As Nancy Drew game fans know, the last Nancy Drew game, Midnight in Salem, had some problems. The new Nancy Drew game, Mystery of the Seven Keys, also is not without problems.
The game installation went fine this time, probably because I have a very new computer that is just a step down from a gaming computer. I have lots of RAM and storage, probably more than I'll ever need. I got one with a lot so that it would be fast.
Some other people are having trouble with game installation.
The game plays fine, unlike Midnight in Salem. My problems with that game had a lot to do with my previous computer, but the game was partly to blame as well.
Mystery of the Seven Keys is a bit glitchy. I don't know what is with the bubbles floating around randomly in the first scene. I ran a Google search and found someone else mentioning the bubbles. And then other people aren't seeing the bubbles. How very odd.
I'm finding that the game play for Seven Keys has a steep learning curve. I have only made it through the first scene so far. It took me forever as I tried to figure out how to manipulate the mouse.
The game can be played with the traditional point-and-click or in the modern version. After hearing some bad things about the modern version, I started the game with point-and-click. I became frustrated immediately. It just wasn't like in the older games.
I found that the settings allow players to toggle back and forth between the two ways to play. I changed to modern. Whoa. The mouse was extremely sensitive, and I spun in circles. I ended up trapped behind a counter and couldn't figure out how to get out. It would have been funny if I hadn't been so annoyed.
I read online that the game has a glitch where the mouse cursor freezes. One fix has to do with unplugging extra Bluetooth controllers that are in use. That didn't apply to me. I saw where a patch had been added, so I reinstalled the patched version of the game. I ended up stuck behind the counter again. I couldn't figure out what my problem was.
I switched back to point-and-click and continued to be frustrated. I switched back to modern again and got stuck behind the counter yet again. I finally noticed directions about using the keys A W S D to move in different directions. Ah. I managed to get out from behind the counter.
I could spin in circles to look around with the mouse, but I had to use the letter keys to move. It was awkward.
The spinning in circles was way too fast. I found where I could reduce the mouse sensitivity in the settings, and I gradually reduced it to the very lowest level. That took the spinning down to just turning at a reasonable speed.
I couldn't figure out what to do. I mean... it can be difficult at times in the older Nancy Drew games, but this was at a whole new level. Like, I had no idea.
I looked at spoiler-free threads and figured out that many people who always have played on Senior Detective (like me) decided to start over on Junior Detective just to have some clue as to what to do. I started over on Junior Detective, and it helped. I managed to get past the first scene. Whew.
That's where I am now.
Other observations:
I seem to recall that the older games had a warning if the player accidently tried to exit without saving. When I was in Senior mode and feeling annoyed, I clicked "quit to desktop" without thinking and failed to save the game. Be careful, or you could lose your progress.
In my case it didn't matter, since I had barely started the game and then decided to start over in Junior mode. I then read online about autosave. Oh, really? Why didn't I get that?
When I finally made it out of the first scene, I decided to save and quit. I did, and then I started the game again a few minutes later. I noticed my save and an autosave, which was when the second scene started. It appears that autosave might kick in at key moments. If so, that won't help if I quit at random moments.
The on-screen text is way too small. There isn't a way to change it that I can tell.
I managed to get into Nancy's phone. I selected the camera option and couldn't get out of it. I accidentally snapped random pictures each time I tried to exit. This was the result.
I finally saw in small text in the corner of the screen that I should hit "tab" to exit the camera. Sigh. Larger text would help greatly.
I also found the characters' voices to be too low. The default settings have the sounds in the middle. I raised the character voice level to 10, keeping other sounds at the default.
As I began the game, I was thrown off by the people sitting at tables who were just there. They were moving and active, but I couldn't speak to them. After I got used to it, I realized that this is more realistic than in the old games where the only people present are the possible suspects.
I believe I've figured out most of the mechanics of gameplay, and I should be able to begin to enjoy playing the game this weekend.
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