all right, here is my spoiler-free MID review, based on my first playthrough. I do always play games at least twice, so I may have something different to add/say once I play it through a couple of more times. there’s a very good chance I forgot something because I forgot to make a note of it on my phone. I'll also be playing with my boyfriend when I visit him at the end of the month, and if any of you have been here long enough to remember ye goode olde days when I'd force him to play a game, his commentary can be both insightful and hilarious. also, if you want to talk to me about more spoilery things, feel free to hit me up. I’m always down to yell about Nancy Drew games.
I’m going to do this list in a bullet point style. I apologize if it’s a little disjointed; I’m going to attempt to clean it up once I’ve written it out but there’s a good chance that I get tired or I forget.
I want to start by saying that I actually enjoyed playing the game. I have some criticisms, of course, but this is a solid Nancy Drew game. My disappointment is over the fact that there’s nothing new here in terms of the games, which is why it feels like the switch to Unity is detrimental, rather than helpful. I hope they keep making more games, and if they do, I hope they find their stride quickly. Anyway, this is by no means the worst game (and trust me, I was expecting it to be). RAN is still their worst game, forever and ever, amen.
The character writing was so good, especially with the dialogue, especially when talking with Deirdre and the Hardy Boys. I kept finding myself reacting out loud to things that they were saying. Joe, as always, cracks me up, but honestly Deirdre is the real star of this game, and whomever the writer is, I want to shake their hand. HER doesn’t deserve them, but I am glad that they have them.
The voice acting was...okay. You know how it is with these games. Sometimes it’s all good and smooth sailing, and sometimes you’re like, “Yikes on a bicycle.” Deirdre’s VA was the best for sure. And I’m still pouring one out for Frank’s TRN voice, likely never to be heard again. It was, however, very weird to hear some of Nancy’s iconic lines not in Lani’s voice. I physically flinched the first time she said, “It’s locked.” Nancy’s new voice actress is fine, and I like her just fine, but there are definitely times where I cringed. And I will always miss Lani a whole lot.
The graphics really weren’t as bad as I expected them to be, given the trailer. I actually don’t know what was up with the trailer. My computer is “older” (read: five years), so I had to keep the graphics res on low, and it was fine. Way better than whatever the heck we saw in the trailer. I’ve toyed with getting a gaming computer just for my ND games, but that’s a conversation for another time.
I was very invested in the storyline and all of the mini-mysteries sprinkled throughout. I remember years and years ago, when everyone was begging for a Salem game, and I’m honestly happy with how this turned out. It isn’t the best game, and it isn’t perfect, but I was satisfied, and I wanted to get home from work ASAP so I could keep playing.
That being said, the storyline is really linear, and while I know that some people really like that, it annoyed me a little. I liked how in old games, you could sort of wander around. There was no set order to how you had to do things (most of the time; a moment of silence for those of us who had to restart because we forgot to grab those bits and bobs in STFD). This game was very clearly walking you down one path, which is how I usually end up getting stuck. I wandered around for a good half an hour once, trying to talk to people to see what I was supposed to do next, except no one had anything to say. Maddening. More on that in a minute. I guess I wish it could’ve been longer. I just wanted maybe one more beat or something. One that wasn’t filled with me wandering around town and muttering at my computer in frustration.
The game mechanics frustrated me. Part of that was definitely because I was playing on a trackpad and refuse to get a mouse for my laptop because I'm a child. (If it needed a mouse, it would come with one.) But the clicking was so frustrating, just because I would think I was clicking one way and then I would just end up turning. (I think this happens in King Arglefumph's video, too; all hail and welcome back, my dude.) Or accidentally going in the wrong direction. Everything was really precise and very easy to mess up. Also, you have to look down/up sometimes, which was so annoying with the trackpad. You also needed to have the angle just right to actually look around that way. I miss the magnifying glass that turned red when there was something to click on. It would've made my life so much easier. Especially because sometimes when you're using an item you're supposed to in a situation, even when it lights up gold, Nancy says you can't use it. Maddening. Also part of the reason I wandered around for that half an hour is because with the way you move around, it's easy to miss seeing entire sections of rooms, so I didn't notice until I turned the right way that a place that had been closed off before was finally open.
I really loved the autosave feature. I’m an obsessive saver when I’m thinking about it, but sometimes I forget, and this was really nice as a backup.
The option to read text from books or letters in a pop-out window so the text is typed was so nice, because then you’re not trying to decipher weird handwriting.
It was frustrating that there were no hints. That would've come in really handy when I was wandering around for half an hour trying to figure out what to do. You also couldn't call anyone to really get any hints, like in past games. So having no hints on your checklist or available via phone was incredibly frustrating. (Ned doesn't even pick up his phone and then Nancy at one point is apologetic about not calling him back when she said she would. Girl, I tried to call him like five times. He just wasn't answering.)
