Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice

The Phantom of Venice was the first game to release in 2008 and the eighteenth game in the series.

Game Description

Infiltrate a Carnevale of Criminals in Italy!
Somewhere beyond the bright piazzas and open markets of the Venice Carnevale lurks a masked thief. Despite months of investigations, the Italian police remain helpless as stolen treasures vanish in the night. That’s why the authorities asked you, as detective Nancy Drew, to join the case to infiltrate a dangerous crime syndicate and catch this phantom thief before he or she destroys the heart of Venice in Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice!

Game Information

Available on: Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10
ESRB: E for Everyone
PC Release Date: July 11, 2008
Release MSRP: $19.99 USD
Current MSRP: $9.99 USD
Number of Discs: 2
Game Abbreviation: VEN
Game Color Code: 8EC94D (Green), FBA639 (Orange)
Inspired by/Based on: Nancy Drew Mystery Stories Digest Paperback #78: The Phantom of Venice

Game Specs

PC System Requirements:

1 GHz or greater Pentium or equivalent class CPU
128 MB of RAM
1GB or more of hard drive space
32MB DirectX 9.0 compatible graphics video card
16-bit DirectX compatible sound card
24x CD-ROM drive
Mouse and Speakers

Fun Facts:

This was the first game to use the brand-new version of the Nancy Drew theme song. This track was used at the beginning of each game until Midnight in Salem when HeR changed the format of the games.
This game introduced one of the fan-favorite mini games in the series, Scopa!
Prudence Rutherford returns for the final time in this game.
Samantha Quick is a thief Nancy has to pose as to enter a club. The original name of Samantha Quick was introduced back in The Final Scene in 2001 when Simone Mueller suggests stage names for Nancy. The name might have been based off of the character Samantha Swift from another game series by MumboJumbo.
The dancing puzzle makes a return in an outtake from Trail of the Twister.
Fango has a toy robot in one of his cabinet drawers that is a smaller version of the robot from Secret of the Old Clock. He also has a toy carousel horse just like from The Haunted Carousel.
Margherita mentions having met Red Knott, the birdwatcher from Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake. She also mentions that Prudence Rutherford brought her the flowers on the balcony from the Hilihili Research Center in Hawaii from The Creature of Kapu Cave.
Helena's notebook references Sonny Joon and says that he is heading to the Caribbean which is a reference to a future game, Ransom of the Seven Ships.
This is the first game with post-credits outtakes.
You can buy a skeleton mask in the costume shop that was worn by the Jolly Rogers in Legend of the Crystal Skull.
When you root around through the dumpster behind the club, you will come across various items from the past games such as the head from the horse called Glory from The Haunted Carousel and a snow shoe from The White Wolf of Icicle Creek.
This is the first game to tease the end of the game right at the beginning.
HeR Interactive began creating the character animations in-house with this game.

Image Gallery
Characters
Walkthrough
Soundtrack
Extra

Image Gallery

Characters

Colin Baxter

Colin is restoring the Ca’Nascosta for very little money, even though he’s one of the best in his field. He claims to love art and works for near nothing because it is his passion. His job allows him to gain access to valuable artifacts – would he steal the treasures and sell them on the black market?

La Contessa Margherita Fauberg

Recently widowed, Margherita purchased the Ca’Nascosta to cement her status as a Venetian socialite. Her spending habits may have caused her to fall upon hard times. Would she do anything to stay in her circle of wealthy friends – including the theft and sale of priceless artifacts?

Helena Berg

Helena specializes in reporting high profile crimes. Ambitious and calculating, Helena is extremely knowledgeable about the failures and successes of crime rings, but is she telling everything she knows, or does she have her own agenda?

Enrico Tazza

Originally a guard for stolen goods, Enrico runs a private club called the Casa dei Giochi, but is it just a front for another crime ring? After all, he has the connections and the knowledge to steal the artifacts, so what’s stopping him?

Antonio Fango

The prime suspect in the case, Mr. Fango installed modern conveniences for the houses where priceless artifacts were stolen. Unfortunately, authorities have no evidence against him. Is he committing crimes so perfectly that no clues are left behind?