Glitch in Nancy Drew Mystery of the Seven Keys Game

I had heard of a glitch in the new Nancy Drew game, Mystery of the Seven Keys.  The glitch apparently has to do with filling in a design on the top of the latte after it has been prepared during the latte-making task.  Players' games are freezing up, and it is due to computers not having a good enough graphics card.

Playing the game in the lowest resolution has been mentioned as a possible fix.  I've heard that this often doesn't help.

Finally, I reached the latte-making task.  I struggled, as I often do, since the directions didn't make sense to me.  I was reminded of my frustration during the game, The Secret of Shadow Ranch, in which the player has to pick vegetables.  The ripe vegetables made no sense.  I've picked vegetables many times, and I know what ripe vegetables look like.  The game vegetables must have been from another planet.

The latte situation is like the vegetable situation.  I just don't get it.  After not understanding the first latte that I had to make, I tried to exit the task in order to exit the game.  The arrow wouldn't work.  I realized that I was experiencing the glitch.  I had to CTRL ALT DEL to open the task manager so that I could close the game.  

I opened the game again, trying spoilers on the first latte but couldn't understand the spoilers.  I had to use the task manager again to close the game.  I tried a third time with the same result.  I began to search online for solutions to the glitch.

Many people are experiencing the frozen game during the latte-making task.  It's a significant problem.

I read that you can contact Her Interactive at Techsupport@herinteractive.com.  They will send a file called "After-Coffee-Amateur" with the game saved right after the latte-making task has been completed.  I assume that they will also send the corresponding file for senior detective as well, if that version is needed.

I found where someone placed the necessary information online in their Google Drive.  I used their file and was able to get the game to where I can play it beginning after the latte-making.  The person who prepped the file said that they did the bare minimum, so we will have to do some tasks again.  I'd rather have to redo a bunch of tasks than suffer through latte-making that made no sense and crashed for me.  It's either that or not finish the game.

Besides, I've read many comments by glitch-free players who were very frustrated over the extreme difficulty in completing the latte art part of the task.  They say that their hands are cramping since they have to try over and over.  They find that any slight slip with their mouse causes them to have to start over.  I don't want anything to do with that, so I'm fine with having to redo parts of the game.  

If you're on Facebook and in the Nancy Drew Game Fans group, here is the post.

Windows save file for those stuck on the latte art

The Google Drive has been linked from Reddit in a public post.  Here is that post.

Comment with Google Drive link

I did use the Google Drive link, and it worked for me, even though I had to search online for some answers as to how to get the information from that Google Drive to my Google Drive and then into my computer in the correct file folder.  I mention this so that you know that the file is safe.  

It might be easier just to contact Her Interactive at the email I provided above.  Their directions might be easier to follow.  I don't know since I haven't contacted them.

I also want to update something I mentioned in my first post about the game.  I noted that the game didn't autosave for me and that I lost a small amount of progress when I exited without saving.  I did find that the game was autosaving fairly frequently after I started over, but I don't trust it.  I make sure that I save the game myself whenever I exit.

Kennedy McMann will be playing the game live tomorrow (May 13) on Her Interactive's YouTube channel.  She will be live beginning at 9 PM Eastern/6 PM Pacific.  If you miss the livestream, most channels typically have livestreams available after they have ended.

Nancy Drew Mystery of the Seven Keys Trial and Error

This post is spoiler-free and covers my difficulty as I started playing the game.

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.

The Nancy Drew Game Fan Meltdown

I mentioned in a recent post about Midnight in Salem that the Big Nancy Drew Fan Meltdown of 2019 was not the only Nancy Drew fan meltdown of the year.  The Nancy Drew game fans have been been upset and annoyed for most of the last five years, and have had multiple meltdowns as the game was delayed or as Her Interactive made various missteps during the process of getting the game finished and released.

Two major game fan meltdowns occurred this fall. The first one occurred on October 1.  Her Interactive had announced October 1 as the date that the game would be available for pre-order on its site.  Just a couple of hours before the pre-orders were to begin, Her Interactive pushed the date back two weeks.  Fans were livid.

The second major meltdown began on November 30.  Her Interactive released the trailer for the game.  The dialogue did not match up well with the movement of the characters' mouths, and the trailer also revealed some problems with the graphics.  Fans did not react well.  The meltdown that began on November 30 became worse, if that's even possible, when the game was released on December 3.

The meltdown is still underway.  The Nancy Drew game fans take the Nancy Drew game franchise rather seriously.  While the Nancy Drew book fans are obsessive and judgmental about adaptations of Nancy Drew, the game fans are 100 times more obsessive and judgmental about absolutely everything that Her Interactive does.

The comments about the Midnight in Salem game are similar to the ones made by book fans during the meltdown about CW Nancy Drew.  One person stated that this game has ruined all of the previous Nancy Drew games.  Others want Her Interactive to go out of business and have actually told them so.  They would rather have no more Nancy Drew games ever than to have any additional Nancy Drew games in the new format.

Some fans canceled their pre-orders of the physical game.  Other fans returned their digital game on Steam right after they began playing it.  So long as players play the digital game for under two hours, they can return it.

