Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The Phantom of Venice Review


I'm just going to say right now that this is at least in my top two games, if not my favorite. It's tied with The Haunting of Castle Malloy. However, if that game were nonexistent, this would totally be number one. I really love the city of Venice, I really love the plot, and I really love how it turns out. Plus I loved to learn a taste of Italian. ;) Okay, here we go.

Summary: 9/10
So you're called to Italy by the GDIF (AKA the Italian version of the CIA.) to try to capture this art thief who goes by "Il Fantasma". I bet you can guess what that means in Italian. Anyway, you have to stay with a snooty woman in her house, which is called the Ca Nascosta, in order to spy on a suspect that works across the street, work on a few missions with the GDIF, and get your hands a bit dirty in the final scene. Overall, the plot starts out pretty thin, but then turns to oatmeal when you really get into it. I highly enjoy the storyline and all of the tasks you get to do.

Characters: 8.5/10
Colin Baxter: Colin is a bit of a strange one. He's from Oxford, England, and is restoring this fantabulous mural in the Ca Nascosta. He's very into his work, obviously. He LOVES tessarae, which are the little blocks of... whatever they are, that murals are made of. In the beginning of the game, he starts showing you a whole bunch of these tessarae and no matter how long you sit there and watch them, he gets offended when you say you have to leave. I literally let it go for about two hours and nothing different happened. He's like "Oh, I see how it is. Girl, sit down and look at these tessarae or I will CUT you." Actually, not really. That was just me being dumb. Also, he has a crush on Nancy and creeps on her quite a bit. It's weird.
Margherita Fauberg: Margherita is a VERY Italian woman. She owns the Ca Nascosta, but doesn't want to spend all of her money fixing it up. I mean, come on. If you bought it, you've got to pay to fix it. Anyway, she loves to tan, is very private, and is critical when it comes to Nancy's style. She's okay, but she's not my favorite.
Helena Berg: Helena is originally from Germany. She is a journalist reporting on high profile crimes. She has a really funny accent, she is friendly, and she seems to like you. She doesn't actually think what the Phantom is doing is all bad, but she doesn't approve of it.
Enrico Tazza: This man is the epitome of annoying. All he does is play scopa and he doesn't ever take off this annoying mask that makes him look like a lizard. He's a weird one.
Antonio Fango: Nancy spies on this guy. She doesn't actually get to talk to him, but she does get to know him pretty well from snooping on him.
(Jeez, there are a lot of important characters in this game.)
Sophia Leporace: She's your consultant or whatever from the GDIF. You never actually get to meet her, you just get to talk to her. It's kind of weird, but she seems cool.
Also, Prudence Rutheford is in this game. "You simply must stop thinking bad things about Ginger... Yes you are! Just look at how she's shaking!"

Setting: 10/10
It's Italy. Seriously, it's Venice, Italy. You can't beat that. Plus, you get to go to a whole bunch of different places. I am completely in love with the setting, very happy with the fact that there are like twenty places to go, and am awestruck that for once, you're not stuck at only two places the whole time. Yay! :D

Graphics: 8.5/10
Graphics were pretty awesome, however, they could have used a couple more details for one of the later games.

Snooping: 9.5/10
Snooping is your job in this game. I'm not even kidding, Sophia literally tells you to spy on Antonio and break into his office to look through his stuff. It was pretty epic that you were told to snoop instead of having to decide to snoop by yourself.

Spookiness:
Once again, this is not supposed to be a spooky game, so it'd be really dumb to rate its spookiness. Sorry, guys.

Conclusion: 9/10
Like I said, this is one of my favorites of all time, it's totally and completely epic beyond all belief. I love the game and only wish like two things would change. Brava, brava, bravissima! Questo รจ stato un gioco fantastico!
♫♪♥JMJ

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