Phantasmat 4: The Dread of Oakville

Phantasmat: The Dread of Oakville
by Eipix Entertainment - July, 2015

Series links: Phantasmat, Phantasmat 2: Crucible Peak, Phantasmat 3: The Endless Night, Phantasmat 4: The Dread of Oakville

Available at:
Big Fish as Collector's Edition / Standard Edition
Steam as Collector's Edition



It's the end of the world... at least in Oakville. Find out what's really happening in a town where everyone seems to be missing, and a strange mystic is warning citizens of the coming apocalypse. As fans of the Phantasmat series know, it's hard to tell who's really dead and who's really alive in this world. The eerie continuation comes from Eipix, makers of the popular Final Cut and Myths of the World games! Play a new variety of puzzles and hidden-object games, including interactive morphing scenes, silhouettes, and multiple zoom HOPs.

Fight the Dread of Oakville again in the Bonus Chapter!

• Discover deviously-hidden Collectibles
  
• Consult the helpful Strategy Guide.
  
• Enjoy additional Photos, Videos, Music, and more!
  
• Replay HOPs and Mini-games.
  
• Big Fish Blog Walkthrough
  

Phantasmat 4: The Dread of Oakville (IHOG)

Options include separate sliders for Music, SFX and Voices, plus Full-screen (auto widescreen) and Custom Cursor.  Choice of 3 preset difficulties or Custom Mode, which can be changed at any time.  The toolbar can be locked open if you wish.

Story:

You have been stranded outside the town of Oakville, but how can you find any help when most everyone seems to be missing?  Something dreadful has happened here, but there's no looking back now...


There is NO Journal to keep tabs on the story, but you won't need to write down clues in order to solve puzzles.  That kind of thing will go into your inventory so that you don't lose track.  There is also a task list in case you need it.

It feels like parts of the story were done by different people, because both the overall storyline and the behavior of the characters are contradictory from one part of the story to the next.  Very confusing.

Gameplay:

Keep an eye out for Morphing Items - one on each scene.  There is an indicator on the right side of the toolbar - Gold if you've found it, silver if you haven't.

The MAP can be interactive, and directional HINTS are available.  If the place you need to be is more than one scene away when you click the hint button, you'll get a popup window that gives you the option to insta-transport there, and that reminds me... When you click on a location on your map, it will bring up a picture of that location.  You'll have to click on the popup if you want to jump to that scene.

The Hidden Object Scenes are really the best part of this fourth Phantasmat game.  Every time you see one it's going to be something different, from silhouettes, word association, riddles, finding x-number of items to unlock word lists and more. 


The Match-3 alternative to the HO scenes is well-designed and fun-to-play, but is not always available... I didn't even see it show up as an option until I was an hour into the game.

I really enjoyed the first part of the game, but then they started making us do foolish things in order to progress.  I'm all for using whatever tools you have at hand to get the job done -- I'm the queen of makeshift solutions -- but these things just made me want to pull my hair out!

Example:

Spoiler:

Sights and Sounds:

The voice acting was just all over the place.  One person was really good, another completely chewed up the carpet, while another was just dull - I never knew what I was going to hear when a character opened their mouth, and that brings me to a pet peeve of mine...

This game has some really spooky moments in it... Moments completely ruined either by the acting or by our own character's total lack of reaction to what's going on around her.  "Oh, that's odd, I don't usually see headless corpses floating through town."  That dialogue isn't in the game, but it's things like that.  Sure it keeps things from getting too scary for people, but darn it, I like my creepy games to be CREEPY!

I enjoyed the graphics and the style they used - it was nicely-suited to the environment they were trying to portray.


CE Content:

• Integrated Strategy Guide (bottom left of the task bar, above the map)
  
• 43 Morphing Items, can be obtained via the Extras section of the game if you miss them
  
• In-game Achievements
  
• Bonus Chapter
  
• 8 Wallpapers + Character development
  
• 10 Music Tracks (saveable)
  
• 16 Rewatchable Cutscenes
  
• 17 Replayable Hidden Object Scenes (with scoring)
  
• 21 Replayable Puzzles
  
• Match 3 Game (five levels, I think)
  
• Souvenir Room
  

Bonus Chapter:

The main game wraps up nicely, but it's not the actual ending of the story!  There is more to it than meets the eye, and that is where the extra chapter comes in.  I liked the bonus more than the main game, I think, mostly because the tasks we had to perform weren't so asinine.

Verdict:

This is a well-made game with many extras, match-3 gameplay in place of finding hidden objects (not always available) and nice artwork.  I would recommend this game to fans of the genre, but be aware that there is rampant usage of "game logic".