After the sheer agony that was The Shattered Medallion, we’re back on track (kind of) with Labyrinth of Lies. After the excellence that was previous later-stage Nancy Drew games, this game is kind of mediocre in comparison, but it’s fun overall. It has a surprising and well-utilized twist that I enjoyed, and on the whole I’d rather a game be bland than overly ridiculous or overly heavy.
In this game, Nancy goes to Greece to solve a mystery. The epic crush of my middle school years was this Greek boy I went to school with. It’s like they wrote a game about my LIFE.
Aaaand…fuck me, I forgot the Hardy Boys were in this. Ugh. Also, why do they look like they’re 12? We engage in some expositiony dialogue with them: someone named “Melina” called us to her museum in Greece, to help out with an exhibit. Presumably she looked at Nancy’s resume and saw that we once escaped murder at a museum, and figured that was as good a qualification as any. But we’ve arrived, and Melina’s missing! “Oh. That sounds bad,” says Joe. Thanks, Joe. I can tell that the Hardy Boys are going to be a lot of help.
Apparently, apart from Melina’s disappearance, the museum’s staff has been dropping like flies in the lead-up to the exhibit opening. They don’t clarify if they’re quitting or if there’s some kind of, like, rash of disappearing museum workers. (Note from the future: It’s both.)
The Hardys promise to help us; Frank tells us to investigate at the museum, and in the meantime, they’ll contact “the Network.” I assume they mean their dad, who has bailed them out of many mysteries before.
(Also…lmao did Nancy get called to Greece just to help with a museum exhibit? Like there’s no one else in the country that can do that? We don’t even find out how she knows Melina, like she’s not even one of Carson’s old friends or anything. Also, in retrospect, why does Carson owe so many damn people favors? Like he’s just selling out his daughter’s labor left and right, my God.)
Our call is cut off by a scream. Nancy goes running into the “theater” and sees a woman shrieking for help, while a guy yells at her to be quiet. Something must be afoot! No, just kidding, they’re actors, and this is rehearsal. I hate when characters overhear something suspicious and it turns out to be people rehearsing for a play. Like Nancy wouldn’t have noticed if they were performing a whole scene up until now.
Anyway, the man (“Thanos”) wanders off, and we can talk to the woman, Xenia. She tells that they’re putting a play on about Persephone to go along with the exhibit opening. Not that we’ve had any indication that the exhibit is also about Persephone or anything like that. “Refresh my memory,” Nancy derps, for anyone in the audience who somehow has escaped hearing about Persephone during their entire formal education and consumption of pop culture. Xenia recaps the pertinent parts of the myth — daughter of Demeter, went to the underworld to marry Hades, now has reinterpretations of her myth told where Hades is a hot emo husband. Nancy’s like, “That’s rough, buddy,” and Xenia emos that she’s playing Persephone, and really feels like she ~knows~ her now. She wishes the myth had a happier ending. (The myth of Persephone does have a pretty happy ending, comparatively, in that no one dies, but whatever.)
Xenia frets to us that she’s out of her depth directing this play, although she doesn’t really say why. She doesn’t want her cast to know; she just had to get it off her chest. Oh, Xenia. I bet the first conversation option when we meet everyone else is gonna be, “Did you know that Xenia is hella stressed and can’t direct the play?”
“I think you’ll do fine,” Nancy says. “Really?” Xenia gasps. “What makes you think so?” LOL, why is Xenia so thirsty for approval from this random girl she just met two seconds ago? Anyway, Nancy’s like, “I don’t know. It just seemed like a supportive thing to say.” HEE.
With that, we go off to meet everyone else. Xenia warns us away from the boys, especially Thanos. “He can be a bit intense.” Intense like he’s a brooding emo boy, or intense like he’s a kidnapper? We’ll find out.
Nancy’s taken to putting notes in her phone, but using a handwriting font so she can pretend it’s her diary. Why are you like this, Nancy? She notes that Xenia seems to relate to Persephone — maybe that means she’s in over her head? Uh…yeah Nancy, Xenia just told us that. Like flat-out. Nancy also notes Xenia’s lack of accent; she has a Greek name, but must be from the US.
