Nancy Drew®: The Creature of Kapu Cave
This is the only nancy drew game i have played so far. Some puzzles in the game made no sense and others you had to die a million times to figure out. The Plot seems to lack a few things but it was okay..they couldve added more. sadly the villian characters stood out like a soar thumb. if it had built more into the story line and characters it wouldve been better. Making Characters more mysterious and harder to read, adding puzzles that acually had hints, better ways to buy/ find items (took forever to find certain things). what i hated the most was listeing to the characters lines, there is no skip option for that so everything i already read had to be spoken again and agian. The only reason i like this game is because its point and click. other than thats its a super easy game with stupid problem solving puzzles that are easy as fuck or just impossibe without a walkthrough. 2 outta 5. if you like point and click puzzle games try it out. it may have flaws but surprisingly out of all the stress it put me ethrough i still enjoyed playing.
– Real player with 10.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Detective Puzzle Games.
I really wish I hadn’t bought this. I absolutely love the Nancy Drew games, and I grew up on Maui, so I thought “Hey, I love Her Interactive, they haven’t let me down before, and I miss Maui and my family, it’d be nice to have a little reminder of home. This’ll be perfect for me, right?!”. But, no. I was wrong. So wrong.
I had actually bought a physical copy of this game when it first came out. However, I was still in Maui at that time, and I had a bunch of other ND titles I still hadn’t played yet, so it got put off. And eventually I moved, one of the discs got lost somewhere along the way, and I couldn’t play it. Recently, I got some birthday money, I found that the ND games were starting to be put on STEAM, and I thought “Oh, perfect! I’ll FINALLY be able to play it!!” But the hype was short-lived. The searching for shells, the fishing, making necklaces, etc. were nice and calming, but they got boring and tedious very fast. ND characters are usually all so vibrant, varied, and interesting, so at first I thought these ones would be the same, especially with the interesting concept introduced at the very beginning of doing stuff, getting novelty money, doing more stuff, and repeat. I mean, it wasn’t the most fun, but it was an interesting concept at least.
– Real player with 8.0 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
Read More: Best Detective Classic Games.
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®: Alibi in Ashes
♥ Steam overlay.
Thank you! I really appreciate the fact that Alibi in Ashes has an overlay that works, unlike some of the older titles. There’s nothing more annoying than when I want to reply to a message or
! look up a cheat and find myself locked in the game.
One bonus is when I encountered parts I found boring, such as having to listen to all the witness statements, I could open up the overlay and google something instead, all without pausing the game itself.
♥ Love the plot.
– Real player with 9.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Detective Puzzle Games.
I really liked this game. It was very unique with how you played as Ned, George and Bess to help Nancy while she was locked in the clink. I do wish that there were more places in River Heights that you could travel other than the few places that were allowed. I also did not like that fact that in order to change characters you had to call Nancy. It would have been an easier transition if you could have that options regardless of who you were talking to at the time. I didn’t like the journal feature as much as I remember from previous games. Instead of the journal having clues the Nancy was needing to remember, it was a lot of information that wasn’t necessary, which may have been the point. The puzzles were really fun to figure out and I liked the story.
– Real player with 8.9 hrs in game
Nancy Drew®: Secret of the Scarlet Hand
Not one of my favourites. i' say the characters are better than they are in the average Nancy Drew game and the story itself unfolds really well with some great twists in it, but in the end the setting and the atmosphere were a bit of a let-down. The puzzles were too easy and I never once got that feeling of accomplishment when you crack a difficult challenge. There’s also a lot of studying to do in this one. The puzzles require you to track back and forth through the museum reading the displays and taking plenty of notes which might put some people off. Personally I don’t mind the studying, but you’re pretty much required to have some interest in Mayan culture if you’re going to enjoy this one.
– Real player with 9.2 hrs in game
I’ve heard a wide variety of different opinions concerning Secret of the Scarlet Hand as I’ve made my way through the Nancy Drew series. Some people seem to really enjoy it. Others seem to hate it. Me…I end up leaning more towards the latter. This is not a terrible game by any standards, but I definitely think it’s one of the weakest entries in the entire franchise. I would still recommend it to anyone who enjoys ND games, but it’s definitely one that you don’t need to rush into playing.
There will be Spoilers, you’ve been warned:
– Real player with 9.0 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®: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek
At this point i guess i am making my way thru all the ND games. I play on JR level and this was my 9th game so far. Honestly this was a favorite of mine. IT had all the right stuff:
-multiple locations
-a few mini games, including one of my favorite food making mini games
-multiple suspects
-several changes in the plot that kept it interesting
Fox and Geese wasn’t as bad as everyone says, i found it interestingly challenging, and probably one of the more fun games that had been thoroughly game tested for inaccuracies. There is a trick to it, however, and just a quick youtube video and you get the trick of it. Honestly, it makes me love it more now knowing there is an entire set up to follow - its like the odd cousin of checkers and chess.
– Real player with 16.2 hrs in game
Once again, I have played a Nancy Drew game that has left me dissatisfied and wondering why I bothered purchasing HER interactive games.
The White Wolf of Icicle Creek is a very fun game to play, like most of the titles of Nancy Drew, however, there is one glaring problem and I have found it in almost every single Nancy Drew game. There is always a story element; side quest or puzzle that seems either near impossible to pass or takes so much of your time, energy and mental state that you simply - give up.
