Rating: 
Summary: Fun way to learn and get freaked out at the same time!!!
Review: I thought that this game was pretty difficult and was fun. It was better than the last one, the Secret of the Scarlet Hand, because you didn't have to do those frustrating quizzes and go back and forth around the museum and ask people for information so you can past the quizzes. The new PDA, personal digital assisstant, that Nancy carries around is much more convenient than the laptop, even though the laptop was already a big step in saving paper for notes. You didn't have to scroll ALL the way down to see the newest notes in the PDA and you didn't have to keep going back to Nancy's room to look at your lastest notes either. The puzzles were a little easier and didn't take up so much time to do. This game was pretty freaky and as usual, has it's disasters, like the fire. As for figuring out the culprit, that was pretty easy. Once you've met all the suspects, you can already cross out one. Then when you get in the middle of the game, despite the fact that you might hate one of the suspects for your own personal reasons (at least that's how it was with me), you suspect another that...is obviously made so that you can't suspect that it's that person. I have my own techniques for finding out the culprit. A lot of new things were really cool. I hated how HI used the same graphics for all the rocks. It was very confusing at points. I sure can't wait until the Haunted Carousel comes out!!! All in all, this game was very fun and has a pretty good challenge! Good way to spend your winter break!!
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining for all!
Review: My 7 year old daughter and I played this together. The graphics are great. The object is to find your kidnapped friend. There are two levels - junior or senior detective. We played as senior detectives. It was challenging at times, there were no clues at what to do next. I found myself searching the internet for clues (the manufacturer actually provides a bulletin board for the game if you get stuck). If you make a mistake, the game ends, but there is s second chance button you can use (more than once) to continue where you left off.
I found it hard to move where I wanted to go at times. The cursor has to be placed just so and it limits your view.
I liked the game, but I liked Message in the Haunted Mansion better. My daughter liked them both. With the internet help, our total play time was about 7-8 hours, and the time we spent was fun and entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Nancy, on the Case..............Again
Review: This is a very good game.One of HI's best.I think that it was easier though, but It was still fun. There were some challanging puzzles, and the game was greta overall.I recomend it.
-Panda
Rating:
Summary: An 11 year old user
Review: I love this game. You can learn alot of history from ancient times which i just learned in school a week before i got it. It is a very beautiful museum and you get to travel on a subway (which kinda takes a bit of time but is not that bad). You gte to travel alot of places and i think it is qiet a bit challenging.
Rating:
Summary: It is great but it also has some bugs
Review: I love this game but there are a few problems
1.There are places that you cannot go
2.You get lost easily in the woods.
3. At nighttime no dogs can attack you(which is probably a good thing).
4. You cannot take the boat out at night so you cannot explore.
5. It is so hard to find the graveyard.
6.That this game is probably for not users 8 and under ...P>Some good things:
1.The graphics are soo cool.
2.It is exciting a really challenging game.
3.A great game to play with your friends.
4.You can search the woods at night without dogs attacking you(thank goodness).
5.I love the dogs.
6.It is a really fun game and i think if you are up for a challenge you would love it because i surely do!!
Rating:
Summary: a puzzle-adventure perfect for young sleuths
Review: The seventh in the series, these games are relatively inexpensive yet provide hours of gameplay. In them, Nancy Drew, the college-aged female detective, explores mysteries and finds solutions to various puzzles. You can see the various improvements in this latest entry. The graphics are much smoother, and as you turn around in a given area the 'snapshot' quality is more of a flow. It's still not a fully immersive environment - in essence you go "to" a spot and then can turn left or right through set images of the room. You can point to a "hot spot" in the room to approach an item or examine it. Still, in a way this makes it easier for younger detectives to know what to do. If you can't click on something, it's not important. There's no violence or blood, although I do have to comment that the ghost dogs are rather scary! I have had younger teenage girls refuse to play some of the games I've lent them because they were too scary after a few hours. This one might fall into that category if you have a skittish nature. The dogs don't actually attack you, but their jumping on the doors, howling and rattling the house can be quite frightning. The game uses very logical puzzles that actually teach you things. You want to test water from a well, but first you have to learn the real technique for priming a pump and do it. You need to use a motorboat, but the pistons aren't in the proper cycle positions. Anyone who uses a boat would see this by looking at the engine, and they helpfully include a diagram to show you (i.e. Nancy) how to fix this before the engine will work. Notes at the ranger station warn you about Hantavirus, a real danger if you're cleaning areas where mice live. There are other puzzles - identifying birds, finding planks to get over rotten floorboards and so on - that fit in as well. In general the game does an admirable job of keeping the game very realistic-feeling, like you're really at this Pennsylvanian lake, amongst the locals there, exploring their world. On the downside, much of the game involves pony-trail sorts of handoffs. You know you need a spark plug. You might think it would be lying around nearby or that one would be in the house. But instead, searching all over creation finds none. Instead, you have to go to sleep, wake up at night, chat with someone who it so happens has one, go back to sleep again, and then in the morning use it. It can get extremely frustrating when at many times in the game you know what you *need* but just have to figure out how the game designers think you should *get* it. Still, many times this means that your gameplay time is stretched out as you wander around, explore, chat with people, and enjoy the world. It's not a game for people who want to race through to the end to have 'beaten it'. If you poke at a walkthrough site, you can probably do so in an hour or two. Instead, it's a game that, for a relatively low price, lets you wander through a well realized world, exercise those "little grey cells" in your brain, and really become knowledgeable about a number of intersting subjects. Give yourself time to have fun with this one!
