Lindsey Yoder

Thoroughly disappointed. The other reviews are right. The trailer for this game was highly intriguing, and it seemed like it was going to be a fun one to play! However, as somebody who grew up playing the games, this was a disappointment. All of the iconic parts of Nancy Drew that I typically look forward to in a game were gone. Nancy's new voice actress was not my favorite, there were limited puzzles (and the ones that were there were either unchallenging or glitchy), plot holes, glitches, and WAY too much dialogue. The amount of dialogue is an issue entirely in itself. Typically in the Nancy Drew games, there is a lot of dialogue in the beginning of the game as an introduction to the storyline. However, the majority of the game felt like this. I kept on thinking that we were still at the beginning of the game due to the excessive dialogue. Also, WAY too much dialogue at the end. The glitches. Wow. This was incredibly frustrating. Playing this on a Mac was nearly impossible with some of the puzzles. There is one puzzle where you have to turn knobs, and the game literally would not let me turn the knob. We had to switch to amateur mode, and even then, the knobs were difficult to manage and the puzzle took us far too long to complete, not because it was challenging, but because of a poor construction of the controls. Additionally there is a later part of the game where you have to click on certain objects to move forward with the plot. We knew the objects we needed to click on, yet the game literally would not allow us to click on them. Again, we had to switch to amateur mode, where the glitch seemed to not be present anymore. There was also a weird glitch toward the end that made us end up repeating an entire scene again. Have never experienced this many malfunctions with the Nancy Drew games. I was also so disappointed in the lack of challenge. The game was incredibly straightforward with the phone to-do list that updated every step of the game. Though it kept us on track and helped us from making silly, forgetful, mistakes, it prevented us from actually having to think and be challenged in what our next steps should be. Also, the lack of puzzles was so disappointing, there were next to no puzzles in the first 80% of the game, and then you were slammed with way too many, boring, uninteresting puzzles in the end, and it just seemed to drag the game out longer. Though the game had a lot of flaws, there were some things I enjoyed. I thought the sub-plot with Ned was funny!! Additionally, I loved when the Hardy boys joined the game! It was fun to get to play as them; it reminded me of Alibi in Ashes. I also thought the Jason character was funny. If you're a die-hard Nancy drew fan and love the nostalgia and challenge of the games, then you will not like this. I was thoroughly disappointed. There are a few fun bits in the game, but ultimately it is not worth paying for and playing.