Her Interactive have been churning out Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boy’s mystery titles in the US for quite a while but until now they have been relatively difficult to source within the UK. Focusmultimedia have now added a selection of titles to their catalogue and to kick things off we will be taking a look at Nancy Drew: curse of Blackmoor Manor,which is kind of appropriate as the mystery takes place in an old English mansion.
Story
A neighbour of Nancy’s has asked her to visit the large, rambling mansion that is Blackmoor Manor as she is concerned for her daughter Linda. Linda is newly married to the head of the Penvellyn family, Hugh, who happens to be away on some diplomatic duty.
The game begins with Nancy arriving at the gates of the manor on her approach to the front door Nancy hears a voice whispering her name and turns to see a pair of red glowing eyes glowing in the dark. She turns and knocks on the door and is greeted by Hugh’s Aunt Leticia Drake.
The introduction sets the tone for the rest of the game, however I must point out that Her Interactive are specialists in producing games for the teen girl market so while it is mildly spooky it’s not bone chilling.
On entering Nancy is despatched to her room to rest but, being Nancy, she’s going to have a quick look around. Firstly she checks on Linda who hides behind her curtained bed refusing to come out and mumbling about ghostly visitors. The next visit is to Jane, Linda’s young stepdaughter for a quick hello. Nancy then retires for the night. The next morning there will be plenty of exploring to do!
Taking place in a grand old English mansion with several generations of eccentric owners, it’s inevitable that all the stereotypical characters will appear. The aged spinster Aunt, Mrs. Drake, who is dependent on her nephew and family’s heritage (and not only seemingly from a financial aspect but, also to preserve the Penvellyn legacy ), the home schooled little girl, Jane, devoid of company. Hugh on diplomatic service and poor neglected Linda.
You will also meet Jane’s tutor who doesn’t focus entirely on the national curriculum !, a researcher detailing the family history and Loulou an old parrot who provides Nancy with clues for solving puzzles
Interface.
The main menu is presented as a stack of books with options on the spines and you seem to have unlimited saves which is always good.
The inventory system, however, I found to be a bit cumbersome. While the action of taking objects and selecting the object to use was fine, it was when you had finished using the item you then had to reopen the inventory to deposit the object into a slot rather than just a simple right click of the mouse to place it back.
While Nancy does benefit from help courtesy of Jane and Loulou, along with her objects’ slots, she also has a notebook and mobile phone as part of her inventory. The notebook details what Nancy has learned in the game so far and also a list of objectives – very useful if you leave the game for a day or so to pick up where you left off. And the list of objectives helps in those “what next” moments. The mobile phone is used to make calls, emails and web search all to aid in her investigations.
The inventory, notebook, cellphone and main menu options are all placed permanently across the bottom of the screen as is the dialogue window which appears when Nancy holds a conversation.
Puzzles
The puzzles range in difficulty and fun and are integrated well into the storyline. There are a lot of mini games which will need to be completed to progress through the game. These range from finding a number of ghosts hidden throughout the mansion, making cakes for Loulou (be careful to mix the right ingredients as the wrong concoction can lead to your suitcases being left at the front door and you being told to leave the house !), a mechanical card game in the hall and on top of all these Jane has a whole trunk of games in a trunk. Each one contributes to your progression either by getting some sort of reward eg .A key or a bit of information.
In terms of placing this game on a difficulty scale for adventure gamers, it’s pretty hard simply because Her Interactive specifically target teen girls .While their target market would definitely enjoy the mini games, I fear some of the puzzles may be a bit to difficult for them as players need to use their observational skills and gather evidence from books, coats of arms etc.
Presentation
Undoubtedly the mansion is detailed thoroughly in beautifully deep rich colours with features such as ornate tapestries decorating the wooden panelled walls. However old meets new within the rooms such as Jane’s bedroom where teen posters and toys etc share space with the antiques and, of course, computers and phones are accessible.
Character renders are good too as is their lip synching. The voice acting is clear and accentuated well (except for the cockney pub staff from whom you order your dinner over the phone – a little OTT !)
The ambient sounds are suitably creepy with creaking and sighing through the house and the musical score becomes noticeably threatening when stepping into the unknown all coming together well to create a dark and mysterious atmosphere.
Summary
Overall I enjoyed Nancy Drew: curse of Blackmoor Manor it is well priced for a relatively difficult adventure title and is extremely well presented. I would like to have seen a larger gaming environment and maybe a tweek of the inventory wouldn’t hurt but overall it’s a good storyline and challenging puzzles.
Marks out of 10
Game play 7.5 : game play is good especially the large number of mini games , the story engaging and the puzzles challenging
Graphics 8: While the graphics were impressive for some reason everything seemed enlarged
Sound 8: excellent musical score, ambient sounds and voice overs
Longevity 7: Once completed it would be worth a revisit but the mini games are worth replaying to try and improve your score
