nancy drew 18: the phantom of venice
Apr. 22nd, 2024 12:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
portico i took a little break from nancy drews, in part because i knew the next one on the list very, very well.
the phantom of venice is one of the series' strongest games. in it, nancy goes to venice, italy in the midst of a theatrical crime spree at the behest of prudence rutherford (previous "seen" in several games, beginning with secret of the scarlet hand), who previously owned a villa there and still has some sway with the house's current owner as well as, presumably, the italian police. nancy is there to keep an eye on one of the suspected members of the crime ring, whose office is clearly visible from the villa's upper floors. once there, she begins to suspect that the head of the ring is one of the other residents of the house, and proceeds to unravel the entire case.
the other residents of the villa are, clockwise from upper left, colin baxter, a mosaicist doing work on the house (he doesn't actually live there but is there every day), margherita fauberg, wealthy widow and the villa's current owner, and helena berg, a german investigative journalist who loves venice and visits often. the last person on the grid is enrico tazza, who i'll come to in a moment. colin is the funniest of the bunch. he's the saddest wet puppy of a man who insists on showing you mosaic tiles under a microscope as if they were a slideshow from his recent vacation literally immediately after you meet him. when you ask to be released from the torment (you HAVE to ask otherwise he will continue to show you tiles and describe their colors in rapturous descriptives forever), he responds as if you have personally stabbed him. nancy, who is so nice, insists that she loves the tile slideshow she's just got to run you know how it is, and colin (who is obviously used to being metaphorically stabbed) is subsequently plainly in love and ergo SO WEIRD with her. nancy is wearing a locket which ned gave her at the airport before she left, and everyone in the house comments on it. y'all it's just a pretty necklace. why are all you freaks about this teenager's boyfriend.
the game itself is lovely. i am on record as a venice hater, but her interactive really put their all into this fake venice. there are several markets you can visit, and although they are empty of people because that's how these games function, there is always conversation in italian happening around you, which i thought was a nice touch. you get around on foot, in vaporetto (water bus), or, of course, by gondola. you can choose between going with luigi, who provides you with a free, silent, gondola ride, or with other of his competitors, all of whom will serenade you with a piece of class italian opera while the game shows you images of venice. it's cute!
the thing that makes this game stand out from the rest for me is the sheer variety of tasks and activities which differ from other games. nancy gets to do some spycraft (microdots!), she can make extra money by DANCING, and she fully pretends to be a known criminal in order to get close to enrico tazza (in order to do this she DOES have to steal a famous diamond--this is fine with her handler because it was already stolen lol), who is a suspected fence. this brings us finally to the best part of the game imo: SCOPA.
scopa is an italian trick-taking card game which utilizes a unique set of four suits: swords, staffs, cups, and coins. her interactive used to have minigames available to play on their website, and i played this one so much that i got my coworker at a past job (who had never played nancy drew or scopa) hooked on it. and i must not have been alone, because they also sell the physical cards. i don't have cards (despite hunting for them in game shops for years), but there are scopa apps, so i get by.
anyway, i highly recommend this game. it succeeds on a number of levels and is very replayable (if you like scopa). the moral here is: always send a foreign teenager to do a grown agent's job apparently.
the phantom of venice is one of the series' strongest games. in it, nancy goes to venice, italy in the midst of a theatrical crime spree at the behest of prudence rutherford (previous "seen" in several games, beginning with secret of the scarlet hand), who previously owned a villa there and still has some sway with the house's current owner as well as, presumably, the italian police. nancy is there to keep an eye on one of the suspected members of the crime ring, whose office is clearly visible from the villa's upper floors. once there, she begins to suspect that the head of the ring is one of the other residents of the house, and proceeds to unravel the entire case.
the other residents of the villa are, clockwise from upper left, colin baxter, a mosaicist doing work on the house (he doesn't actually live there but is there every day), margherita fauberg, wealthy widow and the villa's current owner, and helena berg, a german investigative journalist who loves venice and visits often. the last person on the grid is enrico tazza, who i'll come to in a moment. colin is the funniest of the bunch. he's the saddest wet puppy of a man who insists on showing you mosaic tiles under a microscope as if they were a slideshow from his recent vacation literally immediately after you meet him. when you ask to be released from the torment (you HAVE to ask otherwise he will continue to show you tiles and describe their colors in rapturous descriptives forever), he responds as if you have personally stabbed him. nancy, who is so nice, insists that she loves the tile slideshow she's just got to run you know how it is, and colin (who is obviously used to being metaphorically stabbed) is subsequently plainly in love and ergo SO WEIRD with her. nancy is wearing a locket which ned gave her at the airport before she left, and everyone in the house comments on it. y'all it's just a pretty necklace. why are all you freaks about this teenager's boyfriend.
the game itself is lovely. i am on record as a venice hater, but her interactive really put their all into this fake venice. there are several markets you can visit, and although they are empty of people because that's how these games function, there is always conversation in italian happening around you, which i thought was a nice touch. you get around on foot, in vaporetto (water bus), or, of course, by gondola. you can choose between going with luigi, who provides you with a free, silent, gondola ride, or with other of his competitors, all of whom will serenade you with a piece of class italian opera while the game shows you images of venice. it's cute!
the thing that makes this game stand out from the rest for me is the sheer variety of tasks and activities which differ from other games. nancy gets to do some spycraft (microdots!), she can make extra money by DANCING, and she fully pretends to be a known criminal in order to get close to enrico tazza (in order to do this she DOES have to steal a famous diamond--this is fine with her handler because it was already stolen lol), who is a suspected fence. this brings us finally to the best part of the game imo: SCOPA.
scopa is an italian trick-taking card game which utilizes a unique set of four suits: swords, staffs, cups, and coins. her interactive used to have minigames available to play on their website, and i played this one so much that i got my coworker at a past job (who had never played nancy drew or scopa) hooked on it. and i must not have been alone, because they also sell the physical cards. i don't have cards (despite hunting for them in game shops for years), but there are scopa apps, so i get by.
anyway, i highly recommend this game. it succeeds on a number of levels and is very replayable (if you like scopa). the moral here is: always send a foreign teenager to do a grown agent's job apparently.
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Date: 2024-04-24 03:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-04-25 03:22 pm (UTC)