Nancy Drew PC franchise: I’m a sleutherin

“Nancy Drew” is a very much beloved teenage detective character and in my opinion a much ignored iconic female protagonist in gaming. One of the most developed and clever female character is right here. She stars in 33 games, 2 spin-off games, so far in this series.

The games usually starts with Nancy Drew sitting at her desk giving you a quick brief of the current situation and we stumble into the dangerous adventures almost at once. Depending on which decade we’re in, technology also advances or whatever is appropriate at the time! You can chose between two game modes before starting. Junior detective: will provide you with a checklist over stuff to do, very nice if you like to play games casually! Senior detective: if you like to bumble around like a bee for a while and get lost.

Gameplay is classic point’n’click style. It’s easy getting into and understand. The puzzles aren’t that obscure and it feels nice figuring things out on your own with a steady pace. Nancy is often treated quite badly by her stressed employers and there are also many “game over” scenarios to discover. Most of it is quite humorous, but some of the consequences are quite grusome.

Nancy is often accompanied by her best friends George and Bess on the phone. You can give them a call to discuss the progression of the case and get hints. Oh, and there’s also Ned, the boyfriend that’s often very concerned for her well being, for good reasons!! Which is a nice feature if you ever get stuck!

The stories have different genres and some of them will take you to different places around the world, fuelling Ned’s anxiety since Nancy tends to answer the call for adventure without a second thought.

At the end of a game you might receive a rating on how you did, it’s not actually important, but a good indicator for things you might’ve missed, such as easter eggs.

Good writing and soundtrack is consistent. The games keep the same tone and it really feels comprehensive, until the changes in the 33rd game, more on that later.

Nancy Drew franchise: Running the games and issues

Most of the games are kind of retro, the series been running since 1998 after all! Sometimes OBS wouldn’t pick up the game unless it was in windowed mode. I mostly solved that issue by running the games through DxWnd or going into the game’s .ini file (found by browsing the game’s local files) and putting on windowed mode manually, windowed mode can also be achieved through some of the games settings.

Her Interactive, the development studio, also have some directions for some errors and problems.

The Good

The cast is very likeable and the dynamics between them are entertaining and will get you involved in their relationships. It is something that’s being kept and developed through all the games.

The games are voice acted and there’s a lot of text, the banters are often enjoyable, though in some older games you cannot skip the dialogue. It’s a pain when you forget about something and having to talk with someone.

Viewers is almost a guarantee when playing this franchise and they’ll come back to enjoy the adventures with you and have a lot of knowledge of the games! The fanbase like sharing Nancy Drew streams since it’s so close to their hearts.

The Bad

Some games feel rushed and some puzzles are difficult to learn and one in particular is very broken. The games can sometimes be a pain to set up properly for a stream. Sometimes you might get stuck and can’t seem to progress, there are certain triggers which unlocks the ability to progress, it can be cryptic at times and something trivial can be important to unlock something else.

I don’t know much about it, but it seems like the studio is struggling and development is slow. “Midnight in Salem” disappointed many by casting a new voice actor for Nancy Drew, and it changed the feel of the character. The general new voice casting sounded generic without much individual personality for the new characters (in my opinion). I also felt “Midnight in Salem” was lacking in puzzles.

Personal tip: The sounds levels are especially loud by default in the older games, keep it in mind when launching the game to save your ears!

Overall experience

It might’ve been a bit of nostalgia getting me into the universe of Nancy Drew, but it doesn’t change the fact that this video game franchise is solid on it’s own. Most of the games are inspired by the books and some stories pull inspiration from several books at once, but Her Interactive is mostly doing their own thing and they’re good at it.

Though “Midnight in Salem” wasn’t probably what the fans expected, but it wasn’t a bad game!

Farris

Long time mystery and adventure enthusiast! Kind of old-school game preferences and crusty.