SO good and fun!! like many people, i expected a gothic castle, but the mansion works even better for the story. the puzzles here are quite easy, and i haven't had a single moment when i would wander aimlessly, not knowing what to do next, although this often happens to me in the nancy games. i love a good family drama, so i liked the character dynamics, and it was even fitting that almost all of the members of this wealthy family were really unpleasant (except, perhaps, wade? would i like to know more about this man?). the location is very small, but very atmospheric and really creepy. although the twist on why nancy sees ghosts will seem extremely banal to any horror/thriller fan, i think...

At first I thought all the hype about Ghost of Thornton Hall was because it was one of the Spooky nancy drew games and everyone loves the Spooky games, but I’ve also seen it recommended a bunch as a game for newcomers to the franchise and there’s a lot of praise in general for the story.

So I went in with higher expectations than usual and I was honestly surprised this game showed up so late in the lineup. It’s pretty obvious that this era of Nancy Drew isn’t as popular with the fanbase and Ghost of Thornton Hall lands right in the middle of some popularly recognized mediocre games.

Setting: Despite just implying that I was somewhat knowledgeable about this game going in, I actually didn’t really know anything about it. I honestly thought Nancy was heading to a British castle, but no. Turns out it’s actually a spooky haunted abandoned…plantation? Or it’s not a plantation, it’s just an island where workers lived in the factory and there’s also just a cotton gin hanging out in the house. They were definitely going for the vibes of a southern plantation setting, without most of the baggage that comes with an Actual Southern Plantation. And actually that’s fine, I’m glad that HerInteractive recognized that addressing the topic of slavery might be a bit too much for them to handle respectfully. They got around it by having the property be awarded to a lady spy who worked for the Union, which I think is a good way to go about it.

So, initially I was disappointed that I wasn’t getting a cool haunted British castle, but the location won me over pretty quickly. The house is strangely reminiscent of the house from Crystal Skull, but maybe that’s just how all houses look in the south. There’s actually quite a bit here that feels like Crystal Skull, but it doesn’t feel like they’re just copying the setting. It’s distinct enough, some things just feel a bit too familiar though. Like the layout of the first floor and the hidden passages and the graveyard and the subtle Southern Gothic aesthetic.

Now that I’m thinking about it, the map was a bit small. I don’t think it ever felt that way while playing, but there’s really only the house and the graveyard. The burnt building has very little to examine and the secret passages are pretty limited in what they unlock. The dev team did well with the smallish map size and a lot of the rooms felt decently fleshed out, while still keeping that abandoned and haunted feel.

The spooky atmosphere deserves a mention too, because they pulled it off really well this time. Similar to Message in a Haunted Mansion, there’s a lot of little Spooky Things that can just happen. The first one that got me was a portrait blinking, but there were also shadowy figures passing by doorways, a coffin moving on its own, just a lot of things moving out of the corner of your eye. It’s very effective without resorting to your typical cheap jumpscares.

Characters: I didn’t really expect to like the family drama on display between these characters, but I found myself wanting to know more about them each time they divulged a new bit of lore. The mother was the weakest character of the gang, mostly because she was missing half the time I visited her spot. I didn’t really get the chance to talk to her that much, so I didn’t really care about her until she got more involved in the drama towards the end.

The two guys were pretty decent characters too. The fiancé felt a little too similar to the fiancée from Haunting of Castle Malloy, but mostly because they share a very similar role in their respective plots. Graveyard guy talked a bit too much about ghosts for me to like him too much, but I enjoyed his character when he occasionally talked about not ghosts. His line about the black friday bankers got me good, mostly because I was not expecting a (pretty tame) dark joke in a Nancy Drew game.

I don’t really know how I feel about Harper. She felt like the de facto Quirky character of the cast, but she’s also written as the ambiguously mentally ill black sheep of the family who may or may not have been sent to an asylum when she was younger. It just doesn’t feel like her character was handled particularly well for the most part. I liked her resolution, but I’m iffy on everything before that. The dialogue here was at its best of the last few games, but Harper’s dialogue wasn’t on par and felt the least natural.

Oh and what was up with the giant rat? The giant naked rat that looked like it had ice physics and drifted around corners. Was that real or not? I gotta find out more about this creature I must have missed some dialogue or a clue or something because it can’t just be an unexplained giant naked rat that I saw 4 times

Puzzles: I always love a Nancy Drew game that’s just chock full of puzzles. It doesn’t really feel like a lot, but I know that’s what I spent most of the game doing. But it just doesn’t feeeel like I just did a bunch of puzzles. I guess that’s a good sign.

A lot of them felt intuitive and were fairly unique. I feel like I should have hated that pseudo sudoku (pseudoku :0) plus minus puzzle, but I managed to logic my way through it both times without much complaint. The stained glass puzzle was a fun spin on a puzzle that feels like it’s been in a Nancy Drew game but I can’t remember for sure. Had a few hiccups on the graveyard puzzle, first time because I guess I’m just supposed to intuit that (w,l) means (word,letter) and the second time because I guess I’m just supposed to know that names count as words.

But the only two (ugh three technically) puzzles that stand out as Bad were the clock puzzles and the math puzzle. As soon as I saw how the clock puzzle worked, I looked up the solution because I just knew it wouldn’t be fun solving it naturally. And then I had to look it up again because I guess that was the puzzle the developers wanted to include twice. Also, don’t make me do math Nancy Drew I do not play video games to solve math equations

My stance on slider puzzles has really evolved as I near the end of the Nancy Drew catalog of games. At first, I hated every moment I spent clicking and sliding tiles around at seemingly random until some of them ended up in the right spots. Now I mostly tolerate them and I’m proud to admit that I actually enjoyed a slider puzzle in this game.

Story: ok yeah the story was pretty good. It’s got a similar start as Castle Malloy, with the victim going missing right before their wedding and now you gotta find them while their partner is just like “yeah”

But this time it feels a lot more fitting with the whole family drama storyline and haunted island. It was easy to forget there was a wedding and a missing bride, I was much more invested in the ghost lady and the factory explosion and the dark family history. There’s also just a lot more talk about ghosts than about the kidnapping. I mean, at a certain point it makes sense that all you wanna talk about is ghosts because you start seeing shit, but it does get repetitive.

The whole twist behind the ghost and spooky happenings probably would've been a lot more interesting if I hadn’t already known the reason because I just gotta visit the nancy drew subreddit and read a thread asking “what’s ur favorite plot twist” or whatever knowing full well I am very likely to get spoiled because there’s still 6 games I haven’t played. I like to think I could have guessed the twist thanks to some foreshadowing in the beginning, but I probably would’ve just forgotten about it.

Love the use of alternate endings here, which is already a rare sight for a Nancy Drew game. I can only think of two others where you had any sort of influence over the ending. And this time you can just straight up let someone die! You get to add another ghost to the island! Hell yeah Nancy Drew I wanna see more of this in future games! I mean, those options are clearly the Bad Ends, but it’s just fun to have the option. buuuuut if you do save everyone that means you gotta do that goddamn clock puzzle again so is it really the best ending?

Anyway, I can see why this game gets a lot of love despite being a later entry. It’s got the usual charm of a Spooky Nancy Drew Game with an interesting story full of family drama you get to slowly unravel. There’s a decent selection of puzzles that I had a fun time solving with only a couple of real stinkers in the mix. Also. unexplained giant naked mole rat. you’re not gonna find that in any other Nancy Drew game.