Some people have refused to purchase the new game.  They would rather go without than experience a Nancy Drew game that is at all different from previous games.

Some fans use strong language, like calling the game "garbage" and calling the graphics “trash.”  One person is "emotionally scarred."

Those who have played the game are complaining about how Ned is being treated in the games.  They don’t like that Nancy, Ned, and Frank might be in a love triangle. Some fans have sent Her Interactive hate messages about this.  It should be noted that Her Interactive hasn't done anything that Simon and Schuster hasn’t done with the franchise, and Her Interactive hasn’t even done as much as the publisher.  Yet somehow, Her Interactive is evil and has ruined Nancy Drew.

Fans don’t like the new voice for Nancy Drew.  I just hope that they haven’t contacted the voice actress, because she’s just fine.  The change was jarring at first, but I adjusted to the voice rather quickly.

Someone said that they were going to complain to Simon and Schuster if they didn't get their money back from Her Interactive.  It's like they see Simon and Schuster as the parent who will get Her Interactive back in line.  It doesn't work that way.  The companies are separate from each other.

Other fans have expressed concern about the tone of the complaints.  These fans are worried that the complainers will force Her Interactive to quit.  I fall into this group.  If I worked for Her Interactive, I'd want to quit.  I don't see how they put up with the behavior of their fan base.

The company has made some major missteps, but we are so lucky that we were ever able to enjoy any Nancy Drew games at all.  We are very fortunate to have 33 Nancy Drew games.

Take some time to read the following article, which will explain what happened to Her Interactive.

The Case of the Disappearing Nancy Drew Video Games

From the article:

The bulk of Her Interactive’s funding had always come from a venture capitalist who helped found some immensely profitable biotech companies.  The venture capitalist supported Her Interactive not because he thought the company would net him another billion, according to [Stuart] Moulder, but because he thought that making logic puzzle games for girls was the right thing to do.

If that person had not invested in Her Interactive, we never would have had any of the games.  The company allegedly has been in trouble for more than five years.  Will Midnight in Salem keep Her Interactive afloat?  I hope so, because I'd like to see more Nancy Drew games.

Nancy Drew Midnight in Salem Review (No Spoilers)

I finished the Nancy Drew game, Midnight in Salem, on Tuesday, one week after I started playing it.  The game is not awful like what has been reported by many angry Nancy Drew game fans.  The game might not be to the liking of all fans, but it is still a good game.

I played the game via a digital copy purchased on Steam, even though I also purchased a physical copy that still has not arrived.  Steam tracked how long I played the game, and it says that I played for 22 hours.  My actual time played was probably less by at least an hour or so, since I sometimes did other things while the game was open.  I did that because it would have taken 15 minutes to get the game started up again.

The game is different.  It has fewer puzzles and is very dialogue-heavy.  I had to play the game with the settings on low graphics, so the graphics are not as good as in all previous games.

The player movement is difficult to master.  I was never able to master the town square and kept going in circles.  It's like the town square has an invisible path with obstacles placed in such a way that the player cannot figure out how to proceed.  It is difficult.

Despite the problems, it still felt just like a Nancy Drew game to me.

I used Her Interactive's strategy guide to get me through several difficult parts of the game.  I have no patience for puzzles that require me to study obscure pieces of information and then use the information to figure out how to do something.  On the other hand, I love the puzzles where I have to turn and slide puzzle pieces into place.  This game has a difficult three-dimensional puzzle that involves turning and moving pieces around.  I never use spoilers for those puzzles since I'm pretty good at figuring them out.

I mentioned in my tips post on getting the game to run better that I clicked on each line of conversation to force the dialogue to flow better.  That works everywhere in the game except for during the cutscenes.

A cutscene is a place where the game play stops, and the player watches as an event occurs.  The player cannot pause the cutscene or interact with it in any fashion.

The end of the game contains two cutscenes, one immediately after the other.  The second cutscene consists of a lengthy conversation that lasts for 10 minutes, as reported by other fans.  For me, the second cutscene lasted for around 20 to 25 minutes due to extreme lagging in each line of conversation.  Since I could not interact with the cutscene, I could not force the conversation along.  I was so frustrated.

In hindsight, I probably should have restarted my computer and then the game right before the two endgame cutscenes.  My advice is to restart your computer when you reach the life-or-death climax part of the game.  You'll know because you'll probably be given a second chance when it doesn't end well.  When you get a second chance, make sure the game is saved at that moment, and restart your computer.  That might help with the two cutscenes.  It is worth trying since the second cutscene was torture for me due to the lagging.

Aside from the torturous endgame cutscenes, I enjoyed Midnight in Salem.  The game is not perfect. The graphics are a problem, and it's clear that the text of books and documents was not proofread as it should have been.  All that aside, the game is good, and I hope that Her Interactive can stay in business and continue making Nancy Drew games.

Nancy Drew Midnight in Salem Tips (No Spoilers)

This post contains no spoilers.

