Fascination (video game)

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Fascination
Fascination Coverart.png
Developer(s) Tomahawk
Publisher(s) Coktel Vision
Digital Integration
Designer(s) Muriel Tramis
Programmer(s) Philippe Lamarque
Artist(s) Yannick Chosse
Joseph Kluytmans
Rachid Chebli
Composer(s) Frédéric Motte
Engine
  • Gob  OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
Platform(s) Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS
Release 1991
Genre(s) Graphic adventure
Mode(s) Single-player

Fascination is an erotic thriller graphic adventure game developed by Tomahawk and published by Coktel Vision for the Amiga, Atari ST, and MS-DOS in 1991.

Contents

Gameplay

Fascination is a first person point and click game, the player picks up objects or interacts with the environment (activating or moving objects) using the mouse cursor. The player advances the plot by solving puzzles.

Plot

The protagonist is a flight stewardess. A passenger who died on the last flight gave her a suitcase containing a capsule containing a secret substance. That secret capsule gets her involved in a murder mystery.

Reception

Fascination received mixed reviews reception upon its release, including some very positive review scores of upwards of 90% for the PC version in French magazines; the Amiga reviews ranging from a high 80% in CU Amiga , through moderate 67% and 65% in Amiga Power and Amiga Format , to only 51% and 47% in Amiga Action and Amiga Computing . [1] Retrospectively, Richard Cobbett of PC Gamer opined the game has had "perhaps the stupidest ending of any game in history". [2]

Polish scholar Filip Jankowski criticized Cobbett's opinion, remarking that Fascination's ending predicted the finale of David Fincher's film The Game (1997). Compared to Fincher's film, Fascination more evidently criticizes capitalism. Jankowski stated that in the game's ending, all game characters turn out to participate in a murder party, the majority of them belonging to the white male establishment responsible for the pornographic content of the game world. Thus, leaving the area of the murder party, Doralice questions the patriarchal norms. Jankowski also stressed that Fascination was among the first video games featuring the female protagonist and adopting her viewpoint. [3]

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References

  1. "Amiga magazines - Amiga Magazine Rack". Amr.abime.net. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  2. Richard Cobbett (2011-10-08). "Saturday Crapshoot: Fascination". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2015-08-12.
  3. Jankowski, Filip (2020). "The Presence of Female Designers in French Video Game Industry, 1985–1993". Games and Culture. 15 (6): 678–679. doi:10.1177/1555412019841954. ISSN   1555-4120. S2CID   150836593.