I try calling Melina, but she doesn’t pick up. Probably because she’s ~disappeared.
We head backstage, where we find a tablet on top of one of the cabinets. It’s got a couple of notes on it: apparently the actor playing Hermes is also doing the light cues for the show, but Xenia keeps adding to his role, so he can barely make the cues. He thinks it’s weird that Hermes’s role is being expanded so much, since this is meant to be Persephone’s show. Suspicious!
The rest of the tablet requires a password to get into, so let’s leave it for now. The owner, and actor who plays Hermes, has been standing here the whole time, presumably totally cool with this rando girl picking up his stuff and reading it.
So this is Grigor, who plays, as he tells us, “the god of charisma and handsomeness.” Not with that thousand-yard-stare, my dude. Although I respect that they put more effort into him than into NuDaryl. (Then again, that’s a low bar.)
Grigor immediately starts hitting on us when he finds out that we’re working at the museum. Nancy shoots him down and tells him that we have a boyfriend, and Grigor perks up that this doesn’t affect “the average.” Charming. Anyway, we ask about his role in the show, and Grigor whines that he has too much to do — usually they have a bigger crew, but the background checks were so extensive this time, that they didn’t have time to clear anyone but “themselves” this time.
Grigor’s in charge of lights and sound cues, as well as playing Hermes and making sure everything’s running smoothly. We’re like, “Gosh, why did Xenia give you so much responsibility?” and he snaps at us to stay out of his things. Heh. Should’ve been more stealth with that tablet, Nancy. He says he doesn’t know why Xenia’s given him so much extra work, and then he clams up all, “I have to go.”
Except he doesn’t go anywhere, and when we poke around the fly ropes, Grigor will tell us to stay away from the fly system. “It’ll kill you,” he warns. Get in line, fly system. This cuts to a conversation where Grigor explains what the fly system does — it controls the scenery and the curtains, and it’ll kill you. You…already said that, Grigor.
Then he really does bail, and we can poke around the sound board and mess with the ropes a bit — although messing with them too much will get you a game over. So let’s try that! We pull a lever, which causes something outside to crash, and sends Xenia into a mental breakdown: can her troupe just PRETEND, for five minutes, that they are PROFESSIONALS? This is the MOST IMPORTANT show of her LIFE and they go live in MERE HOURS. And they’re still rehearsing? Get your life together, Xenia.
From the backstage area, we can go down another level, below the stage. It’s very grungy and factory-like, and there’s a huge area behind a combo lock that we can’t access right now. Naturally, Nancy will note that we have to figure out the combination.
We come across a book of Greek myths. In the table of contents, “Tartarus and the Underworld” has been circled. Because…the underworld…was a metaphor for the backstage of a theater? I don’t know. The chapter quickly runs down the Greek concept of the hell and explains the punishments, like Sisyphus and Tantalus, and that the Titans live in a prison in the pit of Tartarus. I already know all this because I was really into the Percy Jackson books when I was 14.
Aboveground, Xenia is gone from her director’s chair, so let’s go snoop through her stuff.
We find cards explaining who everyone in the cast is: there’s a dude named Thanos playing Hades; he has no acting experience, but apparently this is the role he was born to play. I’m not sure that’s a compliment. Then there’s Xenia, who’s been in a bunch of plays both real and fictional. She’s played Lady Macbeth and Cressida before. Then there’s Niobe, the set designer who’s also doubling as the role of Demeter. Then there’s Grigor, who’s officially listed as the Financial Director of their theater group, and is also the only other person who’s acted before. He’s played “multiple roles in One Man Oedipus.” So…yeah.
We can check out Xenia’s script and notes — we find out that there’s a hydraulic lift under the stage that’s controlled by a remote backstage. There’s also instructions for the various props and fly cues, and we find out the password to Grigor’s tablet.
Anyway, dig this masterpiece of writing. The last few pages aren’t marked up, and then the very last page has a note that Thanos wants to leave a personalized message for the “VIPs”, and they have to have a key to the poster out front.
