Windows

Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill

OK, admit it. Who of all of you used to religiously read Nancy Drew... Come on, speak up! Needless to say, when I first heard that HerInteractive was producing a game based on Nancy Drew for girls over 10 years old, I was intrigued. I recalled all of the complaints about "girl games" that those fabulous girls from our Girls on Track conference brought up. They were annoyed at games they portrayed them as shallow (reading your best friend's diary), or that portrayed their characters as weaker than the male characters. HerInteractive's brochure says that their first title, McKenzie & Co., was the first computer game ever designed specifically for girls. It further goes on to state that analysts now predict that this segment of the computer entertainment market will experience the most dramatic growth of any in the coming years, expanding to more than $400 million in sales by the year 2000.

The voices of Nancy and their interlocutors sound professional in my German ears. Up to the introduction sequence or Nancy's comments or telephone calls, all spoken texts are also shown within the lower dialogue area. This gives those, who are not really English connoisseurs, the possibility of judging the statements again.

Overall, this is a sweet little game by a female-run company. Also, although it's pretty easy, it contains classic adventure game elements and a story strong enough to hold the player's interest, and so it would be a good introduction to adventure games for either boys or girls. Drugs, blackmail, murder ... what more could any adventurer ask for?

After 350 mysteries bearing her name spanning more than 70 years, our favorite teenager sleuth Nancy Drew finally takes her leap onto the computer screen in the form of an adventure game, appropriately titled Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill. This title is the first of a planned interactive mystery trilogy from Her Interactive. Recalling the less than stellar track record in the sales of previous computer mystery games, Her Interactive chooses wisely to market this one toward a younger audience. Designed for girls 11 ages and up, its goals are to provide role-playing experiences through computer games and introduce the world of technology to girls by making computers more appealing. While its intention is certainly noble, intention alone can only serve so far to satisfy the appetite of a gamer. It is here that Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill shines as an interactive adventure for the novice player, making this title truly a welcomed change for the neglected genre.

Fussy nitpicking aside (I am a reviewer, you know), I did enjoy playing Secrets Can Kill. If you've never played it yourself or are looking for a gift for a special child in your life (I do want to emphasize that this game is suitable for male players as well as female ones), Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill makes for an affordable and fun gaming experience.

Well this one surely gets my seal of approval. The graphics are great and allow for 360 degree panning and the music and voice acting are also very good. More importantly, it's an entertaining, modern story to go with the new, modern Ms Drew and is pitched about right for the targeted age group. It also has three difficulty levels which govern the depth of hints available making it a very good introductory game for players who haven't yet sampled the delights of adventure game playing. Although it is essentially a young person's game it has quite a deal of sophistication and will keep players intrigued to the very end.

When the game reached it’s finale, it felt more like a truncated version of Murder She Wrote; where all the time spent mining out clues and needling suspects with repetitive questions, abruptly ends in a contrite group confession and confrontation that takes all of thirty seconds. I’m not saying that’s how it went, but that’s how it felt.