Before I get to the main point of the this blog, I want to assure those who are awaiting their physical copy of the new Nancy Drew game, Midnight in Salem, that the game is nowhere near as bad as people claim.  In fact, the game isn't bad at all.  The game does have problems with functionality, some of which will be mentioned presently.  Even so, the game is enjoyable.

I wrote a post about the Nancy Drew fan meltdown of 2019, which was a negative reaction to CW Nancy Drew, but in truth, that was not the only meltdown this year.  The Nancy Drew game fans have had at least two meltdowns in 2019.  The most recent one was a week ago when Her Interactive published the game trailer on YouTube.  The Nancy Drew game fans immediately were in an uproar since they felt that the graphics were inferior.

Fans were so upset about the trailer that I decided that I had to check out the game on the day it was released.  Even though I had a physical copy on order from Her Interactive, I purchased a digital copy of the game on Steam.  I also was curious about Steam, since I had heard a lot about the site.

On Tuesday, I registered on Steam and purchased the digital copy.  My initial reaction to the game was disappointment.  The game took forever to load, and the first room seen in the game is so ugly, in my opinion.  The conversation lagged horribly, and I found the game impossible to enjoy.

I read many comments about the game and tried various suggestions to see if I could fix the issues.  I was able to improve my playing experience, but some problems simply cannot be fixed unless one purchases a brand-new gaming computer.  For most people, the game will have functionality issues, since most computers cannot handle the graphics.

The game does take forever to load on most systems.  On my computer, the game takes 10 to 15 minutes to load.  I am referring to the game after it has already been installed and played on the computer.  It does actually take a solid 10 to 15 minutes to start up every single time.

To keep this issue from being annoying, initiate the startup, then go prepare your snacks.  You are going to snack while you play the game, right?  Once you are ready, then the game will probably have loaded up.  As long as I find myself something to do while the game loads, it doesn't annoy me.

Once the game has loaded, it will be on the menu page.  Before you play the game for the first time, go to the settings and make some changes.  I want to emphasize this:  Save yourself some grief and change the settings first.  Unless you have a new gaming computer, you will need to change the settings.  I wish I could go back in time and do that first.  I hated the game on my first attempt to play.  It was that bad.

Not all suggestions that I read about the settings helped my situation.  The following settings are the ones that I used.  I doubt that they are the best ones, but the game does play decently for me.  Making these changes does cause the game not to look as nice.  I personally prefer a less attractive game that can be played over a pretty game that crashes immediately.

My audio settings did not help.  Some of the conversations are too low with the music too high, but I don't know that the settings can fix that problem.

The best piece of advice that I found online is to use the mouse to force the conversations along.  The conversations are awful unless the player intervenes.  The captions on the screen hang and don't match the sound.  After a character finishes a statement, the screen hangs for 10 or more seconds.  This was what really upset me.  After I learned how and when to click on the captions, I was able to begin enjoying the game.

As a character speaks to Nancy, watch for when the character reaches near the end of the caption that is on display. As the character reaches the last one to three words of the statement, click on it with the left button of the mouse.  Actually, I think you can click anywhere on the lower part of the screen, but I aim for the caption.  If you time it right, then the sentences and captions will match up perfectly and flow quickly from one statement to the next.  I mastered the timing pretty well once I figured out how this worked.  I began enjoying the game once I solved the problem of the lagging conversations.

The characters do flail their arms around randomly in slow motion as the player forces the conversations along.  The characters look pretty demented, but I ignored that.  The dialogue is still fun, as always.

The navigation is very different in this game.  I am about halfway through the game, and I am beginning to be able to navigate without much trouble.  The navigation is counterintuitive to how I think, so I have really struggled with it.

Even though I have not finished the game, the story is good, and the player gets to do activities that are similar to the previous Nancy Drew games.  The spirit of the Nancy Drew games franchise does live on in this game. 

The beginning of the game is quite jarring and different.  I liken it to reading a modern Nancy Drew book set in first person after having always read Nancy Drew books in third person.  I felt the same way as I began playing this game.  Once I adjusted and had played around 20% of the game, I truly felt like I was playing a Nancy Drew game for the first time in years.  And it has been years.

I hope that Her Interactive will be able to publish more Nancy Drew games in the future.  I always enjoy them.

Nancy Drew Game: Sea of Darkness

The 32nd title in the Nancy Drew game series by Her Interactive, Sea of Darkness, was released in May.

I had trouble getting into Sea of Darkness.  The beginning seemed boring to me.  Nancy arrives in Iceland rather abruptly, and I had no reason to care about Captain Magnus.  He was missing, and Nancy was supposed to find him.

In the early part of the game, I did not enjoy talking to the characters.  I did not like the setting.  I played a little bit of the game, then I continued reading Biff Brewster.  The last few Biff Brewster books were not as enjoyable as the earlier ones, but I was more interested in reading them than in playing this game.  That's not typical for me when I have a new Nancy Drew game.

It was a week after I received the game and had started playing it again that I finally got far enough into the game to find it somewhat interesting.  At this point, I reflected that my lack of interest reminded me of how I felt about Trail of the Twister, which may be my least favorite Nancy Drew game.

