#roger samms

BAD MOJO (REDUX) - 1996

Vaguely inspired by Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Bad Mojo sees the protagonist Roger Samms transformed into a cockroach moments before he attempts to run away to Mexico with a suitcase of stolen money. With how much he chews the scenery, he might have been better off getting transformed into a termite instead (affectionate insult). OK, they were clearly going for a surrealist vibe here so the acting choices are fitting, but I still ranked it lowest because most of the other speaking characters are insects who speak to you in rhyming couplets for some reason and that got real irritating after a while.

Roger Samms was played by Michael X. Sommers, who later went on to have a recurring role in the show Sense8 as 'Bug'.

HARVESTER - 1996

An young man named Steve wakes up to find himself in a small US town with no memory of who he is, how he got there, or who any of the people claiming to be his friends and family are. This is a really hard one to grade, because despite being an English-language game developed in the USA, the characters are dubbed over by different actors to the ones who play them physically. As far as I know it's the only game on this list that does that. Like Bad Mojo, it does help to increase the disturbing, surreal tone of the game. Unfortunately, that doesn't raise it higher on the list.

Steve Mason was voiced by Ryan Wickerham, who went on to voice act in many other video games including Turok 2, Deus Ex: Invisible War, and DC Universe Online. He was portrayed physically by Kurt Kistler, who went on to be arrested in 2010.

PHANTASMAGORIA - 1995

Remember when I said that the ranking on this list was not intended as an insult to the actors? This is why; Victoria Morsell does her best as Adrienne Delaney, a mystery writer who recently moved into a needlessly big and inevitably haunted house with her husband Don. But you can find the BTS footage of them doing the scenes, where she is acting in a set that is completely blue. You can't be expected to perform well under those conditions.

Then there's the housekeeper and her son, who are played by a comedy gnome and Lennie from Of Mice and Men, respectively. (Insult? I dunno.)

As far as I can tell, Victoria Morsell quit acting a few years after the game when she married David Hemingson, writer of 2023's festive comedy drama The Holdovers.

TOONSTRUCK - 1996

This is the part where we get into cast members that have actual IMDB credits to their name. The story of a cartoon animator who is pulled into a cartoon world to help save it from corruption, Toonstruck features Christopher Lloyd and Ben Stein, as well as some other people who don't count because they are voicing animated characters. Yeah, Lloyd and Stein (Protagonist Drew Blanc and his boss, Sam Schmaltz) are the only live-action actors in the game and Stein only appears briefly during the start and ending cutscenes. Honestly I debated even putting it on the list. I compromised by only rating it by the live-action parts; Lloyd is good throughout but Ben Stein sucks. Both as an actor and just in general.

Christopher Lloyd later went on to appear as Granddad in King of Van Nuys, the poorly conceived US remake of beloved British sitcom Only Fools and Horses. The pilot was never picked up. He also did some movies about time travel back in the 80s or something.

NOCTROPOLIS - 1994

Peter Grey, recently divorced and living in the back room of his failing bookshop, gets transported into the world of his favourite comic book superhero Darksheer and has to take the hero's place to fight five of his greatest enemies.

OK, I'm gonna be honest here, the acting in Noctropolis is also not that great. It's almost all character portrait things where the actors speak directly into the camera in response to the dialogue option chosen; there isn't much in the way of acted cutscenes I could make a proper opinion over. I would have put it before Toonstruck if not for one reason, and that is because during the ending credits they do a blooper reel from the recording sessions and the actress playing Stiletto (another superhero) has a really adorable laugh.

Peter Grey was played by Michael Berger, who was apparently in one episode of Malcolm in the Middle.

Stiletto was played by Hope Marie Carlton, who snorts when she laughs.

DOCTOR WHO - THE LONELY ASSASSINS - 2021

Yes, you read that right. This one is actually from the 2000s. Amazing. This is a tie-in game for Doctor Who and actually involves Ingrid Oliver and Finlay Robertson, who play Petronella Osgood and Larry Nightingale, respectively. The acting is fine, I guess, but the dialogue itself often comes across as very This Is Exposition-y, and that's hard to sell.

Sally Sparrow was played by Carey Mulligan, who does not appear in this game despite being the central character of Blink, which this game is a sequel to. Probably couldn't afford her these days.

PHANTASMAGORIA: A PUZZLE OF FLESH - 1996

The first Phantasmagoria was done entirely on a blue-screen set, and it shows. Phantasmagoria 2 was done almost entirely on an actual, physical set and holy shit it shows. Characters actually interact with their environment in a convincing, realistic way. Dialogue between them feels natural, like they're not simply reading their lines from a script. The game feels like you're watching a low budget, made-for-TV horror movie which, while that would be a terrible review for an actual movie, is a win for this list.

It also plays like you're watching a low budget, made-for-TV horror movie but gameplay is not a factor in this list.