Previously on Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice, we broke into a high-security palazzo, crushed the soul of a British art thief turned mosaic collector, beat a crime lord at cards, and got robbed by the Phantom. Exciting times! However, the Phantom has stolen our thoroughly-impartial-geek-test-approved locket from Ned, so now it’s time for revenge. Join me as Nancy dons her mask and cape and searches for the Phantom. No crime is too big or too small for Nancy as she begins her war against the terror that stalks the citizens of Venice. For Nancy Drew is…THE DARK KNIGHT.
Yeah, no. This part of the game is basically puzzles until the end of time.
When we went to sleep last night, we did so with the knowledge that our rejection of sensitive British art thief (now mosaic nerd) Colin Baxter had caused him to flee Venice…perhaps forever. But who cares? It’s time to spy on Antonio Fango. AGAIN. Why are we still spying on him? We know he’s up to something and we know who he’s sending messages to. It doesn’t even matter, since he’s not in his office anyway.
But! Margherita is here! If you recall, she was arguing with Signore Fango earlier about…something. Something crime-related, perhaps? Let’s ask her!
What up, Margherita! We ask her about Fango in a hilariously unsubtle manner (“Hey so I saw you coming out of the Argon building!”) and she says that she wanted Fango to set up wireless service for the ca’, because apparently it’s the only palazzo that doesn’t have it and Margherita simply cannot bear to be behind the times. But! Fango refused to do it, even though she had a flyer from his company promising wireless service. False advertising! OR IS IT? On the back of the flyer, there are numbers: 111#046. Suspicious!
We talk to Helena, who is mostly useless except to snark on Colin. (“Maybe Margherita fired him. Either way, no great loss.” Damn girl, what’d he ever do to you? Besides be criminally boring.)
Check out Nancy’s super-snazzy outfit! Clearly I have amazing fashion sense.
Off to break into Fango’s office. AGAIN.
So you put the numbers into Fango’s fax machine and GASP! More code! Remember that music box from way back when? If you wind it up and play it, the dialogue screen will helpfully tell you what notes are being played. So you use this sheet to match the notes up with numbers.
(It’s not particularly convoluted, but it is really tedious. I resorted to a walkthrough because I was too lazy to memorize the notes.)
Anyway, once you enter the music box code into the fax machine, a weird automated voice (that actually sounds kinda like Darth Vader on crack) starts talking. Our villains, like all Nancy Drew villains ever, are the most unsubtle villains ever and have a whole directory devoted to letting us know what they’re up to. If you need a recap on who the villains are, press one! If you want to know where to find them, press two! If you need to figure out how they’re communicating, press three! Well, we’ve got all the time in the world so let’s just go through all of them:
- Il Dottore: El presidente and the dude (dudette, I guess, since our only suspects are Helena and Margherita…) we’re after.
- Capitano: Fango, duh. In charge of pigeons and chocolate.
- Arlecchino: Keeps goods “safe and secure.” I think that’s Tazza? The mask he wears doesn’t match up with the one on the poster, but he’s the only one that fits the description.
- Scaramuccia: The dude we’ve been talking to on the chess server. Provides “information on security systems.” Can we talk about how illegal that sounds? Be more obvious, damn.
- Brighella: Acquires “good for resale.” The Phantom (who we now know is named Nico).
- Headquarters: Fango’s office, where we’re standing right now.
- “Safe and secure store”: Campo Santa Maria Formosa (near the fountain). We haven’t been there yet.
- Their “acquisition partners” are the Aces, Knights, and Kings. Gosh, I think that’s a thinly-veiled reference to scopa cards!
- Their presidential suites are located at the Ca’ Nascosta. Which is ominous but also information that we already knew.
- Their propane storage facilities (how is that relevant to what they do?) are at the Campo Santa Margherita. Which is where Tazza is.
- All presidential communications should be delivered with a box of chocolates. But we already knew that.
- Security communications are initiated with a “lovely” game of chess. Again, already knew that.