The more I played, the more I enjoyed the game.  I did enjoy the second half of the game about as much as the average Nancy Drew game.

I do believe that the main reason for my lack of interest was me and not anything to do with the game.  I was quite stressed around the time I received the game and was not feeling well.  I had mental and physical fatigue, so I was not able to appreciate the game.  That colored my opinion of the game as I began playing it.

However, the very beginning of the game could have been a little more interesting.  It would have helped for the game to have opened with a small scene showing Magnus before he disappeared and showing the ship's arrival at the dock. I felt a total disconnect with Magnus and cared not in the slightest whether Nancy Drew ever found him.

That aside, this game is just like the average Nancy Drew game.  Players can expect another solid Nancy Drew game experience.

Nancy Drew Game: Labyrinth of Lies

In the Nancy Drew game, Labyrinth of Lies, Nancy Drew has been asked to investigate the disappearance of artifacts from a museum in Greece.  One of the performers in a Greek drama that is being performed in an amphitheater nearby might be involved.

A free download to the strategy guide is included with purchases of the game from Her Interactive's website.  My strategy guide had a typo in it that caused one puzzle not to be solvable.  I have heard varied reports about whether all of the strategy guides were affected.  Some people have stated that their guides are fine.

The mistake has to do with a puzzle that involves names that have to be entered in Greek characters.   A name given in the guide as "ΓPHΓOP" should instead be "ΓPIΓOP."

I found most of the puzzles in this game to be to my particular liking, which enhanced my enjoyment of the game.  How much I like the puzzles varies from game to game, and I was pleased that the puzzles matched my abilities.

The game flows quite well from event to event, and I did not have much difficultly advancing in the game.  There is something about the ending of the game that is interesting and a little different from other games. 

This game is a solidly good game and falls into the upper one-third of Her Interactive's Nancy Drew games.

Nancy Drew Game: The Shattered Medallion

In the latest Her Interactive Nancy Drew game, The Shattered Medallion, Nancy and George compete in a reality show in New Zealand.  The reality show is being run by Sonny Joon, a mysterious character whose comics and notes have made appearances in quite a few Nancy Drew games.  Sonny Joon is the cover picture of the game, and this is the first time players have met him.

As with most other recent Nancy Drew games, The Shattered Medallion is not based on any Nancy Drew book.  This game is different from the other games because it is an adventure rather than a mystery.  The game has a very scripted feel to it, although this is logical since the game follows the stages of a reality show.

I enjoyed playing this game just like I have all the others, although the game is not particularly special or outstanding.  Meeting Sonny Joon is pretty neat, however.  In fact, the main point of the game is getting to know Sonny Joon and discovering why he always draws pictures of aliens.  While the game lacks suspense, it flows nicely.  All of the puzzles are meaningful to the story.  Since Nancy is competing as a reality show contestant, she has to complete tasks as part of the competition.

Since the game lacks the mystery and suspense of most of the other games, it falls into the lower half of the games as to how much I enjoyed it.  Three other games that I finished with similar feelings are #8 The Haunted Carousel, #22 Trail of the Twister, and  #26 Tomb of the Lost Queen.

It's hard to gauge how the average person feels about the game.  I have seen both positive and negative reviews.  The people who post on Interactive's message boards are very devoted Her Interactive fans.  Many of them absolutely hate or strongly dislike this game.  They don't like the direction that the games have taken and don't like how Nancy is portrayed.  This is very interesting to me.

Nancy Drew book collectors and fans fall into two groups: those who like only the original 56 books and those who like the later books as well as the original 56.  The fans who like only the original 56 books usually greatly dislike all of the later books.

Now the same is happening with fans of the Nancy Drew games.  Some people who played the early Nancy Drew games are unhappy that the new games are not exactly like those games.  They played the "original" Nancy Drew games and don't like the newer Nancy Drew games nearly as much. 

I see this as evidence of Her Interactive's success.  The company has now been around long enough and released enough games that they have longtime fans who recall the early games with fondness, just like longtime Nancy Drew readers do with the books.

Look at this impressive list of games going back to 1998.

 1.  Secrets Can Kill, 1998
 2.  Stay Tuned for Danger, 1999
 3.  Message in a Haunted Mansion, 2000
 4.  Treasure in the Royal Tower, 2001
 5.  The Final Scene, 2001
 6.  Secret of the Scarlet Hand, 2002
 7.  Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake, 2002
 8.  The Haunted Carousel, 2003
 9.  Danger on Deception Island, 2003
10.  The Secret of Shadow Ranch, 2004
11.  Curse of Blackmoor Manor, 2004
12.  Secret of the Old Clock, 2005
13.  Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon, 2005
14.  Danger By Design, 2006
15.  The Creature of Kapu Cave, 2006
16.  The White Wolf of Icicle Creek, 2007
17.  Legend of the Crystal Skull, 2007
18.  The Phantom of Venice, 2008
19.  The Haunting of Castle Malloy, 2008
20.  Ransom of the Seven Ships, 2009
21.  Warnings at Waverly Academy, 2009
22.  Trail of the Twister, 2010
23.  Shadow at the Water's Edge,  2010
24.  The Captive Curse, 2011
25.  Alibi in Ashes, 2011
26.  Tomb of the Lost Queen,  2012
27.  The Deadly Device, 2012
28.  Ghost of Thornton Hall, 2013
29.  The Silent Spy, 2013
30.  The Shattered Medallion, 2014

I have been purchasing the games since December 2000, when I purchased the first three games in an order from Amazon.  I was hooked as soon as I began playing the very first game.  I have bought every game from #4 through #30 as soon as it was released.

