Nancy Drew Part One - So Many Adventures, So Little Time

Okay yes, I supposed I should finally tackle the rather large 'Nancy Drew' shaped subject I keep occasionally poking at. I am a fan of the 'Her Interactive' series of Nancy Drew games and as of the time I am writing, I have completed almost every single one of the Nancy Drew adventure titles for PC. This basically means I can whitter on about each one and point out whats good, whats not good and where is best for beginners to... er... well begin?

First up I better give a general overview of the series, each of the games is a first person adventure title, each game has you playing as Nancy trying to solve some sort of thing that's either happened or something that's going on as Nancy is there. Its a really great series and often gets completely undersold by gamers in general, often getting mistaken for a series of Hidden Object games (There happens to be NO Hidden Object scene stuff in any of the main series).

The puzzles can be tough, the characters often memorable and the locations well done. That doesn't mean there isn't any issues, for instance, the graphics have always been a big issue point throughout. But that's enough overview, lets go to each game starting with...

Nancy Drew #1 - Secrets can Kill: REMASTERED

Now this is a remake of the first game in the series, why am I starting here instead of the actual first game? Simply put it, I have never played it. Its not available to buy anywhere and apparently has serious compatibility issues.

That said given the next game in the list and also from what I have heard, this is probably for the best. In this title Nancy heads over to see her aunt Eloise and, with the help of Detective Beech, trying to uncover a murder mystery.

Firstly, Story-wise the game is okay and the characters are fleshed out well with possible motives all around... Where things go a bit sour though is the second half of the game as suspects begin pretty much dropping out of the possible list and soon you'll wind up with a quite obvious suspect with still plenty of game-time left to go.

Puzzle-wise is weird too, even though this is a remake, its still obvious that this is a game that has a lot of rough edges. Despite the opening being simple enough via a rather irritating slide puzzle, the rest of the game just dumps you in the middle of locations with notes scribbled down everywhere you go with no real distinction on what's actually useful. This winds up being really confusing as often you wind up noting down things that's actually just plot expansion. The rest of the puzzles though work out well, even if they do feel a little simple.

There's also ways to 'Game over' in this series, unlike the Sierra titles of old however, the game is kind enough to just put you back to wherever you were before you made any mistake. Since this is also during the time where 'Her Interactive' were playing with these game-over screens, its actually worth trying to find these, if only for a small laugh at Nancy's expense.

Overall the game is good, the remake definitely helping to smooth out some of the more plot-related issues. Would I recommend it as a starting point though? Absolutely not. The massive spread of puzzles is really off-putting to anyone who isn't used to the series and it should only really be tackled by players who have gone through some of the games already.