Return Of The Phantom

The chandelier crashes down on the audience and I'm sitting at my monitor at two in the morning with Sound Blaster cranked to full volume. I got Return of the Phantom back then in a box with MicroProse's bold logo — a company that mainly made simulators, so an adventure from them sparked curiosity.

The 1993 game builds on the Phantom of the Opera story, but doesn't rewrite it — it continues it. You play Raoul Montand, a Parisian inspector who arrives at the Opéra Garnier to investigate the chandelier's collapse during a premiere. But soon you're transported to the past, to the time of Erik and Christine themselves. MicroProse took the classic gothic source material and turned it into a point-and-click detective adventure spanning two time periods.

The game's core is a classic point-and-click adventure in the style of its era — you collect items, combine them, talk to characters, and solve logic puzzles. The graphics make decent use of the VGA palette; the Opera with its corridors, cellars, and stage looks grimly convincing. The music does exactly what it should — maintains atmosphere and occasionally makes you freeze in your chair. Controls are simple, the interface doesn't deviate from period standards. The biggest issue is some puzzles where the solution logic sits more in the designer's head than yours. I had to walk away with pencil and paper a few times back then.

What keeps the game afloat thirty years after release is atmosphere. MicroProse did honest work on the environment — the Parisian opera's backdrops have weight and mystery, not just decoration. The transitions between time periods felt surprisingly sophisticated for an adventure from a studio used to simulating tanks and fighters. What's aged mainly is the pace — the game is slow and some backtracking is unnecessarily lengthy. You won't get used to that today without a dose of patience.

Who should play Return of the Phantom today? Fans of classic point-and-click adventures from the golden age who don't need a hint system every five minutes and can appreciate story as the game's driving force. Also anyone who loves the Phantom of the Opera and wants to experience it differently than Lloyd's musical version. Fire it up in your browser via DOSBox without much fuss — and that late-night atmosphere still works.