February 3, 2015

Opera Fatal

 Ruske & Pühretmaier, 1996


Opera Fatal is an educational adventure that will take you on a roller coaster ride into the land of music. The game cast you into the roll of a master of music whose musical notes, which he prepared for the premiere of Beethoven's Fidelio, are stolen from the Opera House by some anonymous opponent. This opponent is also a master of music and by stealing your musical score he has, in fact, challenged your music skills by hiding them in different musical instruments, puzzles and notes scattered all over the Opera House. Your goal is to explore the Opera House and solve all the riddles, puzzles and overcome all the obstacles to retrieve your musical notes one by one.

Educationally, the game introduces the player to the art of music in a very amusing manner. Even if you don't know even a bit of music or musical instruments, this game will definitely enlighten your knowledge to many terms of music, for example different terms of dynamics, tempo and transitions between the chords. The players will learn about the different types of musical instruments and their functions while solving the puzzles hidden in them.

Opera Fatal is a mouse-driven game with 1st-person perspective view and there are no characters in the game to interact with except for a small mouse, which is only needed to solve a puzzle in the game. Puzzles and riddles are very nice and not so hard to solve but in case you get stuck somewhere in the game then a visit to the library might help you out, as most of the answers to many riddles and questions are available in the library. Over all, it's a fine game with fine music, excellent graphics and elaborated educational value, and I highly recommend it to all the fans of the genre.