I am a Nancy Drew game fan who sees The Shattered Medallion as not that much different than any of the others, with the exception of it being an adventure instead of a mystery.  I continue to greatly anticipate playing the Nancy Drew games twice a year, and I continue to enjoy them.  I do enjoy some games more than others, but I still like all of them.  I look forward to the next game as soon as I finish one.

I have mentioned before that I consider Her Interactive to be the strongest licensee of Nancy Drew.  In recent years, Her Interactive has done more than anyone else in keeping Nancy Drew relevant and interesting to today's young people.  I hope that Her Interactive continues creating new Nancy Drew games for many years to come.

Nancy Drew Game: The Deadly Device

I never did a writeup of Tomb of the Lost Queen, mainly because I didn't have much to say about it.  I enjoyed it, but not as much as the earlier games.  This has been a trend with recent games.  Shadow at the Water's Edge is the exception; it is one of the very best games Her Interactive has ever produced.

I just finished playing The Deadly Device.  I have to give Her Interactive kudos for coming up with different game ideas that keep the franchise going.  Each of the recent games has been very different from earlier games.  This is good, but unfortunately, I did not enjoy most of the recent games as much as the earlier games.

Gone are the annoying chores, but some chores are fun.  I hated the mundane chores that made no sense in The Secret of Shadow Ranch, but I have missed other types of chores that are important to each game.  For instance, many of the earlier games require Nancy to find certain items in order to earn money to buy necessary supplies.  In one game, Nancy has to find shells.  Those types of chores serve a real purpose, and the search for hidden objects is fun.

The recent games have had very little searching for hidden objects.  The Deadly Device does have two instances of hidden objects, but the objects are placed in such a way that they are extremely easy to find.  Only one of the two searches is vital to the game, and that one is the one that is too easy.  In that case, every single one of the objects is in plain sight all in one small room.  What is the fun in that?

The culprit is extremely obvious in The Deadly Device.  The culprit is not obvious at the very beginning, but some statements are made which clue the player in very quickly as to the culprit's identity.  By three-fourths of the way through the game, I was 100% certain, and usually, Her Interactive keeps me guessing until the final reveal.  Not this time.

Both Tomb of the Lost Queen and The Deadly Device use the plot device of Nancy getting stranded, yet it has no effect on either game whatsoever.  What is the point of having Nancy stranded when it has no effect on the game play?  I recall an early game in which a blizzard occurs.  In that game, Nancy is able to go outside until the blizzard begins, and then she is confined to the indoors.

In Tomb of the Lost Queen, a sandstorm hits.  We do hear the sandstorm, but it occurs at a stage in which Nancy is finishing up the mystery.  The sandstorm serves no purpose.

Around halfway through The Deadly Device, we learn that Nancy is stranded due to a snowstorm.  Nancy never goes outside during this game, so what is the point?  The storm is hidden from view completely and has no impact on the game play.

In conclusion, I continue to enjoy the Nancy Drew games but not as much as the earlier ones.  Her Interactive has now released 27 games since 1997.  I looked over the list, and the games changed at around #22.  I have not enjoyed #22-27 in the same way as the earlier games, with the exception of #23 Shadow at the Water's Edge, which is absolutely outstanding.

Nancy Drew Game: Alibi in Ashes

Her Interactive released its 25th Nancy Drew game, Alibi in Ashes, in October. In this game, Nancy has been arrested for setting fire to the River Heights Town Hall. While Nancy is detained inside the police station, her friends must find clues to help clear her name. The player switches between Nancy, Bess, George, and Ned during the hunt for clues.

I found the early stages of the game to be a bit disjointed with having to switch between characters all of the time. In several cases, I had no idea what to do next and had to use spoilers. Later in the game, Nancy is finally allowed to leave the police station, and I found that portion of the game to be the most satisfying, since the game play reverted to the old familiar methods.

This game has far fewer tasks and puzzles than the older Nancy Drew games. While some puzzles in previous games have been way too difficult, I would have appreciated having just a few more puzzles.

This game also seems shorter than many of the older Nancy Drew games. Her Interactive has shifted a bit with its focus, and the games' composition has changed.

Even though this game is different from earlier games, I still enjoyed playing it and recommend it to people who like the Nancy Drew games.

Nancy Drew Game: The Captive Curse

Her Interactive's 24th Nancy Drew game, The Captive Curse, was released in June.  In this game, Nancy Drew travels to Germany, where a castle is terrorized by a monster.  As Nancy, the player is able to explore the castle, the dungeon, the courtyard, and the woods outside the castle.

