Return of the Phantom (MicroProse) - 1993

This review is part of the “Let’s Adventure!” series. See all reviewed games sorted by rating here.

Return of the Phantom is a point-and-click graphic adventure game developed and published by MicroProse in 1993. It was produced by Matt Gruson and designed/written by future James Bond novelist Raymond Benson. It is based on the 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux.

The game was the second graphical adventure game developed by MicroProse, following Rex Nebular and preceding Dragonsphere. It was developed using the MicroProse Adventure Development system (MADS), and made use of 256-colour graphics. A CD version featuring full voices for the characters was also released - which is the version I played.

It is the present time (1993), and many people are about to enjoy the performance of the opera “Don Juan Triumphant” at the Palais Garnier. However, that piece of art will soon become covered with the blood of innocents, as the great ceiling chandelier crushes down on the crowd.

The player controls Raoul Montand, a detective who’s been asked for help by his old friend Monsieur Brie, the manager of the Opera. Bringing Raoul to a crime scene, he leaves him in hope he’ll find some clues and prevent this terror from happening again. Supposedly, the disaster was caused by a being known as the Phantom of the Opera, a mysterious creature who has been haunting the opera house since 1881. The detective is about to find out what secrets lie beneath the surface, looking for clues in the present time and traveling back to 1881.¹

The game’s intro sequence is extremely long, but it sets the stage appropriately. Though I’ve heard of the Phantom of the Opera and have seen it live at lest once in my life, the first thing that jumped out was how little I actually knew about the story.

My memories seem limited to just the character in the mask and cape that lives in the basement and plays the organ … so really you could have replaced the Phantom with literally anything else and this game’s story would have had the same impact.

Once you gain control of Raoul following the intro, you walk around the opera house and can interact with a handful of characters. These sequences are the typical dialogue trees you’ll find in other adventure games, and they help advance the plot and give you clues as to what you need to do next.

If you play the CD version of the game, these interactions are all fully voice acted - and the voice acting isn’t all that bad. Aside from a couple actors hamming it up a little, they definitely add to the experience and make interrogations more enjoyable.

Moving around the opera house is pretty straightforward, and exits are clear marked. If you can go in some direction, the cursor will change to a GO icon with an arrow indicating which direction you can move in.

You also have a verb list to select from, though you’ll predominantly just be using LOOK, TALK TO and TAKE.

The game is split up into three parts. The first part has you roaming about the opera house and talking to people, learning about the history of the Phantom and getting used to the game. Eventually you’ll make your way up to the rafters, where you encounter the Phantom, get into a fight and he throws you off.

You’ll hit your head, and when you wake up you’ve traveled back in time to 1881 and have a completely different Phantom of the Opera mystery to solve.

This second part of the game is just an extension of the first - but in the past. I believe you’re trying to change the events of the original Phantom of the Opera to prevent a murder in your present time.

The game then becomes a series of fetch quests and interrogations. You’ll find out that the Phantom is leaving notes that indicate what his demands are in a private opera box that should always be locked. Madame Giry has the only key assures you the box is locked, but somehow the Phantom is able to come and go as he pleases.

Since this game takes place in an opera house, eventually you’ll get a chance to watch the opera - but first you’ll need to find some items from your time. Madame Giry seems to know you’re from a different time, and for some reason even though you’ve got a ticket to the opera she won’t unlock the door until you fetch these items.

You’ll find coloured frames in the opera, which are for changing the colour of the lighting. These wouldn’t exist in 1881 so it’s weird you can find them - but they’re here - and you need to find at least 3 of them to proceed.

The leading lady - who looks exactly like the leading lady in the present - gets kidnapped and you’ll then need to go find her.

This game really holds your hand for the most part. Every time you need to do something to progress, the character interactions make it very clear what your next objective is. You’ll never feel lost, and if you do backtracking isn’t a major issue as there are only about a dozen or so screens to navigate.

You’ll be told to go find Jacques, who you’ll find has been murdered. Next to him is a skeleton key (how convenient), which you can use to unlock the secret door in box 5, which is how the Phantom has been coming and going undetected.

This will lead you under the opera to the catacombs, which is a giant maze.

Though I hate mazes, the catacombs were fairly straightforward. There is nothing chasing you and I don’t think there’s any risk of dying, so I turned DOSBox to turbo and just wandered about (very quickly) until I found where I needed to go.

To escape the catacombs you’ll need to solve a couple of puzzles. This is the only place in the game where there are puzzles, so it was a nice change of pace and didn’t feel (too much) like busywork.

The first puzzle requires you to flip 4 switches in order to unlock the door. The switches hide letters of the alphabet, but what word should you try? The Phantom’s real name is Erik, so it seemed logical that that’s what the password would be.

If you enter the letters out of order or incorrectly, gas enters the room through a vent and kills you. Thankfully, death in this game just respawns you in the current room and you can try again.

The second puzzle is a sliding tile puzzle where you need to recreate the Phantom’s mask. Once done correctly, a trap door opens in the floor you can escape through. This is done by combining a hook and rope to make a grappling hook, which you can THROW to climb out.

You don’t actually have to interact much with your inventory but I found the system worked rather well when you did. Whenever you find a new item, you’ll automatically LOOK at it, so if it’s a letter or note, you’ll read it.

If you select an item in your inventory, there’s a preview image of it in one view, with a set of targeted verbs specifically for that item in a second view.

I really like this system as it allows for a larger verb list without cluttering the main interface. It also makes it obvious what you can do with an item.

The final showdown with the Phantom eventually takes place on top of the chandelier above the seats in the opera (the one that crashed down at the beginning of the game). There’s a bit of a scuffle, you get on top of the Phantom, rip off his mask and the chandelier comes crashing down.

You then wake up back in the present.

After a brief exchange, Raoul decides to double check the book in the library to see how the Phantom died, and the ending has apparently now been changed. You’re the hero of the past, though you apparently also died in the fall along with the Phantom.

I really don’t know anything noteworthy about the source material this game is based on, and didn’t find the story all that interesting. Though there’s a time travel story here, it sort of felt out of place. The entire game basically takes place in 1881, and the events of the present really aren’t necessary.

The game engine is quite good, and hopefully one day this will be officially supported in ScummVM - but for now you can play this just fine in DOSBox.

Overall the game was fine, but I wouldn’t play it again.

Game Information

Game	Return of the Phantom
Developer	MicroProse
Publisher	MicroProse
Release Date	1993
Systems	DOS
Game Engine	MADS

My Playthrough

How Long To Beat?	2.5 hours
Version Played	DOS via DOSBox-X
Notes	Walkthrough, Manual

Score

See here for a refresher on how we’re scoring these games.

Graphics (15)	10
Sound (10)	7
Plot / Progression (25)	14
Characters / Development (15)	7
Gameplay / Experience (15)	6
Replayability (5)	0
Impact / Impression (10)	3
Bonus / Surprise (5)	1
	48%

Gallery

Footnotes

1. Description from Moby Games ↩