There weren't enough puzzles, and I think the game is too reliant on talking to suspects. Which is funny, because I also feel like I didn't say enough to them; it almost felt like I was repeating the same stuff over and over. I talk about that more below. I made this note on my phone when I was maybe halfway through the game, and I do feel like there were many more puzzles in the second half. The second half is incredibly puzzle-heavy, but the first half is really low on puzzles, which was disappointing. Some of the puzzles, too, were incredibly frustrating, and without any hints to help you along, I found myself just staring at my computer for a while as I tried to figure stuff out. I think I was just burnt out from doing so many in a row. I think they definitely could've balanced their distribution better.
Talking to suspects was fine, because everyone's personality made it interesting, but I wish we could've actually had more things to say to them. You spend forever talking to them and I felt like I just repeating myself. One frustrating element, though, was that you couldn't have smaller conversations. It was all or nothing in this game. I would go in to talk to someone because there were things I knew I had to ask them, but all I could say was, "See ya later." But then I would do something else and go back in to talk to a suspect and there would be an overwhelming amount of dialogue options. So then I'd spend forever sitting there and talking to them when I could've done it piecemeal. (And then maybe solved a puzzle; seriously, so few puzzles in the beginning half of this game.) I'm sure that's not a bother for some people, but I just got bored sitting there for long conversations.
Another thing about talking to suspects that bothered me is something that has bothered me in past games, so it's not MID-specific. Sometimes you choose a dialogue option, and you have an entire conversation about X thing. But then you choose the next option, and you're introducing the thing you just talked about as if they've never heard it before. We just!!! Talked about this!!! It made it seem like you should be able to have shorter conversations here and there, but you can't.
Final thing about talking to suspects: some people are so fidgety that it drives me insane. Talking to Frank and Joe was a trip because Frank would be blessedly still (unlike LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE), and Joe looked like he was doing the potty dance the entire time. A lot of characters sway when you’re talking to them, like they’re on a ship. It made me vaguely seasick to watch them.
I appreciated not having a giant box at the bottom of the screen, but I think sometimes the text moves too quickly, and it's easy to accidentally click past something. That's a minor thing for me, personally, because I'm not hearing impaired, but it would definitely be frustrating for people who need to read conversations rather than listen to them.
I don't know what is going on with Ned's phone picture in this game, but it is WILDLY lower quality than everyone else's. Even Carson's golf ball. It's not really gripe; I just thought it was incredibly funny.
I saw some people saying that they thought Nancy, Ned, and Frank had totally different personalities in this game. I don't necessarily think that's true; Nancy was the one who I felt deviated most from what we're used to. Part of that is definitely the VA change, but another part of it was just how unwilling she is to snoop? She won't look at things not directly related to our task at hand, and she won't enter certain rooms because suddenly she's worried about respecting their privacy. At one point, she said, "I don't think I should go in here without permission," and I yelled at my computer, "Who are you?!" I thought Ned was fine, but I did think Frank was maybe a little too over-the-top worried/mother hen? Nothing egregious. I still love him. And his vest.
I've already said it, but Deirdre is the absolute star of this game. She shines so brightly that she eclipses everything and everyone. Dump Ned, Nancy. Deirdre is right there in front of you, and she's incredible. Seriously, though. Deirdre is at her absolute best in this game, and I'm so glad that she's so central to the plot. I love her.
Frank's vest and rolled shirtsleeves. That's all.
This game is a feast for shippers. There's a little something for everyone. I have lots of shipping thoughts on this game, but I'm going to write that up in a different post, maybe, because it'll be spoilery. And also I want to play it through again and take screenshots/write things down so I can yell about them all over again. Really, though, it was like I was a glass of champagne with this game. Bubbly to the max. So much good shipping content. So much.
I love Mei. She's incredibly realistic, and the way she deals with Nancy had me cackling.
On the whole, I enjoyed the game a lot, especially considering that I expected it to be a total and complete dumpster fire. But the in-game maneuvering is really frustrating. HER failed with this in all of the "new" and "modern" things it was trying to do, but this game succeeds in the way that other ND games already succeeded. The way it was good in the ways that already worked for their games, not because of something new that they did or that they added. I hope they keep making games and that, if they do, they find their stride relatively quickly.
And that it doesn't take fucking four and a half years for another one what the fuck
In all honestly, I would consider this a pretty good gateway game. If you've never played a ND game before at all, I don't think you'd be disappointed. I'm not nearly as disappointed as I expected to be. I really did enjoy playing it, and I'll likely playing it least two more times in the very near future. I just think HER has a long way to go before they start making any kind of claims, and I've still got my eye on them. I don't trust them. Four and a half a years is way too long.
And one last thing: They’d said on Facebook that they definitely have plans for more games, but there isn’t a new game trailer at the end of this. Take that as you will. Like I said, I’ve got my eye on them.
