Return of the Phantom
The phantom of the opera is an adventure game based on the classic play and book originally released in the early 1900’s. At the start of the game it is the present day and the play is about to start but then events unfold much like the play itself, a large chandelier falls from the ceiling onto the audience. As a police inspector you are asked by the manager to investigate and you find out sinister dealings indeed as it seems the phantom has returned to wreak havoc once again! The game starts directly after the introduction and you still see the huge chandelier lying on the seats where it fell. You can then start investigating and you soon find out that the lead singer received a threatening note as well as the manager both appartenly written by the phantom himself. Quickly you find out he’s actually here and you’ll have to use your wits to find out how he got here and what exactly is going on .
The game uses a point and click interface like so many other adventure games but it’s not completely icon based like later games. You’ll have to create sentences with words like look, take, open, push and others combined with items that are showns graphically. The investigation first takes place at the opera itself and you can interview the actors and people who are still in the theater. This is done with a simple multiple choice menu where you can choose your questions and answers. Early on you’ll get a glimpse of the Phantom himself as he prowls around the place even avoind one of his attempts at your life! Soon though the scene changes as you step into the past and witness the original events as they unfold, not only witness but you can try and prevent the Phantom before he get’s to do his foul deeds.
Graphically and musically there’s nothing wrong with Return of the Phantom, the graphics are digitized and the people move very lifelike, the backgrounds are very detailed but they do have a bit of a gloomy side to them which does fit the game well though. There’s also an option of a novice or challenging game altough the game isn’t very difficult at all and you should simply go for the challenging mode. The thing I don’t like about the game is that they put in a dreaded maze which was mostly used to lengthen a game, a well many adventure games took that route so. All in all a very worthwhile adventure game altough don’t expect too much of a challenge.
Overal rating: 8/10
This game was released for one system here are some notes:
| DOS | Released in 1993. |
| Date added | Dec-26-2009 13:11 |
| Name | Return of the Phantom |
| Developer | Microprose |
| Publisher | Microprose |
| First released | 1993 |
| Genre | Adventure |
