Challenging yet upbeat, with an idyllic story to tie together all the different scenes. Awesome artwork, too. I don't play with the sound on so I can't really speak about that. Just one puzzle of a type I don't care for, and a few minor religious elements that were consistent with the story but which I could have lived without. I normally get the creepy, more suspenseful games but for once I just wanted something nice, and I got what I wanted.
This is one of the first games I got because I'm a Phantom fan, and it was a mistake, since the gameplay was far too advanced for my very low skill level then. I loved the levels and the detail, very complex. Some puzzles started at the beginning can't be completed until the end. My main criticism of the game that I played was that there was no conclusion to the story. The map showed 5 levels but I could only access 4, and the credits rolled with the girl still a prisoner. Very unsatisfying.
I found the ending disappointing. The map shows the bonus level, but in this edition there's no way to get there. I can only hope the girl escapes but there's no way I can know. I had to turn the sound off, since there's so much random organ music and repetitious threats from the Phantom, so I missed vital clues voiced by the heroine that don't otherwise appear anywhere. The story should be fairly straightforward, but the puzzles are spread all over the landscape, and the inside of the opera house is a big landscape! Puzzles on level 1 have pieces on level 3!
This game has a very different style from most of the HO games I've played. Rather than finding hidden objects some puzzles matched items, or removed items that didn't belong in a given context. Not bad, just different. None of the levels are too large, but large enough to make them challenging, and when strung together create a complex and satisfying story.. The artwork is superb, far superior to all the other games I've played. My personal favorite is the garden of the English Manor, just magnificent.
While I'm no fan of puzzles spread over three levels, this game is far too obvious. The solutions to most puzzles are fairly clear and limited to the level they're on, which is good, but there aren't enough of them, they aren't complex enough and/or they don't interlock. This is a good beginner game but anyone with any experience will race through it.
The Redemption Cemetery series gets it right. By breaking the game up into different levels, each with its own story logic and objective, I can play the game and not get confused by trying to remember where a given item can be used.