I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
Captivating Point and Click Adventure
I enjoyed playing through this game twice, I’d say that if you’re interested, you should pick it up.
It’s a story-based game inspired by the book of the same name by Harlan Ellison (who voices the character of AM in game).
–-{Graphics}—
☐ You forget what reality is
☐ Beautiful
☐ Good
☑ Decent
☐ Bad
☐ Don‘t look too long at it
☐ Paint.exe
Good, but this game was developed in the ’90s, so you can imagine that the graphics will reflect that era. The graphics are not bad at all. I’d say that they still hold up somewhat and the graphics don’t take away from the game.
– Real player with 31.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Based On A Novel Point & Click Games.
Make no mistake about I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream….it is NOT a horror game, at least not in the typical sense. It’s not trying to make you jump in your seat and scream in shocked terror. It has no interest in what many would call “cheap thrills”. Instead, what this game wants to do is provoke your thought-process. It is a very cerebral game, with dark undertones that force you to think about the dark side of humanity, and whether or not there is redemption for our fatal flaws. It isn’t afraid to present you with disturbing topics such as suicide, rape, even genocide, and make you deal with them. Although there is a tint of light-heartedness, 99% percent of the game is drenched in an atmosphere of hopelessness as you scramble to make amends for the characters' pasts in an attempt to thwart the diabolical supercomputer, AM.
– Real player with 17.6 hrs in game
Nancy Drew®: Curse of Blackmoor Manor
This game started out good but got more frustrating as it went along. Eventually, I used more than one walkthrough just to save myself the time of trying to figure things out only to be stuck and needing help anyway. I don’t like using walkthroughs so that was disappointing. Also, as the game went on, it went from interesting to boring. Once Nancy had her assignment and met the characters, the storyline didn’t progress. It was all about figuring out where to go and how to get there and solving puzzles, With regards to solving puzzles, a lot of information can be given for any one puzzle and might not be needed for a long time. This means you have to remember where the information was and then go back to it. Another thing I disliked about this game is the sheer volume of tedious information you are required to remember. I recommend taking a snapshot with your cell to save yourself the trouble of memorizing a ton of info or of having to write it all down.
– Real player with 44.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Based On A Novel Point & Click Games.
So I have played a few Nancy Drew games, and i only enjoyed the japanese ghost one, others were too meh for me especially the story. So after many reviews on whats popular, i chose this one. And the judgement is correct its pretty epic. I played right off the bat as a senior detective, and you know these games are pretty toughies but i really wanted a challenge. Also this is the only game which i keep notes on (for a detective game) and i was determined to finish it without a guide and I DID. it was such a wonderful feeling, the puzzles were tough but not impossible. The story is pretty great as well, i loved the twist ending. The music is cool as well, art of course and since this game has aged well you cannot really complain. What i hated was the go in the dark passageways with a green light. There were several fun mini games and i enjoyed all of em.
– Real player with 22.1 hrs in game
Nancy Drew®: The Captive Curse
This was my first ever Nancy Drew game and now I’m hooked! I thought this game was going to be really corny and the characters looked silly, but i was intrugued by the German castle setting and i love point and click puzzle games which are so hard to find! I wasn’t expecting much from the game and i was very pleased. Some of the puzzles i ended up looking up clues for online, but found if i would of just tried a little more i would of gotten them. But overall i found them challenging and fun. I liked many aspects of the game, which i think really sold it to me.
– Real player with 23.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Based On A Novel Point & Click Games.
♥ Spooky spooky.
The first time I played Captive Curse, I was absolutely terrified.
Though the game firmly keeps with being family friendly, it does an excellent job of conveying the castle and its array of characters fear. From the dark atomsphere to the animal skull in the dungeon to the monster lurking outside the castle walls, replaying it gave me the shivers!
If you’d like to play a spookier Nancy Drew game, this one makes for a great choice.
♥ Love the mini games.
Usually I tend to skip the mini games unless they’re directly related to clearing a task or two. Playing Raid? Killing cows in search of the hidden monster? Loved them! The two mini games added a great amount of replay value to the game. Admittedly I wouldn’t mind if they made more of the mini games as fun as those two!
– Real player with 20.1 hrs in game
The Last Express Gold Edition
I think this may well be the greatest game ever made. Yes, the controls are clunky as all get out. Yes, for people used to today’s games the ultra-high-tech-for-1997-digital-rotoscoping technique looks extremely antiquated. Yes, you’re dropped into the game with no idea what to do, and you’re going to fail. A lot. But at the same time “The Last Express” includes:
- Probably the best-developed characters in any adventure game I’ve yet played (the weakest is arguably Robert Cath, who the player controls, but even he has an intriguing and irritatingly-largely-unrevealed-due-to-lack-of-a-sequel backstory). By the end of the game you know what they want and what makes most of them tick, and since certain bad things are more or less guaranteed to happen to a number of them the result is the equivalent of an emotional shovel to the face.