- All goods are delivered to the propane storage facility and then to the “safe and secure” (how many times are they going to use that phrase?) place. Gasp! We didn’t know that! I bet that’s where all the stolen goods are!
Anyway, if you haven’t figured it out yet, our gang of villains uses Scopa cards to indicate the place they want to burglarize. The Phantom steals whatever it is il Dottore wants, gives it to Tazza, who puts it in the propane bin outside his clubhouse. Then they’re moved to the ~safe and secure~ location in Campo Santa Maria Formosa. Cool? Cool.
(Well, not cool. Crime doesn’t pay, kids!)
So we look at the cards and Nancy helpfully points out that the missing card indicates that they’re going to hit the Palazzo Orpello! Tonight! Shenanigans!
We call Sofia, who fills us in on who Nico is — some petty criminal dude who is “not very smart”. See, what confuses me is that earlier in the game they mention that the Phantom leaves behind no clues, yet Nico is apparently dumb as a pile of bricks. Even if he takes his orders from il Dottore, he still has to get in and get out on his own. It’s just sort of weird, is all I’m saying.
Oh, and the Italian police are finally, finally going to help us. Time for a stakeout! Excitement!
This part of the game isn’t too hard, basically the agents will tell you where they are (in Italian) and occasionally pop out from behind their hiding places. When a figure pops out that’s not in one of the agents’ places, then that’s Nico. You have to find him three times before they catch him. If you’ve ever taken Spanish, Italian, or French in high school, then it’s pretty easy.
Aw, yeah.
We then talk to Sofia about our awesome sleuthing (which we did all by ourselves, thanks) but alas, it is for naught — Nico won’t admit to being the Phantom. Or even to being Nico Petit, even though they totally know it’s him. Nancy asks if he was carrying anything on him that might be helpful and Sofia rattles off a list. Among the items is a receipt for propane gas! Gasp! Isn’t there a ‘propane storage facility’ near Tazza’s suspicious card game club? Sofia tells us that the numbers ‘3447’ are written on the back of the receipt. That sounds like a lock combination to me!
We chat to Helena a bit and she mentions that there was a ~highly unusual~ undercover detective working with the GdiF to capture Nico, though no one will tell her about them. Well, gee, who could that be?
We’ve basically exhausted all of our conversation options with Helena and Margherita, so let’s go open that propane bin!
Inside the bin is a key and this diagram. I fully admit that I could not figure out the diagram at all, so I just used a walkthrough to get through it.
So you go to Santa Maria Formosa and wave your mouse around near the fountain for a bit and find a tiny metal door in the corner. I have no idea how we get in there — do we crawl? It’s a seriously small door; I find it hard to believe that anyone can fit in there.
(Note: this is the start of the end of the game. If you want to go ride some gondolas or eat gelato or kill bees, do it before you go in, for there is no turning back! Ominous!)
So, this is a map of the sewers. Basically you have to use the above key to walk around the sewers turning the wheels to raise/lower the water levels, that way you can walk across the bridges and make your way to the ~secret room~ at the end. (I don’t think that’s even a spoiler — of course there’s a secret room. There’s always a secret room. What are you, new?)
I have no screencaps of this part because I ended up getting confused and trapping myself somewhere in the triangular section. Yeah. -__-
Anyway, at the end of the sewer line, you’ll find a flashlight and a secret door! Who doesn’t love secret doors? There’s a keypad and you enter in the numbers from the very first pigeon message (which I’m too lazy to go look up). The door swings open and reveals…
A box addressed to the Killian family in Chicago. You will recall that Helena is pen pals with a Hildegard Killian! Shock! Helena is Il Dottore! I bet you weren’t expecting that! (Or maybe you were. I mean, really, who honestly thought it was Margherita? Come on.) Inside the box is a mask, and inside the mask is the bronze figurine from Ca’ Nascosta. You know, the one Helena accused Colin of stealing. Oh, Helena.
