i didn't play the original version, but i didn't like the remaster too much. the puzzles are boring, the mystery is extremely simple and the ending is obvious from the very beginning. but at least the dialogues are funny and you can finish the game in just a couple of hours. it is worth paying attention to this for the sake of a full acquaintance with the series, but no more
not a fan of the music in this one but funny mystery lmao jake deserved .
i do like the constant puzzles on the bulletin boards but they do trick u into thinking theyre needed to complete the game
i do like the constant puzzles on the bulletin boards but they do trick u into thinking theyre needed to complete the game
Average. It's a remaster of the first game so it's very much so improved graphically, but I played the actually first game and this remaster and neither one did much for me. Not a game I ever think about replaying.
it always makes me laugh when darryl is the only person who asks nancy wtf she was doing digging in jake's locker. everyone else is just like "eh, idk why [clue] was in there."
the controls on this one are so clunky omg
• throwback to the handwritten opening letters. <3
• there they go again with those damn awkward pauses. 😭
• daryl flirting with nancy made me lose ten years of my life.
• that first conversation between hulk and nancy is so bad and feels all over the place.
• honestly all the conversations in this game feel very awkward and forced.
• “i’m not talking about air conditioning i’m talking about you threatening me.”
• why is nancy allowed to just waltz on into the employees only section of the diner?
• “i can handle my studies” “i’m behind in my studies and i must get back to the library.”
• love just repeating the same wrong combo and detective beech not saying anything, lol.
• this is a very short game.
• definitely an improvement on the first one regarding graphics and some of the storyline.
• other than that it’s nothing to rave about.
• though i do love all the easter eggs from both past and future games.
• there they go again with those damn awkward pauses. 😭
• daryl flirting with nancy made me lose ten years of my life.
• that first conversation between hulk and nancy is so bad and feels all over the place.
• honestly all the conversations in this game feel very awkward and forced.
• “i’m not talking about air conditioning i’m talking about you threatening me.”
• why is nancy allowed to just waltz on into the employees only section of the diner?
• “i can handle my studies” “i’m behind in my studies and i must get back to the library.”
• love just repeating the same wrong combo and detective beech not saying anything, lol.
• this is a very short game.
• definitely an improvement on the first one regarding graphics and some of the storyline.
• other than that it’s nothing to rave about.
• though i do love all the easter eggs from both past and future games.
Better than the original, but only SLIGHTLY better. Still boring as heck.
No breaking into the teachers' lounge window, and no Bess and George, but setting off the soda machine alarm and getting to make Nancy repeat "Delta Delta Delta Delta" to the culprit make up for that.
No breaking into the teachers' lounge window, and no Bess and George, but setting off the soda machine alarm and getting to make Nancy repeat "Delta Delta Delta Delta" to the culprit make up for that.
chilling
when remastering means changing the entire game lol
I think it's an 'okay' detective game, the click hitbox is a little broken, the dialogues kinda weak but I liked the element of solving everything yourself. It's not a game I'm ever going to replay, though. The next games? I'd have to check some reviews before getting to play.
This review contains spoilers
TLDR: A definitely dated, very short game that felt both overly easy and unnecessarily hard in weird intervals. I don't regret the $3 I spent on it(normally it is $7), but I definitely bought it to relive my childhood dreams of being Nancy Drew and not because it was actually a good game.
Amount of time it took me: 2.7 hours
Platform I played on: PC/Steam
Environment: The game is point-and-click style with three major areas to interact with. Most of your time is spent in the school, but there is also Nancy's aunt's house as well as the local diner, Maxine's. The graphics are subpar and very appropriate for a game made in the 90's, but it didn't really deter from the game at all for me. I liked the simplicity of it.
Sound: The sound is alright - admittedly it is actually one of the more well done aspects of the game. There were a lot of background sounds that gave clues/indicators of what to do next. There were also a few scare moments of hearing doors slam/open behind you, footsteps, etc. that added to the suspense.
One thing I really liked about the game: I had to write down so much for the clues to keep track that I truly felt like a lil' Nancy Drew.
One thing I would change about the game: I had to write down so much for the clues that it was ridiculous. They had a camera feature in game, but it was much easier to write things down in a note on my phone to keep track than to flip through all the photos. They definitely needed to implement some kind of note-taking ability in this game.
Amount of time it took me: 2.7 hours
Platform I played on: PC/Steam
Environment: The game is point-and-click style with three major areas to interact with. Most of your time is spent in the school, but there is also Nancy's aunt's house as well as the local diner, Maxine's. The graphics are subpar and very appropriate for a game made in the 90's, but it didn't really deter from the game at all for me. I liked the simplicity of it.
Sound: The sound is alright - admittedly it is actually one of the more well done aspects of the game. There were a lot of background sounds that gave clues/indicators of what to do next. There were also a few scare moments of hearing doors slam/open behind you, footsteps, etc. that added to the suspense.
One thing I really liked about the game: I had to write down so much for the clues to keep track that I truly felt like a lil' Nancy Drew.
One thing I would change about the game: I had to write down so much for the clues that it was ridiculous. They had a camera feature in game, but it was much easier to write things down in a note on my phone to keep track than to flip through all the photos. They definitely needed to implement some kind of note-taking ability in this game.
I love Nancy, but the suspects might be less fighty if she would stop spewing gossip at them with the vocal tone of a smug sociopath.