– Real player with 16.0 hrs in game
Ahead of its time but stuck in the past
First read about this game way back when it came out, in a magazine I still have, where the reviewer was left in complete awe because of unique design for an adventure game. Ever since it occupied a small cluster of neurons in the back of my head, waiting for me to play it and its moment to shine. I should say I never played the original so my review will only address this 2013 port, with some inferior exceptions others have noticed.
It plays like Myst, from 1st person perspective with static scenes as you move around, but is set in realistic environment of an vintage luxury passenger train called Orient Express. The whole game takes place in the same 4-5 vagon carts with beautifully rendered backgrounds. You move by clicking edges of screen with mouse cursor that contextually changes functions to forward, backward and left or right turn, with interaction prompts for opening doors and object/NPC interaction.
– Real player with 9.8 hrs in game
Nancy Drew®: Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon
Updated Review:
I’m not sure if I can recommend getting this game again with newer Operating Systems(for example, WIN 10). Although the game is playable, it also lags very badly in areas of heavy animation scenes. The lag doesn’t really make any sense seeing as there is no CD drive it’s reading from. It should run smoothly– especially when nothing else is running in the background. There are also moments when you try to go in and out of the game window and it crashes the game with error messages. This game also cannot understand how to transfer sounds through an HDMI cable should you try to connect your computer to a TV. Although the game is playable, and I’ve loved this game since I was a child, it’s hard for me to recommend it until HER decides to clean it up and fix the lingering issues with it.
– Real player with 19.3 hrs in game
I enjoyed this one. The setting and surroundings are absolutely beautiful, the puzzles all felt refreshing and in keeping with the theme, and the characters that you get to interact with are all fun and interesting.
I would be tempted to list this as one of my favourites in the series, but a couple of gripes hold me back. The first is the music which felt pretty half-hearted by ND standards, and the second is the cast. The characters were so great that I was disappointed that the writers didn’t do more with them. The other characters, even the Hardy Boys, barely feel related to the sory or the game as it progresses. Nancy could have solved the entire thing without talking to anyone except for Bess and George on the phone. The only mystery that involves the rest of the cast never even gets solved! The ‘bad guy’ at the end of the game was a big disappointment as well, which is a shame since it left a bitter taste at the end of an otherwise enjoyable game.
– Real player with 14.5 hrs in game
Nancy Drew®: Message in a Haunted Mansion
I remember why I don’t like these early games. Between the weird characters, old graphics, and dull plot it does little to excite. Worst of all, I found myself having to call for help every other second because the gameplay is so arbitrary. It is mostly a guessing game, and I still have no idea if I did everything I was supposed to. I know I missed the seance, which caused me to worry that I was going to have to restart the whole game, but I managed to finish it. My interactions with Abby were just non-existent. Also, the dumbest second chance in the series has to be Louis realizing you snooped through his stuff simply by you saying you saw a phrase in a book. It could be any book Mr. Guilty. Overall, I wish I had just saved the $3 and ignored this game.
– Real player with 16.4 hrs in game
The second Nancy Drew game I’m (re)playing and the third in the series, although I don’t think I ever played this one before.
It takes place in San Francisco, but you spend the whole time in a Victorian mansion that a friend of a the Drew family’s housekeeper is trying to renovate to turn into a B&B. Something I like about the Nancy Drew games is how they try to incorporate the history and culture of a place. This one features a bit of Wild West/Gold Rush history (with made-up characters for the game) along with the influence of Chinese immigrants. In fact, get a notebook out if you play this, because a game-long puzzle has you collecting Chinese characters (which the game told me are called hanzi) that you will need to be able to distinguish. My Chinese handwriting is way better than my handwriting with the latin alphabet, but I also spent like 10x the time and effort.
– Real player with 9.9 hrs in game
Nancy Drew®: Danger by Design
Look, I love Nancy Drew games… most of the time.
This was not one of those times. The ending was random, anti-climatic, and had an annoying twist of having to fight someone. (Which requires both crazy dexterity and memorization.) Most of the side-plots get zero resolution.
There’s also a timed event that occurs while a conversation is going on. Time limits are always stressful for me, but I get it, it’s Nancy Drew. There tends to be at least one in each game. But while listening to chatter? Ugh. No. Just… no.
