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I was not to keen on this game and will try to do the best reviewing it to my perspective. As it took me a long time to actually play and finish it. It just was a bit hard to get around some spots.
PLOT
I never quite understood the plot. All I know is something about a phantom that was stealing expensive artifacts. So, they called on Nancy to help solve the mystery.
SETTING
This was set in Venice, Italy, which was a plus on my side. There was so much to learn from Italy and everything was right on par. The Italian Secret Police asked Nancy to investigate a series of art thefts happening around Venice. I think Venice was the perfect setting for this game.
CHARACTERS
Helena Berg-- Helena is a journalist from Austria. She is also Nancy's roommate.
Colin Baxter-- Colin is an art restorer from England. You can learn all about Tesserae from him. He seems very obsessed with it and gets very excited showing the tiles.
Margherita Faubourg-- Margherita is the owner the Ca' Nascosta, the hotel Nancy is staying at. She doesn't seem to have a very good liking to Nancy and is pretty rude with her.
Enrico Tazza-- Enrico runs a private club and you can only get in i dressed up as someone else otherwise they will tell you to leave. He also has a Scopa table. Scopa is a card game and is fun. I found myself most of the time going to see him just to play Scopa and I loved his reaction when playing the game. One of the best part of game.
Antonio Fango-- There was not any interaction with Antonio. He was in building across from Nancy and she would go on the balcony to spy on him.
Samantha Quick-- Samantha is not a main character but Nancy dresses up as her to see Enrico and Enrico has Nancy, who is pretending to be Samantha, steal a sapphire. There was also one time when Nancy receives a phone call in her hotel room and it was from Samantha who was warning Nancy to go back to River Heights and say hello to Ned. Nancy was curious as to who it was but guessed it had to be Samantha.
Sophia Leporace-- Sophia is one of the Italian special forces who Nancy reports to when she finds something of importance. She also gives Nancy some orders of things to do like planting tracking devices in those staying at the Ca' to keep track on them and to go on a stakeout to try to catch the Phantom.
Prudence Rutherford-- Prudence is not a stranger to ND games. She was in a few with Secret of the Scarlet Hand, Danger by Design and now Phantom. She is just a phone contact in this game. Prudence is the former owner of the Ca' Nascosta. She is a very funny character. She was the one who referred Nancy or had her go to investigate. She has the funniest voicemail of all that I have ever heard on any ND game besides the one from Ned in SEA but it made you laugh.
Ned Nickerson and Joe Hardy-- Of course, you cannot leave out Nancy's long time boyfriend Ned and good friend Joe Hardy. They are just phone contacts but there when Nancy needs to talk or get a little advice.
Gondoliers-- Okay, I find it important to list the Gondoliers as they played a sort of role. Although you cannot talk to them, they sing to you. When you go to take the water boat, you would pay a small amount of cash and you can ride the boat for them to sing while showing you the sites of Venice. I thought it was very pretty seeing what Venice looked like and the singing in Italian was a nice touch.
PUZZLES
There was not really many puzzles to do and at the beginning of the game, I almost thought they wasn't going to have any. But they were all very simple and easy. With the puzzles also came a card game of Scopa, which was fun as well as making a little money like picking up trash, selling flowers, and the worst was dancing for money. And the dancing did not even pay that much. I could not get the dancing part. To me, it was very lame. I mean, we are in Italy and you would thing they would have something like cooking pizza or something. The dancing just did not cut it for me. All the puzzles was easy to get through though.
EXPLORATION
When you started, there was not many places to explore but as you moved along more places were added. There is a map that you can view and go to different areas but the map is limited on what you can see. You have the Ca' which is not the big as well as the balcony and in bedroom you can go outside on deck to see waterways. You have a costume store, warehouse, rialto store where you can sell flowers and even grab yourself a drink or geleto which is a refreshing treat. There is a book stand store that you can purchase some books but you would thing you would be able to buy extra if you wanted and not just what the game expects. Like taking home a souvenir. You can visit different places but not very exciting to see. We are in Italy and should be able to see parts of Venice for fun.
GRAPHICS
The graphics were okay for the most part. The waterways when the gondoliers were singing put a nice touch to it but the other parts did not look much like Italy at all.
SNOOPING
If you like to snoop around this is not the game. There is one where Margherita has a letter on a table and when Nancy goes to read while she is here she will make a statement "I did not write that for you to read" or something like that and other statement. You also was able to sneak into Antonio office and snoop through it but have to be careful not to get caught. But no really big snooping.
MUSIC/SOUND EFFECTS
The music I felt put the game in perspective and gave you that feeling of being watched. Sound effects I really did not pay attention to or maybe could not hear that well.
SCARE FACTOR
This game was not scary at all. Just one part when Nancy went to sleep waking up in middle of night and Phantom was standing over her and ripped a locket off Nancy's chest that Ned gave her but it wasn't scary at all and did not make you jump.
CULPRIT
The culprit to me was unpredictable. One I never suspected at all. I was very shocked to find out who it was.
ENDING
I did not like the ending. It started off good until you freed yourself to go after culprit but then it ended to fast. I was hoping to have a chase of some sort but nothing.
OVERALL
My overall take on the game I would give a score of 7/10. It is not one of my favorites. I did forget to mention how you learn Italian a little which was a nice touch. But I hated the dancing. That just did not seem like it was part of Italy. I loved Scopa and the gondoliers singing. All the characters were fun and I really loved Prudence. She was a funny one. I just felt it could of had more Italian themes with being in Venice. Other than the waterways we seen there was not much to see other than that. And to make money in Venice you should be able to do something of Italian nature, not no dancing.That dancing was just so cheasy. Making pizza would have been better.