I always play the games as a senior detective, since I am rather good at certain types of puzzles such as the sliding ones. Since I play as a senior detective, I always use spoilers to get through the puzzles that are not to my liking.

In this game, I only had to use spoilers a couple of times. This game is significantly easier than most of the Nancy Drew games, and for this reason, it is a good game to try for someone who has never played one of these games. For me, the game was too short and a bit disappointing. While many of the puzzles in the typical game can be quite annoying, I like to have at least a bit of a challenge.

I also did not like that Nancy is not able to explore some of the businesses and residences that open off of the courtyard. I hate having a doorway present with something behind it, and I never get to see what is there.

On the plus side, Nancy does not explore in third person. All of the action, such as exploring the woods, is in first person. The first person game play is a throwback to the older games and is preferred by many game players.

As always, I enjoyed the game but do not consider it one of my favorites.

Nancy Drew Mobile Mystery: #1 Shadow Ranch

Her Interactive just released the first Nancy Drew Mobile Mystery, Shadow Ranch.  The mystery is an application for the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad.  The iPod/iPhone app costs $2.99, and the iPad app costs $9.99.

I purchased the mobile mystery so that I could play it while waiting in line at the book sale.  I had not read any reviews of it, so I was under the impression that it is a mobile version of the Her Interactive game, The Secret of Shadow Ranch.  The mobile mystery is not at all like the game.  It is completely different.

The mobile mystery is primarily a book.  The book has activities consisting of a word scramble kind of like Scrabble at the end of each chapter.  By playing the activities, the reader can unlock one bonus mystery per chapter, which is a short story that contains a mystery for the reader to solve along with Nancy.

Aside from the bonus mysteries, the mobile mystery contains eight chapters.  Several of the chapters have their own mysteries.  The text is written well and is very engaging.  Scattered words can be clicked, making sounds such as a galloping horse or thunder.  This adds to the atmosphere of the story.

During at least one point in each chapter, the reader must make a decision on how Nancy should react to a certain situation.  In some cases, both reactions work out fine.  In other cases, one reaction leads to disaster, and the reader must go back and try again.

The game aspect of the mobile mystery is very easy to manipulate.  It is not nearly as difficult as the regular Nancy Drew PC games.  I have read a few reviews of the mobile mystery from members on Her Interactive's site.  What I noticed as that some devotees of the games were disappointed because the mobile mystery was very different from the games.  Other people were very favorably impressed because they love to read.  Follow this link to read a detailed review that explains exactly what the mobile mystery is like.

I loved reading and playing the mobile mystery.  The story is loosely based on the revised text version of The Secret of Shadow Ranch with Frances Humber, Dirk Valentine, and his treasure.  However, the story is also very different.  It is like a second version of the revised text Shadow Ranch.

I highly recommend the mobile mystery to people who enjoy the Nancy Drew books.  I think most all readers of the Nancy Drew books would greatly enjoy this story.

Nancy Drew Shadow at the Water's Edge

This post is spoiler-free. I know how important it is to Nancy Drew game enthusiasts that details about the games not be spoiled.

The Nancy Drew game which was released this summer, Trail of the Twister, disappointed me. I found it to be a bit bland. There was not much interesting dialogue with the characters, and about all that happened was that the characters kept giving Nancy chores to do.

The farmhouse setting was boring, and so was the general store. There was nowhere to explore, so the game was lacking.

I live in Oklahoma, and I found some of the characters' accents to be annoying They don't sound like people from around here, at least not in central Oklahoma. I detected what sounded like an accent from the Deep South. Most people in Oklahoma do not have that type of accent. A Texas accent would have been much more appropriate, especially since the game is set in western Oklahoma, rather than in eastern Oklahoma.

It also didn't help that I felt like the characters were portrayed as kind of stupid, so it seemed like another slam at my home state. I rank Trail of the Twister and Haunted Carousel as my two least favorite Nancy Drew games.

That said, I had high hopes for the newest Nancy Drew game, Shadow at the Water's Edge, which was released this month. Shadow at the Water's Edge is set in Japan at a riokan, which is a traditional Japanese family inn. By the time I was around one-third of the way through the game, I already knew that this game would rank as one of my very favorite games.

The game is very spooky, and Nancy gets to do a lot of exploring. The recent games have lacked the exploring that Nancy does in the early games, and I have really missed that. Nancy gets to interact with four characters in person and with two characters by phone, in addition to Bess and George.

The character interactions are well-done and natural, and the dialogue exchange is extensive and possibly the most of any Nancy Drew game to date. I absolutely loved talking to the characters. This game truly told a story, and I was kept on edge wondering which character was the culprit. It is not obvious like it is in some of the games.

I read reviews of Trail of the Twister after I completed that game. The reviews were lukewarm at best, and people complained about the endless chores. I just read the early reviews of Shadow at the Water's Edge by people who have just finished the game, and quite a few people are referring to it as the very best Nancy Drew game.