Then the scene from the very beginning occurs — the door slams shut and the room starts filling up with propane. Wait, how did Helena know we were here? Was she following us through the sewers the whole time? I bet Sofia told her! Sofia…!
(Or, well, okay, more likely Helena came to drop off her loot, saw the door wide open, all the water levels adjusted, and ran through and saw Nancy rummaging through her box. Seriously, does Nancy Drew ever close the door behind her?)
There are some knobs on one of the walls to adjust the propane spewing out of the pipes right now, so you have to lower the levels before you drown.
(I drowned at least three times before I got it right. SIGH. I’m not really cut out for these games, am I?)
We make it to the surface and tell Sofia about this shocking new development. She activates Helena’s tracker (because of course Helena is carrying that pen around everywhere…?) but it’s carnevale time, so there aren’t any police to be spared. Of course. Of course. We have to follow Helena on our own. Like everything else in this game. Bah.
“This Prudence Rutherford, I did not like that she forced you on us. But when you are on a case, you are like a dog with a bone. I like that, Nancy Drew.” Bitch, you better, you did nothing to help us.
Oy. Helena is looking rough(er than usual). When she asks what we want (besides our geek-approved locket back, of course), Nancy’s all, “I want what every decent person wants — justice,” to which Helena hilariously just rolls her eyes. I’m with you there, Helena. She rants at us a bit all, “I had a feeling you were up to something! Oh, and I’m never giving your locket back! Ever!” Hey! If that locket disappears, we might forget Ned exists! It’s the only reason we’ve been bothering to talk to him all game! You’re a fiend, Helena.
Then she runs and makes it to the end of the alley before the police catch her. Yeah.
“It’s not over between us, Nancy Drew! Not by a long shot!” Ominous! (But I doubt it’ll happen. Helena is no Dwayne Powers, after all.)
So, let’s wrap up! Hildegard Killian is a wealthy pork belly heiress (of all things) who was paying Helena to ~obtain~ certain pieces of Venetian art. Helena, who you will remember was investigating the Machiano crime trial, found out the names of a bunch of crooks she could recruit to help her out. There’s really no new information here, so let’s move on to the fates of our friends from the ca’.
Margherita is finally accepted into Venetian high society, which apparently comes complete with your very own poorly Photoshopped waiter.
Colin…drinks himself to death? I mean, that’s what I’m getting from this picture. And he’s still hung up on Nancy. Even though he knew her for a total of two days. Yeah.
(This picture has apparently inspired many a Nancy Drew conspiracy theory. For example, where exactly is Colin? I want to say that the building outside of his window looks like the Capitol, but it could be any European/European-inspired building, really. Also, there is a Suspicious Figure in the reflection of Colin’s window. Apparently the popular theory is that it’s Samantha Quick, but who knows. Perhaps Colin will return? Or maybe we’ll never find out. Just we never find out about a bunch of stuff that happened in this game. BAH.)
Final thoughts: What’s interesting about this game is that it’s one of the first Nancy Drew games where you actually have a lead and follow up on it. It’s been a while since I played one of the older games, but I do remember that the formula was often Something Suspicious Happens –> Nancy Arrives –> Nancy Finds Out About Some Hidden Treasure –> Nancy Looks For Hidden Treasure –> Nancy Finds Treasure –> Villain Reveals Themselves. Basically, a lot of the time Nancy just sort of happens to run into the villain because they’re both looking for the same thing. Whereas here, we actually have a suspect and do some spying. So that’s a nice change.
Also, who is Samantha Quick? Seriously. I feel like maybe they were leading up to have her appear in another game? But I don’t think she does? But apparently she’s in a Hardy Boys game, except really, who plays Hardy Boys games? I mean, I plan to one day…but anyway. So…that’s kind of annoying.
Finally, a snippy little trailer reminds us that the next game is called Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy. I might play that one day, but definitely not today. Probably not tomorrow, either.
THE END.
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