoiler:the original Curtis Craig, sacrificed to the aliens by Paul Allen Warner.]] He has been encased in their organic matter and mutated to the point that his organs are outside his body and he will die if his biomask is removed. In his torment he uses his psychic powers to lash out at everyone he can and tries to drive [[spoiler:alien Curtis]] to madness for [[spoiler:inadvertently stealing his life.]]

* {{Tsundere}}: Believe it or not, Bob may actually be this towards Curtis, according to his actor (he was just in extreme tsuntsun mode out of denial for his possible feelings for him.)
* TwoFirstNames: Curtis Craig.

* WasOnceAMan: [[spoiler: The Hecatomb. Would you believe that a human being ended up becoming a monster that only has a few human-like characteristics?]]
* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: The Hecatomb is revealed to be [[spoiler:the original Curtis Craig, thrown into the alien world when he was young by PAW and forced to grow up in a hostile alien dimension. He wants to destroy alien Curtis and kill his friends out of revenge.]]

* {{Yandere}}: Jocilyn in one of Curtis' visions, where she pulls a gun on Curtis so that [[IfICantHaveYou if she can't have him, no one will]].

* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Actually subverted; [[spoiler:Warner survives this attempt, and [[FateWorseThanDeath ends up having his decapitated head attached to a series of tendrils in the alien dimension.]] The way Curtis looks over at him at the end implies Curtis put him through the portal.]]

* PsychosexualHorror: The main character, Curtis, is trying to connect with people and consults with a psychiatrist about his hangups. One of the sexual elements of the game involves Curtis sharing his bisexual fantasies about his two co-workers Trevor and Jocelyn.

''Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle Of Flesh,'' commonly known as "Phantasmagoria 2", is a 1996 FMVGame and InNameOnly sequel to Creator/{{Sierra}}'s ''VideoGame/{{Phantasmagoria}}''.

It's been one year since Curtis Craig (played by Creator/PaulMorganStetler) was released from the asylum. He's done his best to readjust to normal life - securing a desk job at his late father's workplace, [=WynTech=] Pharmaceuticals, making friends, and even entering a relationship with his co-worker Jocilyn. Unfortunately, some scars don't heal easily, and it seems every day is a struggle against his [[TheMentallyIll mental illness]] and [[{{Gayngst}} sexual]] [[CasualKink repression]].

* BigBad: Paul Allen Warner. [[ObviouslyEvil This is not a spoiler]]. [[spoiler:However, Paul Allen Warner's status gets [[HijackedByGanon hijacked by the Hecatomb]], and Paul Allen Warner is treated like nothing more than an afterthought by the end of the game]]. That is a spoiler.

* EvilTwin: [[spoiler:Inverted; the game's main villain is the original Curtis Craig, the hero is an alien who has taken on his form]].

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Therese gets an odd foreign accent on a few lines. The actress' real name is (according to Wiki/TheOtherWiki) Ragna Sigrun, which is Icelandic. So presumably that's her ''real'' accent slipping in through her put-on American accent.

* DeathBySex: Strangely enough, averted by Jocilyn, who is the only one of Curtis' coworkers who survive to the end, despite them doing it on the first disc. Played straight, however, with Therese.

** [[spoiler: Stay with Jocelyn]], whom Curtis doesn't care all that much for. [[spoiler:And Curtis slowly starts to turn into an alien horror as he does not belong in this world.]] [[WordOfGod The game's writer Lorelei Shannon]] softens this a bit into a BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Curtis isn't mutating, he's acquired VoluntaryShapeshifting powers as a result of interacting with his homeworld. But along with this new superpower, he'll never fit in with humanity, be tempted to use it for dark purposes, is probably struggling with sex addiction and various mental health issues, and will never be completely happy with Jocelyn.]]

* AllTherapistsAreMuggles: As his hallucinations steadily increase and more people end up dead, Curtis starts to visit a therapist, Dr. Harburg, to talk about his many, many issues. However, Harburg is ''not'' in on the conspiracy and thinks that Curtis is just a paranoid schizophrenic, right up until [[spoiler:the Hecatomb melts her to death]]. Averted by her colleague Dr. Marek, who knows for a fact that aliens exist and is in league with [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Paul Allen Warner]].

* AllTherapistsAreMuggles: As his hallucinations steadily increase and more people end up dead, Curtis starts to visit a therapist, Dr. Harburg, to talk about his many, many issues. However, Harburg is ''not'' in on the conspiracy and thinks that Curtis is just a paranoid schizophrenic, right up until [[spoiler:the Hecatomb melts her to death]]. Averted by her colleague Dr. Marek, who knows for a fact that aliens exist and is in league with Paul Allen Warner.