We can also pick up Xenia’s tablet. In order to unlock it, we have to assemble five different images. Nancy will note that the first image is from the “National Archaeological Museum of Athens.” And…fuck it, I don’t have time to do this stupid puzzle five times. We’ll come back later.
There’s also a book about Famous People of Ancient Greece just lying around, which we take with us.
Okay, let’s go look at the actual museum. We see the poster for Persephone in Winter outside in a locked frame, so we’ll have to unlock that later.
As we walk in, we see this person breaking the glass on a display case. We’re all like, “Crime is afoot!”, but it turns out that she’s not a thief, she’s just a total fuckup. Niobe, everyone! She’s the set designer and also actress playing Demeter. She tells she was “freehand tracing”, and Nancy’s like, “O…kay, I don’t know what that is.” Niobe explains that she was putting paper on the glass and tracing the designs on the displays to understand the detail work, and she leaned too hard. Nancy promises not to tell. Niobe introduces herself as “the reason we can’t have nice things,” because everyone who wrote this game spent too much time on Tumblr in 2014.
So, Niobe, are you excited to be part of the opus that is giving us lines like “Is there irony in this moment?” and “Pretty nippy indeed, my friend”? Niobe tells us that she’s actually fucking terrified, but at least they only have the one show. Nancy’s like, “That’s barely two hours of your life, dude, chill out.” Niobe tells us that the ending of Persephone in Winter is scarier than the original ending of the myth, and we should leave. Then she runs away. So…that happened.
Anyway, we can wander around and look at the displays and read up on Ancient Greece. We see the case that Niobe broke, and — you know, it just occurred to me that most museums would probably have an alarm for this kind of thing. I’m not surprised at all that crime is occurring here.
We also find notes from Melina, welcoming us to the museum. Her first note tells us where to find the key to her office and gives us some errands, because LOL of course we have to do errands. Her next note must have been written post-crime, because she’s panicking that pieces are missing from the museum, and she’s trying to track them down. She doesn’t want to accuse anyone until they have proof, so in the meantime, we should just act like everything’s normal. The theater troupe has been through the same security screening as we have, so they should be trustworthy. Except they’re also our only suspects, so whatever, Melina!
Also, I’m assuming despite the pressing issues of crime, we still have to do Melina’s BS errands for her. She tells us that it’s up to us to get the exhibit ready for the opening. MELINA, NANCY’S 18 YEARS OLD AND DOESN’T EVEN SPEAK GREEK.
We can go inspect the shipping boxes that the missing pieces presumably came in. Note that half of the invoice is printed, and then someone’s written in, “Jewelry set in travel boxes, gold necklace and earrings.” HMMMM. Not subtle, thief.
Let’s go back and chat with Xenia about everyone we’ve met so far. We ask her about Grigor, and she tells us that his unbridled flattery is good for an ego boost, but not to believe everything he says. We ask why they’re only putting on one show, and Xenia’s like, “Say what?” We’re like, “That’s what Niobe said,” and Xenia’s like, “LOL Niobe, her stage fright is so bad that she’s deluded herself into thinking there’s only one show.”
We ask why she’s so interested in ancient Greece, and Xenia’s like, “Because I’m fucking Greek, Nancy.” Just kidding. (Actually, Xenia seems to be American, but given her name, I’m guessing she’s of Greek descent. Just like that boy I had a huge crush on in fifth grade.) Xenia’s like, “I like ancient Greece because the ancient Greeks were cool.”
I bet Xenia was super into Percy Jackson in middle school, too.
We point out that it’s a little self-centered of Xenia to cast herself as Persephone, and Xenia’s like, “Look, if Lin-Manuel Miranda can do it in all of his shows, I can too.” Just kidding. This is a weird tack to take, since the small size of the cast pretty much demands that everyone pull double duty. But anyway, Xenia defends herself by saying that she ~understands~ Persephone — she used to be a happy kid, but then she developed depression and anxiety and she’s never been the same. Damn, same, Xenia. Nancy’s like, “Okay, I feel that” — don’t lie, Nancy, like your insensitive ass has ever felt emotions besides moral superiority and extreme nosiness. Still, Nancy brings up the possibility that something will go wrong during the show — and what will they do if the entire crew is also on stage acting? Xena’s like, “Stop saying words.”