– Real player with 9.8 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®: The Haunted Carousel
Nothing really haunting - but a lot of riddles to solve.
In this episode of Nancy drew you have to find out why an old carousel is going bump in the night. Since there was a piece of it stolen it start’s to run on it’s own will - or so it seems.
Again the game uses the standard routines of interviewing people, talking with friends and try to solve riddles in the amusement park. All to soon it comes clear that all of the people you can interview might have a motive.
Technically this game is a point and click adventure, the game is aimed for younger female audiences, but again it’s playable for all who like adventure and puzzle games. This series is famous for the sometimes creepy stories that are involved. Oh… have I told you that you can have serious accidents during the adventure? No… well… Now you know! Have fun bashing in your head. Don’t worry since there is a cute replay option, something we urgently need in real life.
– Real player with 14.3 hrs in game
Replaying this was an unexpectedly pleasant surprise, because this was the game that caused my Nancy Drew burnout ~10 years ago. It seemed boring to me, probably because there wasn’t as much of a history focus outside of the history of carousels and is set in a lame, drab amusement park. This time around, I thought it was a pretty strong entry to the series.
I remember having some trouble with the puzzles before, which I breezed through this time. As you need full access to the park to carry out an investigation, you receive a handbook that covers various topics relevant to puzzles throughout the game, including use of a lathe, Ohm’s law, soldering, and more. I think the handbook seemed overwhelming the first time, but it’s really not. There was a small programming-related puzzle, too. I learned a bit of programming since the my first play, so I wasn’t confused by that puzzle except that it didn’t actually make much sense (you had to write a game update into the code, which was done by making the update name the parameter of the gameover function). It was a nice thought, but that could have been a better puzzle that taught more than it did.
– Real player with 10.2 hrs in game
Nancy Drew®: The Haunting of Castle Malloy
7/10. I’ve been a Nancy Drew fan for a long time, and I enjoyed this one, with a few caveats. Many of the puzzles have very opaque directions that make it difficult to figure out how you are even supposed to approach solving them. The hint system of the “fortune teller” robot is not particularly helpful - you can only get one hint about puzzles/tasks, and many of them do not make sense either. It’s not even that the puzzles themselves are super hard, it’s just that it’s not clear how to solve them (the rocks, the pillars, the final puzzle sequence involving moving particular items in order). The fact that the game is all at night also made it more difficult to see things I was supposed to be noticing. If you can use a site like Universal Hint System that helps. But even with outside instructions, the final set of puzzles felt very tedious and frustrating. It made finishing less enjoyable and more “oh thank god I don’t have to do any more of these.”
– Real player with 14.1 hrs in game
Pros:
-Beautiful soundtrack, scenery, and smooth gameplay.
-Interesting storyline, for the most part.
-The puzzles aren’t too challenging.
-A lot of places to go, though not necessarily to explore.
Cons:
-VERY dark gameplay throughout (minus the pub); it was very difficult to see what was going on when playing on my glassy-screen laptop during the day.
-Only 3 interactive characters.
-Not much direction from characters.
I think this is a pretty good ND game. After replaying it, though, I didn’t seem to enjoy it as much as I did the first time. Though it’s common in ND games, I found the dual storyline slightly confusing and strange. It did, however, make for a satisfying and complete ending. It’s pretty easy to understand what needs to be done, though there is barely any direction given from characters, except for some tasks that need to be completed. Additionally, it was slightly disappointing that the castle had very minimal opportunity for exploring (only three rooms with little-to-no mystery involved, and most of the castle was closed off). The storyline was shocking, frightening, and exciting in moderation, creating a nicely balanced pace. I think this game is a good experience, and it made me feel accomplished upon solving the case. I think the price is fair, but would recommend waiting for a sale.
– Real player with 12.8 hrs in game
Nancy Drew®: The Shattered Medallion
I don’t really get why the reviews on this weren’t great. There was lots of puzzles and gorgeous art. I thought the reality show setting was a plausible explanation for needing to do a puzzle for every mundane task (other Her games are…a little less plausible). There was some re-use of puzzles and mini-games from previous Nancy Drew games, but that’s not the worst thing in the world. After all, there’s only so many good puzzles, and it’s much better than having barely any puzzles at all (looking at you, Midnight in Salem). Only three things bugged me. First, some of the activities were a bit repetitive (the submarine, the dial at the end). Second, a whole lot of the dialog was inscrutable. I know that it’s part of Sonny’s and Patrick’s characters to be goofballs, but it was a little too disorienting. Third, I wish there had been a Maori character, and more background on Maori culture.
– Real player with 13.2 hrs in game
I personally enjoyed this game for all of the puzzles. They come one after another, so be prepared to do a lot of puzzle-solving and exploration. Even though I played on the Master level, the puzzles aren’t too crazy. I did notice that most of the puzzles don’t necessarily fit in the theme of a reality show (which is the game’s main plot line), but they fit in the traditional “educational” angle of the Nancy Drew games.
There are some kooky conversations with the characters and a lot of references to past games. If you’re new to Nancy Drew, all of the references may sound strange. If you don’t take the story or characters too seriously, and just in it for the puzzles, I would recommend this game (especially over Midnight in Salem).
– Real player with 9.6 hrs in game