Nancy Drew Replay Pt 3

 This is part three of me replaying the whole Nancy Drew Herinteractive series of games. 

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Spoiler alert! I have to talk about the games to prove what era they are. You have been warned. 

Hello again! I promise this series won't be ten million segments. This last era (minus the dossiers and Midnight in Salem- MID) is the only one left. There will be one more post about the dossiers and MID because they are categories by themselves. Otherwise, I'm almost done. 

Drama Era - Captive Curse to Sea of Darkness

Let the relationship issues begin! Ned can be super helpful (Alibi) or cause all sorts of drama (Captive). This also begins the Francy (Frank and Nancy) hints, which actually come straight from the super mysteries books. Nothing new here, just a less helpful Ned at times and a bit less separation from Nancy's relationship reality. The drama is now built into the plot, thus it is unavoidable. That has been happening slowly since the last era. That started with the games requiring help from phone friends.

The good thing is you learn more about River Heights, Nancy's mom, Ned and Nancy's issues, the love triangle that has existed in the fanbase and books since forever, and how much tunnel vision Nancy truly has toward mysteries. The bad thing is that if you only wanted the mystery itself you have to wade through some of that. I eat up Francy with a spoon, but maybe you don't. To each their own. It isn't laid on too thick, however, so there is enough mystery to make it work well. In other words, it doesn't stand in the way of the mystery.

The puzzle heavy era never ended - surprise! Now it is aimed even more at the maturing fanbase it has cultivated. This is likely why more plot and deeper emotion were added. In short, they kept the puzzle content and added more personal relationship depth. I like a lot of this era for the puzzles, as well as the dialogue. Two games tend to take the puzzle heavy aspect of this to an extreme - Labyrinth of Lies and Silent Spy. These two were absolutely overwhelming to play the first time. It was almost too much, but once you played it once it wasn't as bad. Plus, they upped the puzzle level a bit more. I have to cheat through these games to finish them. They are longer or feel longer than the other games. 

Not shockingly, you have to call more people. They make you kiss and make up with Ned. Although you get the choice of kicking Ned's heart onto the floor or telling him you love him in Sea of Darkness, Captive Curse makes you call him and the Hardy's about the situation. You also have to pass the baton during Alibi in Ashes to others in order to play as them, as well as calling Carson for help. You used to be able to ignore your friends unless you needed hints, but that has phased itself out by now. Carson even calls Nancy when she runs off to Scotland. In Alibi you get the wonderful choice of character use and you get to see how every suspect treats every single playable character.

Another thing about this era is how detailed the settings have become. The graphics have noticeably improved from here until Sea of Darkness. The storylines get richer and sometimes darker (especially since an older audience is the target now). Character design is also more detailed. Character depth has always been great in these games, but has gotten even better. Speaking of mature themes, you solve a murder again, which only happens about three times in the entire series (so far, at least). I count solving Charlotte's murder in Thornton Hall as a murder investigation (loosely and indirectly) and that makes three, technically. 

Mini-games start showing up in nearly every game here. I can name at least one for every game except Thornton Hall. I love mini-games and I put in my mini-game save files to play them without restarting. Newer games like Shattered Medallion have mini-games on your phone and the puzzle palace setting. It is fantastic to see we get these little games. I know some of you could care less about mini-games and I know some of you share my enthusiasm. I think it makes them more replayable. 

Medallion, we have to talk about that one. It is not typical of the series. Sonny Joon has taken over a reality tv show that George and Nancy are taking part in. The plot is odd compared to everything else you play in this category. Is it fun? I think so, but if you play for the plot you might not like it. Puzzle lovers will be totally into it. Mini-game lovers will also love it. This is the only one where the plot is a bit strange and kind of unhinged, well, if you don't count Labyrinth of Lies and the theatre set with real lava.

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Stay tuned for the last segment and stay sleuthy! 

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