She wants us to check on Grigor and make sure he’s actually doing his work, so let’s go over and talk to him again.
And the first thing that Grigor does is…give us work. Fuck off, Grigor. Okay, to be fair: we broke the fly system, so he wants us to fix it. We ask him how, and he tells us that the instructions are on his tablet. That’s a more polite way of telling us to figure it out ourselves, because Grigor is useless.
We ask him why he’s so into ancient Greece, because I guess we’re under the assumption that the cast is doing this play out of a deep love for Greek myths, and not because they’re struggling actors who will take any job they can get. Grigor says that, “Greece cultivated the thoughts and ideas that shaped the western world, which Rome then conveniently sold door to door at the pointy end of a spear.” Hee. He adds that he also loves the food and culture, and that Nancy’s definitely gonna get fat during her visit. I mean, if eating fifty thousand Koko Kringles won’t do it, not even Greek food can.
Anyway, Grigor reassures us that he’s not mad at us for breaking the fly system, and he’s just mega-stressed over the show. Except he is mad, because he won’t talk to us again until we fix it, so whatever.
Okay, but before we get into the fly system puzzle, there’s a bunch of introductory shit I haven’t gotten to yet, so let’s do that first. Per Melina’s note, we find the key to her office at the foot of the statue of Aphrodite. We also find a sheet of paper with instructions for the Build A Temple game, which we’ll have to do in a bit.
We finally get a call from Melina, so I guess she’s not dead in a ditch after all. She tells us that crime is occurring, if you haven’t figured that out already. Some of the exhibit pieces have gone missing, and if Melina can’t recover them, the museum will have to shut down. Nancy’s like, “I can solve the mystery for you! Pick me!” and Melina’s like, “Sure, if you could do that and ALSO run the museum while I fuck around somewhere else, that would be gr8.”
She gives us a little background: the missing pieces were on the shipping invoice, but not in the crate, so they must have been stolen before the crate was opened, or they were never in there. We’ve seen that half of the shipping invoice is handwritten, so clearly someone edited it.
She also tells us that the police already interviewed the theater troupe and cleared them of wrongdoing, but as we know, Nancy Drew is better than the police at all things, including solving a case where she’s the suspect. Melina muses that even though the cast was cleared, she’s still suspicious: things don’t just disappear, and they’re literally the only other human beings at the museum, SOOOO…
Well, she’s certainly changed her tune from that first note that we found. Anyway, we tell her that Niobe broke one of the display cases — lol, Nancy’s such a fucking snitch — but nothing was missing from the case. “Thank Zeus for that,” Melina says, if you forgot that we were in Greece for five seconds.
That’s it for Melina for now, so let’s hang up and explore her office. We find a receiving list — so, from the dates, it looks like this game takes place in summer. Summer in Greece? Nancy must be miserable.
There’s a binder of Melina’s notes in the filing cabinet, where we find her recap of their last exhibit. It apparently took quite the toll on their budget, although they’re hoping to recoup that with all the memberships they sold. They’re hoping that the expensive exhibit fostered partnerships that they can rely on in “these uncertain economic times.” Ha! I love when these games try to be topical. I can’t believe Melina’s dragging Nancy all the way from the US to help with this exhibit. I bet dozens of unemployed Greek art historians are crying in their beer.
Her next note is about renovating the museum’s stage. She mentions that a group called Pinakes approached the museum and offered to renovate the stage for free, provided that the museum advertise their mad renovation skillz everywhere. Since the museum is broke AF, Melina thought this was too good a deal to pass up on. Unless it led to CRIME, Melina!
We find an exchange of emails between Melina and the museum board. They tell her that they’ve found a theater troupe for the museum’s exhibit. Melina’s like, “Oh, I was going to like…go to New York and London and look for actual talent.” The board’s like, “Yeah…we can only afford this jank local group. Just be glad they’re not putting on One-Man Oedipus.”