Rating:
Summary: Nancy Drew Scores Again!
Review: After playing all of the Nancy Drew games, so far this is the best. This suspensful game kept me on the edge of my seat and led me guessing away. Herr Interactive scores again with a superb game for young girls.
Rating: 
Summary: A bit of a disapointment
Review: I WAS REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO PLAYING THIS GAME AFTER READING SOME OF THE REVIEWS, IT SEEMED TO HAVE ALL THE INGREDIENTS OF A GREAT MYSTERY.
ALTHOUGH THE GAME HAD THE POTENTIAL TO EXPAND TO A GREAT EVOLVING SUSPENCE, I FELT IT DID NOT FULLY TAKE THAT OPPORTUNITY. THE RESULTS WERE IN MY OPINION, FLAT CHARACTERS WHO'S PERSONALITYS BEG TO BE WOKEN UP, A LACK OF EXPLORATION INTO THE MANY ROOMS IN THE GAME, IE DEXTERS ROOM , JAQUES ROOM ETC YOU I FELT AS THOUGH I WAS PLAYING ONLY HALF A GAME. THEN IT ALL ENDS TOO QUICKLY FOR THE PRICE. I CERTAINLY WAS LEFT FEELING IS THAT IT. I HAVE NOW PLAYED ALL THE NANCY DREW GAMES , THEY ARE NICE BUT TOO SHORT IF YOUR HOPING IT WILL SEE YOU THROUGH THE FESTIVE SEASON.
Rating:
Summary: Great training for more advanced puzzle games
Review: There's a series of Nancy Drew detective stories out. These are great games for any puzzle solver in your life, young or old, male or female! In this installment, Nancy Drew is in St Louis to visit a friend, Maya. Her friend is kidnapped, and Nancy has three days to help rescue her before a theater is torn down - perhaps with Maya inside it! I was very encouraged to find Nancy done as an intelligent young woman who was still very realistic. Other games involving female heroines, like The Longest Journey and Syberia, tend to make them 'girly' and bubble-headed. This definitely isn't the case with Nancy. Nancy loves to chat with her friends and boyfriend, and shows her youth, but she also has a level head and intelligence. The game is on a relatively small map, so you're not trekking around from world to world. You get to know the theater quite well, and the few people that you deal with. On one hand this is good, because you don't have hours of wandering back and forth to do. On the other hand, this can get frustrating. You've already talked to the main people involved ... but suddenly after doing one trigger action they've vanished, or have thought up something new to say? And you don't ask the obvious questions like 'where were you?' until much later? So you end up wandering around the theater, going back to every single room, going to talk to every person, multiple times until they move into their 'next stage' of conversation. I played at the senior level, but found most of the puzzles extremely easy. The two puzzles I didn't solve immediately were both incredibly annoying. In one, I read the manual several times and tried everything I could think of to get the pieces to spin. I must have clicked on the pieces hundreds of times. But apparently I wasn't clicking on the piece in the exact right spot, and my boyfriend had to fight with it for a while before chancing on that. In the second sticker, I had a PDA with a secret code required to get into it. I had a wallet full of numbers including the character's boyfriend's birthday. I tried for eons to get various codes to work. The ending solution was a totally random one. In both cases I was very frustrated to have wasted so much time for that solution. I actually lived in St Louis for a year, and my then-boyfriend worked at Wash U near a building they mention. I was impressed that they did their research well, mentioning streets and areas that exist around there. Unfortunately my ex in real life turned out to be pretty slimy, so during the game I was rooting for him to be caught in the theater when it collapsed :) It was both fun and bizarre to have all sorts of very recognizeable St Louis references come up in the story. The scenes are very lovely, but they're all static. Unlike most modern day games that let you walk through an area smoothly, in this one you're restricted to moving through a 'picture book' of scenes, where you can only turn to certain angles. This made it frustrating when I wanted to go to a certain door or look a certain way. Often I had to circle around a few times to get pointed in the direction I wanted, or the game prevented me from looking at the object I wanted to see. Some drawers would open, others were magically withheld from you. It took away from the sense that you were really "there". Still, except for the few nasty puzzles, the majority of the game was very pleasant, and lasted maybe 5-6 hours. If you have a walkthrough guide within reach while you play, you can enjoy the rest of the experience sort of like an 'animated story book', and it's great practice for the more advanced puzzle games that exist out there.
Rating:
Summary: My Review
Review: I thought this game was OK... not nearly as good as the first Nancy Drew game I played (Treasure in the Royal Tower) I knew who the kidnapper was from the first time I talked to them... and it became pretty boring after that. The theater is way too dark and it's really hard to see around it. There aren't enough places to explore like there were in Treasure in the Royal Tower. Overall, it's a pretty good game, but not as good as some of the others.
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