Shadow at the Water's Edge is a good game to try if you have never played a Nancy Drew game and wish to try one out. You can always go to Her Interactive's website to get hints, and you can also find a walkthrough online to help you out.

One last note: The game has a glitch that may not affect everyone. Some of us have run into a problem with needing to delete EVP recordings, and the game does not allow the recording to be deleted, even though the player has listened to it. You need to take any available second chance. That was how I was able to overcome my problem and continue with the game. It caused me to have to do a few things over again, but it was better than the alternative of starting the entire game over.

November 4 Update: Her Interactive has now released a patch for the glitch with the EVP recordings. Go here to get the patch.

Warnings at Waverly Academy

The 21st Nancy Drew game, Warnings at Waverly Academy, was released this month by Her Interactive. This game is loosely based on the Nancy Drew book, The Curse of the Black Cat. Unlike the early Nancy Drew games, the more recent ones are just slightly based on the books, so it is possible to have read the book and not be able to guess who the villain is in the game.

This game was back to basics. I greatly enjoyed how for the first time in a number of games, the player is able to walk through and explore a building in first person. In most of the recent games, a large amount of the game play has been in third person, in which the player has to guide Nancy from above through some means.

The character interaction is much better than in the previous game, Ransom of the Seven Ships. In Seven Ships, the player is only able to talk to a couple of people so it is not hard to guess who the villain is. In this game, the player is able to speak to a number of characters, so it is not obvious.

As in previous games, the player has to play games with one of the characters in order to gain information. I found the two games to be much easier than the ones from Seven Ships. Seven Ships has this horrible coconut throw that is just about impossible to win. I hated it. This game has scram and air hockey, and I was able to win both on just the second try. My first try yielded me the necessary information on how to play each game, so on the second try I was able to beat both of them.

I cheated with online spoilers a few times, but if I had wished to spend the extra time, I could have completed all tasks without help. This game was easier than most of the recent Nancy Drew games. It would probably be a good one for someone to try who has never played a Nancy Drew game.

For people who like the play the game to learn the title of the next game, please stop reading here if you do not want to know the title or subject of the next game that is to be released next year. Remember, you've been warned to quit reading NOW...
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SPOILER ALERT
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The next game is called Trail of the Twister and is set in Oklahoma. Ugh... I was a bit dismayed since that means that the game is based on The Mystery in Tornado Alley, which is set in my home state of Oklahoma and is one of my least favorite Nancy Drew books. I absolutely hate that book...

Why do I hate it? First, it is written very badly. It makes little sense and the plot has a thousand holes. It is stupid. I haven't read it since I read it years ago, and I hardly want to put myself through a bad experience in order to refresh my memory of the specifics. I will, however, mention the part of the book that I object to the most. I found an old post of mine to the Nancy Drew Sleuths group in which I answered the question of whether I felt that Nancy Drew had ever had a "jump the shark" moment.

Once again, be forewarned of spoiler information concerning a dreadful book that you probably don't want to read anyway...

SPOILER

I could mention several, but I would say the main one would be in Tornado Alley when Nancy is sucked into an F5 tornado while in a car, stays conscious while banging around in the car, decides to get out of the car, and is set gently on the ground uninjured and unhit by debris. It is not only stupid and unbelievable, but totally irresponsible of the author to write such utter garbage. I live in Central Oklahoma and was nearly hit (missed by half a mile) by the F5 Oklahoma City tornado of May 3, 1999. I have a healthy respect of tornadoes and what they can do.

I will elaborate a little bit. One cannot survive an F5 tornado without taking cover. The F5 tornado of May 3, 1999 killed more than 40 people. Nearly everyone took cover, which is why so few people were killed by a huge tornado with winds of 318 mph, and some of the people were killed in their homes while taking cover in closets or bathrooms. Many of the people who took cover under highway overpasses had hideous injuries such as losing an ear. It was not pretty.

I drove by a huge pile of mangled cars each day for months after the tornado while on the way to work. Those cars were twisted and torn like they had been in a horrific accident at a high rate of speed. There is no way that someone could have been in one of those cars and survived that kind of tornado, let alone been in full control of oneself and able to get out of the car (!) and land on the ground uninjured. Not only that, but Nancy's friends conveniently arrive right after the tornado passes, and they never check on the other person who was in the car with Nancy. They just leave assuming he is dead (!). If Nancy lived through it, then why couldn't he have lived? It turned out he was dead, but still... (!)

Just thinking about it brings back horrible memories of that book. I shudder.

The good news is that surely Her Interactive is changing up the story significantly like they have other recent games. I hope... I have this lingering worry that Her Interactive will have Nancy sucked into a tornado, etc. Ugh!

A Review of Ransom of the Seven Ships

Note: I have kept this review free of plot spoilers, and I mention only general information about the game.

The 20th Nancy Drew game, Ransom of the Seven Ships, was released last week. I finished playing the game in the last few days. I always use online hints, tips, and spoilers to solve the harder puzzles so that I do not get frustrated. The games are difficult and time-consuming, and I do not wish to spend weeks playing them.

