Mystery of the Opera (Mac) Review

G5 Games brings more hidden object fun to the Mac App Store in the form of Mystery of the Opera, a magical tale that has a bit of a Phantom of the Opera feel to it. You play as the fiance of a young opera diva. As the curtains close on her very first big show (a resounding success), a mysterious figure cloaked all in black snatches her from the stage. His intentions for her are unclear, but it sure doesn’t look good. Being both a loving and brave betrothed, you vow not to rest until she is freed.

In order to find your love, you first need to figure out what exactly happened – and that isn’t easy, because most of the witnesses appear to be under some sort of evil spell. Before you can interrogate them, you first need to free them from the cloaked figure’s black magic spell. To do this, you need to banish the magic from the items around them. These are items that relate to their owners – fancy shoes and a glamorous outfit for an opera singer, film and photos for a photographer, and so forth. To release the magic, you need to find all the items and put them together properly. For instance, in the case of the diva you need to find every piece of her outfit, including fixing some of them, and put them all together properly. Once you’ve cleared the magic, the witness will tell you what they know.

The gameplay in Mystery of the Opera is pretty standard for this type of game. You’ll find a nice number of traditional hidden object finds sprinkled throughout the game. In these, you’ll be given a list of specific items to find amidst a jumble of objects on a fixed screen. There are also a great deal of objects that are just spread around the many environments featured in the game. To find these, you’ll have to find the items that are out of place in the environment, and then figure out how and where to use them. Finally, you’ll also play a series of mini games designed to advance the story. These range from reassembling torn photos, to pulling a series of switches in the correct order, to a Memory like card game. All of these are skippable after a time if you get stuck, but they serve well to add variety to the game play.

Mystery of the Opera is an interesting game that keeps you on your toes. There’s plenty of hidden object action to keep you hooked, and the content is all perfectly acceptable for players of all ages. The difficulty level is not customizable, but there is a hint feature that can be used if you get stuck, which should be of great help to unexperienced gamers. There is a ton of wandering back and forth in the game, as you find and object in one area, go all the way to another area to put it where it belongs, and then get sent off in another direction entirely. That does feel a bit tedious after awhile, and there aren’t any shortcuts to cut down on the back and forth aspect of it. Overall, though, Mystery of the Opera is a fun game that will keep you interested all the way until the less than explosive finish.