Deceptive Perception 2: Phantasmagoria

Deceptive Perception 2: Phantasmagoria

Created By: Yandros

The original “Deceptive Perception” is the FM that has the distinct honor by many of us as being the single scariest FM ever created. To me personally it has the distinct honor of being the reason I scream every time I see a crate AND the reason why I never turn around after reading a note left for me by someone (if I don’t notice the zombie hoard that probably just appeared behind me, they won’t eat me…though I have to wonder why I would think a letter reading “GET YOUR DAMN STUFF OFF THE COUNTER” would trigger a swarm of hungry zombies, but better safe than sorry). Enter “Deceptive Perception 2: Phantasmagooglia” (spelling of actual subtitle may vary), created by The Man Himself, Yandros, which comes before me claiming it is the “spiritual successor” to “Deceptive Perception”, and that it will both scare me as much as the original and is much larger and more involving and will make me lose 10 pounds in 3 days. Does it accomplish all this? Well, you better read on, because I’m not giving it away in the first paragraph this time (It does. GODDAMMIT!).

The story has you playing as Garrett as he recalls a mission he took on a night ago. Some guy was all “There’s a big expensive relic in this Warehouse but it’s crazy haunted and anyone who goes in there is dead and sucks at being a thief” and Garrett was all “NUH-UH!!”. Long story short his face was gnawed off by zombies. THE END. Well okay, there’s a bit more too it than that but Garrett in a haunted warehouse is the basic premise that the FM runs with…for about 1/4 of its playtime….so I guess it runs with it and then right near the end zone passes it to some kid with A.D.D. who catches the premise and drives away with it to Vegas before ultimately ending up in Mexico. What I’m saying is it’s all over the place- but in a good way! Like if chocolate were to get all over the place on your face, except in your eyes because that would sting. Maybe I should just stay away from analogies because I think I’m horrible at them.

The emphasis in “DP2: Phantasmalicious” is of course on scares, like the original you’re meant to move slowly through each room taking in the jump moments and scripted events which normally involve ghosts throwing stuff at you or singing creepy nursery rhymes (since all ghosts are either in a perpetual state of arrested development or big stupid jerks). There are also some points where ghosts will actually chase you down and try to kill you while you have no way of defending yourself, at which point you get to live out all of your action hero fantasies of seeing something scary and running away screaming. All of the scares work in either making you jump or in looking just plain awesome. There are probably more on the “just plain awesome” than “jump” side, of course it’s also possible that I just have nerves of steel and am all that is man. I DO go cliff jumping and shave with a giant hunting knife, so that is very possible.

Yeah, c'mon! Yuh big BABY.

If this mission has one major flaw it’s probably that it just can’t choose what it wants to be about. It’s at its best when it just has you nervously walking through a haunted warehouse getting the bejeebus scared out of you, but this part amounts to little more than an introduction. I don’t mind all the changes of location, but at one point it tricks you into thinking it’s going to become a legitimate sneaking mission by introducing guards you have to creep by and an interesting alternate world gameplay mechanic…and then it goes back to a linear corridor crawling spook house. The thing is I love the whole spook house thing, but this sudden transition to actual gameplay which only disappears moments later just comes off as odd, even though the gameplay itself is very good. It’s like someone giving you an apple pie only for you to bite into it and realize it’s actually a steak sandwich…or something that makes much more sense than that but is also jarring (CURSE YOU ANALOGIES, why must your art escape me?).

Actually the mission has one more problem, it’s a bit buggy. This is to be expected from a mission with so many complex scripted events and none of them are game breaking. One I found had me refusing to stop walking forward after being magically transported to a new area unless I started walking backward and jumping around, which made me look like a TOTAL dork around all the ghosts (they’ll never allow me to sit at their lunch table now…). Another had my sword still being held out in front of me after a cinematic where I was suppose to have it taken away…only I couldn’t put it away or swing it, which not only made me look like a dork but pretty much solidified that the poltergeist who calls herself the “White Lady” would totally never go out with me (she had hurled some skulls at me before, but I know that was just her style of playful flirting- the tease). Overall none of this was much of a problem, but if I don’t pick these nits who will? YOU!? PFFT, I’d like to see that…(YOU STAY AWAY FROM MY NITS)

So, if I were a tree, would I download “DP 2: Phatasmastablishmentarianism”? I would go as far as to say that I would download it even if I wasn’t a tree. In fact I did. And I loved it. And you will love it too. I haven’t even mentioned the fantastic level design (no really, I haven’t. I’m actually THAT bad at reviewing) or the great voice acting. Both are just more icing on the cake! Hey…that was an analogy that actually made sense! Maybe I’m getting good at this? Let me just finish then by saying, playing this FM is better than flying through a galaxy sized Krispy Kreme in a spaceship made out of pancakes.

This is what happens to those who spoil the ending. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED.