Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice Review

Nancy Drew - a name synonymous with brains, beauty, and a knack for unraveling the most precarious and convoluted mysteries in existence. She's also a young lady immortalized in fictional writing and visualized in what few live action motion pictures and shows attempt to put to memory.

Luckily, reliving her greatest feats in major cases isn't just limited to the imagination. For years now Her Interactive has delivered more than a dozen interactive adventures recounting the young sleuth's uncanny detective work, and all have been exclusively designed for personal computers.

Barring Maxis' The Sims, Nancy Drew is one of the longest running franchises in PC gaming history - Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice being the 18th installment in the series. And like any of its predecessors, The Phantom of Venice is but just a piece of Ms. Drew's history and is intertwined with other previous cases that you may have visited in previous releases.

We get our hands dirty and our neurons churning for trouble's afoot in wondrous Venice. It's up to us to help Nancy Drew unmask who's behind the thieving silhouette that is the Phantom of Venice.

Theories are just half the battle

Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.
- Carl Gustav Jung

Because as with previous titles in the series, in order to nab a thief of priceless artifacts, we've got to weave through the shadows, brave unknown dangers, and occasionally strike the proper conversational tone to squeeze out every clue we can.

In Phantom of Venice, however, the stakes are piled much higher. In what would be her 18th outing, Nancy Drew must go deep undercover and do some serious spy work to unearth the mysteries of "Il Phantasma."

Now that's not to say that you'll find it easy to weave plausible suspects and their possible motives early on. But as with all mysteries (and games) you will most likely be led to believe that one of the characters you meet is undoubtedly responsible. More often than not, however, the criminal actually turns out to be someone you least expected.

So as Carl Jung claims, there's more to achieve when doing and thinking, as opposed to formulating hypotheses alone.

More than just adventure

Thankfully, there's more to do in Phantom of Venice than piecing puzzles together. Those activities include a slew of time-killing mini-games that can help players enjoy the additional content available in-game.

Players have the freedom to go anywhere anytime - a feature in lieu with parameters of this particular adventure - through a range of different means of transportation. You might say it's an attempt at being open-ended, even if the story is particularly linear.

For example, tasks that Ms. Drew notes in her log may only be revealed as soon as some tasks are completed. But there comes a time that there are more than one task to accomplish, and some goals can be achieved independently of one another.

Also, there's a degree of strategic management involved which tie into the case inevitably, but to expound on them might take away the surprise. Suffice it to say, there are some conditions that need to be fulfilled before going further into the investigation, and there's plenty of side quests that you could take to help you progress.

Some of them can also provide you with extra perks, and these are perks that cater to Her Interactive's target market, of course. It's not that they aren't enjoyable out of the target bracket; however; appreciation is likely much higher when female gamers encounter them.

Now while the perks won't affect the game's outcome, certain tasks are linked to the achievement of a perk. And if these tasks aren't completed, some detectives might find it nigh impossible to solve the mystery.

But if you do take a breather from the snooping around, you'll find something refreshing with what other activities Her Interactive has prepared around the Grand Canal. You might even find yourself enjoying the idle time pass away, up to a point that you would remark, "Wow, I've never done that in Nancy Drew before."

Now to be honest, I'm not the most skillful of sleuths. During my lengthy play, I've mostly failed in many of the side endeavours lined up in Ms. Drew's way, but I have to say that failing them won't incur much penalty - well, that's if you don't consider partial frustration as a punishment for gaming incompetence. Bottom line is that the side tasks won't slap you silly for falling short. What's more is that it's highly unlikely that you'd feel that they were a major distraction from carrying out the main goal of the game.

She's got the brains, but does she have brawn?

Don't pray for lighter burdens, but for stronger backs.
- Anonymous

Thankfully, even the advance of computing technology hasn't affected the generously low requirements the Nancy Drew games are known for. Technically, not only is the game playable at the bare minimum specifications, it even manages to display its most interesting features with no major game-breaking flaws.

While it is true that you would look for ways to skip through the dialogue animations (at minimum system requirements, the voices finish first before the actual animation), but it's not too unnerving. In fact, it's quite interesting that each piece of dialogue has it's own set of animations to follow. There's a nice sense of character depth there to get you immersed in the mystery.

The dialogue is adequately well-written, especially to the point that you might consider the conversations played out as genuinely real. It's simple, concise, and tempered with light dabs of humor here and there.

You want me to feed a device that self-destructs to a pigeon?
- Nancy Drew

Music, environmental effects, and even audio-visual feeds litter Phantom of Venice media repertoire, and each one seamlessly melds with one another to drive a full experience of actually living in the grandeur that is Venice through Ms. Drew's eyes and ears.

Quality of videos might leave a sore impression for some, but let's face it: if the feeds were upgraded to higher quality motion video, it would have spoiled the game's friendliness to low-powered systems.

So I guess the real downside to the game is the implementation of certain game elements at critical areas of the case. Granted, the game doesn't fault in trying to prepare the newbie detective on what to do and how to go about it. As you'd probably know, Nancy Drew gets a lot of help through friends and references in-game.

But what Phantom of Venice fails to give is an exact explanation on what's supposed to happen when a particular task is being accomplished. Due to the lack of a clear idea, frustration could rear its ugly head to new fans of the series. This would bode especially true for those who have probably just started on Nancy Drew games with Phantom of Venice.

There are times in the story where some serious handiwork needs to be done before you're led to critical events pushing our young sleuth forward in the case. These moments usually involve some form of mini covert jobs, including a few you'd probably consider staple tasks for spies.

But some of the spy work comes with instructions that are sometimes too vague to be fully understood by just any gamer, if older Nancy Drew games haven't been previously played to some extent. Other opportunities, however, aren't as frustrating as the few that are.

In fact, some of them are even get interesting as time looms on, especially after you get the hang of the "rules." And even then, the game doesn't include any form of punishment on most of these segments.

In the few occurrences where decisions could stop you from solving the case permanently, Phantom of Venice keeps a foot planted right before the moment you might make the critical mistake. This feature allows even the new investigators to continue on the adventure after learning from the error of their ways.

It's like Grandma's old recipe: you still crave it after all this time

Mystery is at the heart of creativity. That, and surprise.
- Julia Cameron

The first question that probably crossed your mind in the earlier parts of this review is how could a franchise live for so long as a game. Well, the answer is pretty simple: if you stick to the formula that fans love, and risk creativity through the many nooks and crannies in the equation that seem too under-appreciated or uninteresting in the previous games, you usually keep the fanbase coming back for more.

With the Nancy Drew series, it has often been the practice of fans to compare the latest game to its predecessors in an effort to gauge if the new adventure is worth the buy. I'd argue against it, however, as mysteries can be so different from each other that one story can seem more interesting to one mystery-loving fan than another.

But getting right to the point, does Nancy Drew: Phantom of Venice blow me away? Not really. Rather, it gives the unique taste of engaging and non-linear adventuring around a solid, captivating plot, while occupying the sharp sleuth with intricately crafted and engaging visuals. And with faithfully produced ambience, music, and sound effects, Phantom of Venice's attractive immersion features come full circle.

Casual adventure gamers will love the easy going detective work that Phantom of Venice offers on a silver platter, though it also provides a test of wit and mettle to those experienced mystery-solvers looking for a challenge.

Of course, Nancy Drew: Phantom of Venice isn't perfect. But neither is any game in the genre, really. To some effect, puzzle games that angle on mystery often have a share of sections that seem like dead ends - until you finally get yourself to peer into a walkthrough.

But not all of them gives the same feeling of fulfillment as Phantom of Venice would let you receive as well. What's particularly funny about that revelation is how the past 17 games where I followed Ms. Drew's footsteps also managed to leave me humming in the same mood as well.

And thus, Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice simply stands as a recommended game for any mystery lover out there and a great addition to the growing adventure genre of the PC platform.

As for fans of the Nancy Drew series, you cannot go wrong in topping your game collection to 18. Phantom of Venice is a must-buy for those who are familiar with the series and its track record.

It is to that note that I bid Nancy Drew adieu and hope that her next adventure - The Haunting of Castle Malloy - has no where to go but upwards in fun, value, and variety.