Hits my adventure game needs of:
Less than 4 hours long
Satisfying but straightforward puzzles
Tight narrative
The only thing holding me back from fully loving this is the weird nasty decoding puzzle that's sort of a spine for the rest of the adventure, that shit is just caustic for me, and the awkward stereotype of Hal's character
Less than 4 hours long
Satisfying but straightforward puzzles
Tight narrative
The only thing holding me back from fully loving this is the weird nasty decoding puzzle that's sort of a spine for the rest of the adventure, that shit is just caustic for me, and the awkward stereotype of Hal's character
Good remake of the original. Puzzles are fun but the game drags on a bit too long and the villain feels cheated in (there's no way you can guess it until the very end when major information is revealed).
ADDENDUM 09/29/2021: hey this ended up being the first part of a comprehensive retrospective of all 32 (and counting, hopefully!) of these Nancy Drew games. There will always be a link to the review of the next one at the bottom if you're interested!
Addendum 2: when I first did this I didn’t realize how different the remaster was in form and content from the original so when I do get around to playing the remaster I will probably make a separate entry and fix these.
the closest i’ve come to engaging with Nancy Drew in any form before now was when a piece of ND memorabilia became key to solving a mystery in the second season of the CW’s Riverdale, but i’ve always loved the cozy mystery genre that seems like it must at least partially have its roots with Nancy, and I’ve always longed to correct my unfamiliarity with the point n click genre, so these seemed like a great place to start and oh boy, this game was not made for me!!
which was not to say that it wasn’t a good time! it’s only to say that Secrets Can Kill CLEARLY expects you to know who Nancy Drew is and what she’s about AND be down for 90s adventure game realities (although thankfully it never leans into the terrible design difficulties that made the genre’s most famous 90s franchises infamous).
Nancy is either 19 or 40 (VA makes it very hard to tell) and has been enlisted by her aunt to go undercover at a high school to investigate the murder of a local shithead. The need for a cover story is funny because she literally solves the case in two hours but don’t worry about it.
At any time you can call any of a cadre of Nancy’s friends/boyfriend, all of whom are so unhelpful it’s actually funny, but also none of them are characterized in any way so if George or Ned, who I assume are major players in the wider world of Nancy Drew, actually have personalities, this game offers piss poor fanservice for them even if in doing so they end up making a pretty good joke out of the extremely abrupt way they hang up on you after telling you like i dunno you’re in a school go to the library bitch???
and she’ll need to go to the library because this is a bizarro high school where everyone is posting rumors and clues about the recent murder and all associated parties in rhyming acrostic code, like everyone at school is a tricksy little devil and not uh, stealing steroids from the local pharmacy or blackmailing the exchange student who’s afraid of being deported if he can’t get a scholarship next year. It’s this weird mix of whimsical puzzles and like, extreme video game simulacra. the football player guy gives you some exposition and then tells you “okay now get lost I gotta go to practice” but he'll never move, he'll just continue to stand there in a corner tossing his football hand to hand like a jackass forever. Despite dialog constantly alluding to all the cops crawling around the school the halls are EERILY empty.
this strange mix of very grounded high school dramatics with very funny video game artificiality all adds up to something that isn’t particularly substantial but is very fun and a great foundation for one of video gaming’s unsung franchises.
NEXT TIME: STAY TUNED FOR DANGER
Addendum 2: when I first did this I didn’t realize how different the remaster was in form and content from the original so when I do get around to playing the remaster I will probably make a separate entry and fix these.
the closest i’ve come to engaging with Nancy Drew in any form before now was when a piece of ND memorabilia became key to solving a mystery in the second season of the CW’s Riverdale, but i’ve always loved the cozy mystery genre that seems like it must at least partially have its roots with Nancy, and I’ve always longed to correct my unfamiliarity with the point n click genre, so these seemed like a great place to start and oh boy, this game was not made for me!!
which was not to say that it wasn’t a good time! it’s only to say that Secrets Can Kill CLEARLY expects you to know who Nancy Drew is and what she’s about AND be down for 90s adventure game realities (although thankfully it never leans into the terrible design difficulties that made the genre’s most famous 90s franchises infamous).
Nancy is either 19 or 40 (VA makes it very hard to tell) and has been enlisted by her aunt to go undercover at a high school to investigate the murder of a local shithead. The need for a cover story is funny because she literally solves the case in two hours but don’t worry about it.
At any time you can call any of a cadre of Nancy’s friends/boyfriend, all of whom are so unhelpful it’s actually funny, but also none of them are characterized in any way so if George or Ned, who I assume are major players in the wider world of Nancy Drew, actually have personalities, this game offers piss poor fanservice for them even if in doing so they end up making a pretty good joke out of the extremely abrupt way they hang up on you after telling you like i dunno you’re in a school go to the library bitch???
and she’ll need to go to the library because this is a bizarro high school where everyone is posting rumors and clues about the recent murder and all associated parties in rhyming acrostic code, like everyone at school is a tricksy little devil and not uh, stealing steroids from the local pharmacy or blackmailing the exchange student who’s afraid of being deported if he can’t get a scholarship next year. It’s this weird mix of whimsical puzzles and like, extreme video game simulacra. the football player guy gives you some exposition and then tells you “okay now get lost I gotta go to practice” but he'll never move, he'll just continue to stand there in a corner tossing his football hand to hand like a jackass forever. Despite dialog constantly alluding to all the cops crawling around the school the halls are EERILY empty.
this strange mix of very grounded high school dramatics with very funny video game artificiality all adds up to something that isn’t particularly substantial but is very fun and a great foundation for one of video gaming’s unsung franchises.
NEXT TIME: STAY TUNED FOR DANGER
While this remake sorts out a lot of issues from the original, the storyline is cleaner, the graphics are very much a step up and overall puzzle design is a bit more focused, it cant really get away from the scattershot approach to puzzles that the original had. In addition while the storyline is cleaner, it still feels rather drab and aimless in comparison with other titles.