– Real player with 13.4 hrs in game
This one is bad; one of the worst ones I have ever played (the other one being Secret at Shadow Ranch, I would not get that one either, if I were you. If you want to know why, check out my review on the Secret of Shadow Ranch, because there are a bunch of major problems in that game too). The puzzles in this game are just mind boggling; they make no sense, and are really frustrating, because most of them come without any tips or clues, leaving you to figure it out on your own.
One of the most infuriating parts in this game is where you have to develop photos in a dark room; and when I say dark, I mean pitch black. You have all the trays with different liquids, to place the photos in, but then you have to switch the light off when you do that!! Apparently, the red lighting in the room damages the photos, so you have to work in complete darkness, feeling around for the trays to put the photos in. It’s so easy to knock bottles of fluids over, which somehow causes an explosion (??), then you have to take a second chance.
– Real player with 12.3 hrs in game
Nancy Drew®: Labyrinth of Lies
it’s okay! i probably would’ve given it a thumbs down if i’d played it before midnight in salem, but it’s definitely better than midnight in salem.
my main complaint is the pacing and the amount of spoon-feeding. there are a lot of nd games where you are sort of led gently through the story, but this one feels less like you’re driving it and more like it’s being told to you with puzzles. most of the major breakthroughs don’t feel like things that you did yourself, but that might just be me. that being said, the sets are pretty, if a little immersion-breaking. the characters vary in quality imo.
– Real player with 44.3 hrs in game
This morning I was fired from my job after 25 years of working there. My boss had retired and let this POS college grad with $200,000 in student debt and an ego the size of Texas take over, firing everyone over the age of 35 in order to “progress the company into the next century.” FCK YOU, CHAD! FCK YOU AND YOUR PORSCHE YOUR DAD BOUGHT YOU! Have fun looking for the huge sh*t I took in your wiper fluid container!!!
TlDr Nancy Drew 8/10 Would recommend
– Real player with 17.1 hrs in game
Nancy Drew®: The Silent Spy
Overall, I’d give this one a 7.5/10! I liked the story and the puzzles were a good level of difficulty, perhaps it was on the medium side. Some of the characters were great, some were alright. The setting of this game was a good one as well, however there weren’t that many places to explore. I’m glad that the “chore” type stuff in this one was super minimal - barely there at all. I also liked that most of the resources you needed were with you most of the time.
One of the weaker points to this one was that there was a lot of repetition in the conversations with the characters. I think Nancy asked the same questions like 10 times. But because I liked most of the characters enough, it was not unbearable, and you can skip through them. It also felt like a relatively short game compared to some others.
– Real player with 14.6 hrs in game
Scotland. Secret agent themed brain teasers. Scotland. Archery. Need I say more?
Seriously, if you are a long time Nancy Drew game fan, this one hits all the marks, not to mention it’s a rare and responsibly told foray into Nancy’s canon and they do such a good job with the story. The game flows well and there always seem to be something to do, even in lulls
(of which there were few). It has a good range of puzzles, ranging from fun, to medium to challenging (for me these are always the ones where you simply use association and intuition to put the clues together, and ultimately solve it using trial and error). Be warned there is a lot of text/letters to read and lots of dialogue.
– Real player with 10.5 hrs in game
Nancy Drew®: The Phantom of Venice
Probably one of my favorite Nancy Drew games. Most of the puzzles, save two monstrous ones, are enjoyable and fairly straightforward to solve. The environments in this particular game are quite something to behold as well.
This game isn’t perfect, however; the characters all have promise but wind up feeling a tad underdeveloped, and the phantom himself definitely doesn’t live up to the hype. And then of course, you have the Scopa minigame. (I actually really enjoy it, but I imagine that if you don’t like it as much, it must be agonizing to have to play a minimum two games of it to progress the story.)
– Real player with 20.0 hrs in game
My second Nancy Drew game since I got back to them recently after a decade. I really liked this one. It is set in Venice, Italy and really has a fantastic scenery and appeal about it. I also really liked the voice acting. The story is interesting and there is quite a few more locations and characters involved than the previous game I finished (Legend of the Crystal Skull). I went for a senior detective level this time and I must say the puzzles were great and managable and super interesting (I played Legend of the Crystal Skull on junior mode and it was probably 2x harder). There are two puzzles at the very end of the game which are super intense though. There’s a bunch of stuff I learned (from italian phrases to sending encoded messages in both binary code and chess positions to kanji characters). The game feels consistent overall and I highly recommend it. If not else just for the scopa simmulator game. That was fun as hell. I know how to play it now.
– Real player with 18.1 hrs in game