Each game tells a story, and I enjoy the comments made by the other characters when Nancy questions them. I enjoy searching for missing objects. I am good at some of the puzzles, especially the sliding and mathematical ones. I do not like the puzzles that involve lots of research and decoding, since those take a lot longer and are tiresome to me.

Ransom of the Seven Ships is loosely based on the Nancy Drew book, The Broken Anchor. The early Nancy Drew games are strongly based on certain Nancy Drew books and tend to have the same titles as the books. The more recent Nancy Drew games are just loosely based on books and tend not to have the same titles as the books.

Each Nancy Drew game mentions characters and settings from previous games, so all of the games are tied together. This also makes playing the games fun.

Her Interactive changes each game up a bit from the previous ones, so all of the games are a different experience. Ransom of the Seven Ships has far fewer characters than the other games, since Nancy is stranded on a deserted island. While I missed having as many interesting conversations with other characters, I loved the exploration part of the game, which I feel was about the best of any of the games. As Nancy, we get to explore on foot, on the trails, by sailboat, underwater, and by climbing.

Some of the puzzles were especially annoying in this game, and I cheated on them. I did cheat a bit more in this game than I usually do. The most annoying part of the game was when I, as Nancy, had to compete in a coconut throw with a monkey. Unfortunately, one cannot use spoilers on a task that is based on accuracy and time. It was very hard. I thought that the coconut throw was far more difficult than it needed to be. In the past, similar tasks from previous games were rigged so that when the player does it enough times that it gets slightly easier so that the player can advance. I had to have played that coconut throw at least 50 times. It was highly annoying.

The end of the game was enjoyable, and much better than one of the recent games. Even though the game annoyed me at times, I enjoyed it.

The Haunting of Castle Malloy

The latest Nancy Drew PC game, The Haunting of Castle Malloy, was released by Her Interactive this month. It is the nineteenth game in the series. Each game, at least up through #18, has been based in part on a Nancy Drew book. So far, nobody has figured out which book Castle Malloy is based on, if in fact it is based on a Nancy Drew book. I have played the game, and I cannot connect the game to any Nancy Drew book. I have not read some of the books in the various spin-off series, so it could be based on a book I have not read. At this point, I tend to think that the game is not based on a Nancy Drew book at all. If it is based on a Nancy Drew book, then the plot has been significantly changed.

The games contain spooky settings as seen in the below screen captures.

Each game has a mystery which the player, who plays as Nancy, must solve. During the game, Nancy can phone her friends either for help or just to tell them what has happened. The phone calls are usually humorous. Below, view a few screen captures of a portion of a phone call that Nancy makes to Bess and George:

The games characterize Bess and George perfectly. George scoffs at any display of sentimentality while Bess gushes about love, food, and whatever else takes her fancy. Nancy also can call Ned Nickerson during most of the games, and sometimes Nancy can call Frank and Joe Hardy.

During one game, The Phantom of Venice, Nancy calls Ned Nickerson, and the phone is picked up sometimes by Ned and sometimes by Joe Hardy, who is staying with Ned. Joe is trying to fix Ned's car. When Ned answers, Joe is working on the car, and when Joe answers, Ned is test-driving the car. Joe's mechanical skills are lacking, so the phone calls are quite humorous.

The games can be played on two levels: junior detective and senior detective. I always play on senior detective, even though it makes some of the tasks quite difficult. I excel at the tasks that involve rotating puzzle pieces in order to create a certain picture, and these puzzles are too easy for me in junior detective. Since the other tasks are more difficult than I would like, I always use a walkthrough to cheat my way through the harder tasks.

If you ever decide to play one of the Nancy Drew games, I do recommend using a walkthrough in order to help get you past any parts in which you get stuck. The walkthoughs can be found by googling the name of the game followed by "walkthrough."

Hints can be found in Her Interactive's message boards, but I dislike using the message boards since the titles of the messages reveal plot elements that are anywhere from near the beginning of the game to near the end. I would rather use a walkthrough and only scroll down as far as necessary in order to get the solution to my problem.

I found that Castle Malloy had several glitches. At the very end, the game had Nancy saying that she messed up even when what she did worked. It is the first time I have ever played one of the games and had that type of glitch. Also, some of the phone calls seemed out of order. The one that should have occurred first did not occur until at least halfway through the game. Each event in the game is triggered by a previous event, so the phone calls should not have been out of order.

While I overall enjoyed The Haunting of Castle Malloy, I would not recommend it to anyone who has never played a Her Interactive game. One reason is because of the glitches, and the other reason is because many of the game's puzzles seemed more random than usual. Some of the puzzles were optional, and normally, the player must complete all of the puzzles in order to advance. There were four dollhouse puzzles, and I'm not sure how many of them were required. I never did the final one, and I was able to finish the game.

My favorite past games are Message in a Haunted Mansion, Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake, Danger on Deception Island, Curse of Blackmoor Manor, The Secret of the Old Clock, and Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon. I probably enjoyed The Secret of the Old Clock the most, since Nancy gets to screech around curves in her blue roadster. Vroom!