PLOT
I never quite understood the plot. All I know is something about a phantom that was stealing expensive artifacts. So, they called on Nancy to help solve the mystery.
SETTING
This was set in Venice, Italy, which was a plus on my side. There was so much to learn from Italy and everything was right on par. The Italian Secret Police asked Nancy to investigate a series of art thefts happening around Venice. I think Venice was the perfect setting for this game.
CHARACTERS
Helena Berg-- Helena is a journalist from Austria. She is also Nancy's roommate.
Colin Baxter-- Colin is an art restorer from England. You can learn all about Tesserae from him. He seems very obsessed with it and gets very excited showing the tiles.
Margherita Faubourg-- Margherita is the owner the Ca' Nascosta, the hotel Nancy is staying at. She doesn't seem to have a very good liking to Nancy and is pretty rude with her.
Enrico Tazza-- Enrico runs a private club and you can only get in i dressed up as someone else otherwise they will tell you to leave. He also has a Scopa table. Scopa is a card game and is fun. I found myself most of the time going to see him just to play Scopa and I loved his reaction when playing the game. One of the best part of game.
Antonio Fango-- There was not any interaction with Antonio. He was in building across from Nancy and she would go on the balcony to spy on him.
Samantha Quick-- Samantha is not a main character but Nancy dresses up as her to see Enrico and Enrico has Nancy, who is pretending to be Samantha, steal a sapphire. There was also one time when Nancy receives a phone call in her hotel room and it was from Samantha who was warning Nancy to go back to River Heights and say hello to Ned. Nancy was curious as to who it was but guessed it had to be Samantha.
Sophia Leporace-- Sophia is one of the Italian special forces who Nancy reports to when she finds something of importance. She also gives Nancy some orders of things to do like planting tracking devices in those staying at the Ca' to keep track on them and to go on a stakeout to try to catch the Phantom.
Prudence Rutherford-- Prudence is not a stranger to ND games. She was in a few with Secret of the Scarlet Hand, Danger by Design and now Phantom. She is just a phone contact in this game. Prudence is the former owner of the Ca' Nascosta. She is a very funny character. She was the one who referred Nancy or had her go to investigate. She has the funniest voicemail of all that I have ever heard on any ND game besides the one from Ned in SEA but it made you laugh.
Ned Nickerson and Joe Hardy-- Of course, you cannot leave out Nancy's long time boyfriend Ned and good friend Joe Hardy. They are just phone contacts but there when Nancy needs to talk or get a little advice.
Gondoliers-- Okay, I find it important to list the Gondoliers as they played a sort of role. Although you cannot talk to them, they sing to you. When you go to take the water boat, you would pay a small amount of cash and you can ride the boat for them to sing while showing you the sites of Venice. I thought it was very pretty seeing what Venice looked like and the singing in Italian was a nice touch.
PUZZLES
There was not really many puzzles to do and at the beginning of the game, I almost thought they wasn't going to have any. But they were all very simple and easy. With the puzzles also came a card game of Scopa, which was fun as well as making a little money like picking up trash, selling flowers, and the worst was dancing for money. And the dancing did not even pay that much. I could not get the dancing part. To me, it was very lame. I mean, we are in Italy and you would thing they would have something like cooking pizza or something. The dancing just did not cut it for me. All the puzzles was easy to get through though.
EXPLORATION
When you started, there was not many places to explore but as you moved along more places were added. There is a map that you can view and go to different areas but the map is limited on what you can see. You have the Ca' which is not the big as well as the balcony and in bedroom you can go outside on deck to see waterways. You have a costume store, warehouse, rialto store where you can sell flowers and even grab yourself a drink or geleto which is a refreshing treat. There is a book stand store that you can purchase some books but you would thing you would be able to buy extra if you wanted and not just what the game expects. Like taking home a souvenir. You can visit different places but not very exciting to see. We are in Italy and should be able to see parts of Venice for fun.
GRAPHICS
The graphics were okay for the most part. The waterways when the gondoliers were singing put a nice touch to it but the other parts did not look much like Italy at all.
SNOOPING
If you like to snoop around this is not the game. There is one where Margherita has a letter on a table and when Nancy goes to read while she is here she will make a statement "I did not write that for you to read" or something like that and other statement. You also was able to sneak into Antonio office and snoop through it but have to be careful not to get caught. But no really big snooping.
MUSIC/SOUND EFFECTS
The music I felt put the game in perspective and gave you that feeling of being watched. Sound effects I really did not pay attention to or maybe could not hear that well.
SCARE FACTOR
This game was not scary at all. Just one part when Nancy went to sleep waking up in middle of night and Phantom was standing over her and ripped a locket off Nancy's chest that Ned gave her but it wasn't scary at all and did not make you jump.
CULPRIT
The culprit to me was unpredictable. One I never suspected at all. I was very shocked to find out who it was.
ENDING
I did not like the ending. It started off good until you freed yourself to go after culprit but then it ended to fast. I was hoping to have a chase of some sort but nothing.
OVERALL
My overall take on the game I would give a score of 7/10. It is not one of my favorites. I did forget to mention how you learn Italian a little which was a nice touch. But I hated the dancing. That just did not seem like it was part of Italy. I loved Scopa and the gondoliers singing. All the characters were fun and I really loved Prudence. She was a funny one. I just felt it could of had more Italian themes with being in Venice. Other than the waterways we seen there was not much to see other than that. And to make money in Venice you should be able to do something of Italian nature, not no dancing.That dancing was just so cheasy. Making pizza would have been better.
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