Blah blah museum stuff blah. Okay, I guess I have to call the Hardy Boys now. The Hardys and Nancy agree that something seems weird at the museum — besides like…the crime? — and the Hardys offer to look into everyone there. They also have a book about Greek art that they’re going to send to us, because I guess we can’t just buy one ourselves. You know. Here. In Greece. Anyway, so we have to call the Hardys back in a bit to see what they find out.
So! Let’s go back below the stage and figure out how the lift works. There’s a locker protected by a keypad, so we enter the code from Xenia’s script, 18355. This opens the locker, where we find the remote for the lift.
Then we have to go back up to the stage area and wander around until Nancy notes that we’re standing on the spot to activate the lift. We use the remote to buzz it down, which leads us into another part of the set.
The lift takes us down to the area under the stage, which for some reason is…more elaborate than the actual set. There is an actual RIVER down here, what the hell. Thanos immediately barges up to us all, “Who dares to enter my kingdom?!” Nancy’s like, “Are you talking like a weird fantasy RPG cosplayer because you’re trying to scare me?” Thanos is like, “Call it what you will.” He gives us a bunch of vague, stiff answers about how Nancy needs the fear of God struck in her, and how he just wants to be left alone to “tend to his kingdom.” It’s a theater set, Thanos, chill out. Your kingdom is made out of plywood.
After that, he lets us go to explore the absurdly detailed backstage area. Near the river(!!!), there’s a rock with a plaque on it. The plaque has nothing on it except a bunch of half-formed letters, and Nancy notes that it looks like part of something larger, and we need to find supplies to make a rubbing of the image.
Now we can approach the river. There’s a boat waiting for us, and the skeleton manning it will open its hand as we approach. “Well, this is definitely isn’t Venice,” Nancy remarks. Hey, we’re not on the boat yet. The skeleton could still start serenading us in Italian.
Anyway, if you are familiar with Greek mythology, you know that this river under a janky theater in an underfunded museum is a ~metaphor~ for the River Styx. The boat across the Styx is manned by a dude called Charon, who you have to pay before he takes you across. So we gotta find something to pay this fake skeleton with.
WHY DIDN’T YOU SPEND THIS BUDGET ON YOUR ACTUAL PLAY, XENIA?
Now that we’ve explored a bit, let’s go back and talk to our suspects. As soon as we rock up to Xenia, she asks us for a favor. Xenia, I don’t trust you anymore. Your actual stage has like two props on it, meanwhile you built an entire functioning river under the theater. Your priorities are out of wack.
So apparently Niobe wants to make a high-res image of the items in the coin display. Nancy asks why, and Xenia says that they want to project a montage of Demeter offering Hades items in exchange for Persephone. Isn’t…isn’t it kind of too late for you to be doing this, Xenia? Oh, well. I guess she was too busy building a RIVER UNDER THE THEATER. Xenia asks us to get permission from Melina for them to look at the display. “Obviously, we’ll follow protocol to the letter.” Really? Because Niobe smashed a case like ten minutes ago.
Speaking of, let’s go see Niobe. She wants us to ask Melina to let Niobe look at some of the pieces that have been locked up.
You see where this is going, right? The mystery in this game isn’t subtle.
Nancy agrees like a chump, and in exchange, Niobe gives us a book about Greek mythology. She’s like, “I’m so glad we don’t live in that world. Well, mostly.” What is that MOSTLY? What part of Greek mythology does she want to live in, the part where gods went around raping mortals, or where you got turned into an animal if you pissed one of them off?
So, Niobe! What do you think of your castmates? She snipes that Thanos is “coarse”, and she doesn’t think he can act, he just got cast as the asshole god of death because he IS an asshole. She calls him a monster, then gets a call on her phone. She tells whoever it is that she can’t talk right now.
Clearly, something odd is going on. Up next: We look into the cast’s backgrounds, research the museum pieces, and take some trips down the RIVER UNDER THE FUCKING STAGE, WHAT THE HELL, I AM NOT OVER THIS.
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