Nightfall Mysteries: Curse of the Opera
Game Review

You play the part of a stagehand in this famous opera troupe which has been invited by a Count Vladd Vansig III to perform for him in his small village. Strangely enough, the village is empty except for the count and his manservant. (Honestly though, if you have been invited to perform in a village in which the only residents are a man named Vladd and his manservant, the best course of action would have been to run away!)

You start the game in your car driving the stage props to the village. Unexpectedly (or expectedly, considering this is a mystery thriller game), a car tire goes flat and the engine stalls. Your hidden puzzle adventure begins as you attempt to find your way to the village and locate the rest of the opera troupe. As you enter the village and interact with the people there, you start to realize things are not what they seem, and everyone seems to have their own hidden agenda. Then someone gets murdered, and the adventure begins in earnest.

The gameplay in Nightfall Mysteries: Curse of the Opera is primarily like an adventure puzzle game, with hidden object scenes and mini-puzzles present at almost every turn. You move between interconnected scenes and locations while trying to solve puzzles and overcome various obstacles in order to progress further.

The scenes or locations in the game are all connected similar to the dungeon maps in role-playing games. To advance from scene to scene, you would need to overcome obstacles such as opening a locked door or crossing a river whose bridge had been washed away. Solving these obstacles will involve obtaining items such as keys, which in turn are obtained by solving other puzzles, hidden object scenes or interacting directly with the environment. For instance, if you need a tree branch to solve an obstacle, you could find a saw or axe and chop down a tree in a forest scene.

The hidden object scenes that you encounter in the game are not excessively difficult. They are the traditional puzzles where you are required to find a list of random items in a busy scene, some of which can be used to solve subsequent puzzles or overcome obstacles. There are also the hidden puzzles where you are required to find 6 birds and 6 musical notes and the like. The mini-games and puzzles require more logical reasoning and problem solving, and are a refreshing break from the item-hunting in the rest of the game. If you get stuck though, there is always the option to skip the puzzles and continue with the story.

The game progression in Curse of the Opera also slightly differs from traditional hidden object games. Similar to role-playing games, your objectives or "quests" are obtained by talking to characters who are located in an "inn". And when you complete those "quests", you return to the character in question and obtain the next part of their quest.

These characters are very colorful and add a whole lot of life into the game. You have the creepy count, the soprano diva, the silent violinist, the nonchalant engineer and more. And all of them have great voice-acting complete with accents appropriate for a grand international opera troupe. The atmosphere and artwork are very immersive as well. Although all the scenes and locations are dark and gloomy (the game is called Nightfall Mysteries after all), they perfectly portray the mysterious village and its sinister inhabitants.

Curse of the Opera delivers a respectable mystery adventure game that combines the role-playing game, hidden object and puzzle game genres pretty well. It is well worth your time to come explore the mysteries surrounding Count Vladd and his secluded little village.

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