Review of Nancy Drew Mystery of the Seven Keys

I played the newest Nancy Drew game! Today I review it for you, without spoilers. 

Courtesy of progameguides.com

Overall, it was much better than the last game they put out. It was beautiful, well thought out, had optional mini games, had the choice of classic and modern movement, and was a puzzle game (not just a living novel). Because I played this in almost one go, I suggest you pace yourself. Hubby and I fried our brains puzzle-wise. We stopped at the near end game and finished it later because we'd played it all day. Take your time. The puzzles are not as easy when you fry yourself, or easy at all. We cheated through some of it. I intend to play it slowly on my own to test whether the puzzles themselves or I was the problem in some cases. It is a lot of puzzles and talking to suspects. Don't forget to call people in this game. 

I loved all the call-backs to the old games. They have pictures from old games in the cafe. They talk about her old cases. They even include puzzles and reuse music from past games, remixed. I loved hearing the familiar music and seeing reminders of previous games. Her Interactive obviously listened to us when many said they wanted the older game style. I liked the choice of classic or modern mode. The familiar images and puzzles made me like the game more. They fed our nostalgia. 

The Game Aspects

Characters are beautiful. They also move like real humans. They all match the dialogue in real time. I had no lag on my laptop. The phone characters are amazing, too. We get helpful Ned back - hooray! Nancy actually talks to him differently, assuring him he's just as helpful as the Hardy Boys. Ned also admits they really do have resources he doesn't (Zane, for instance). I like this healthy exchange of dialogue. I don't really play these for character drama, so I loved to see the relationship growing for the better. It's like old times again - when Ned was almost always helpful and loving. Voice acting was on point for all the characters, who felt like real people when you spoke to them. Let's get a round of applause for the talent behind this game, every last one of them (from programmer to voice actor). 

Courtesy of adventuregamers.com

The puzzles themselves were of a higher challenge level, like Silent Spy. You actually need a walkthrough on your first playthrough. Like Scarlet Hand and Midnight In Salem, you have the issue of not knowing what to do at moments. Or one task is not expressly stated on your task list. The hint system is great for this and is built into the game. I love that you can use a hint system again. You'll need it - especially if you do what my husband and I did (attempt to finish it in one day). This game is great, but some puzzles are less intuitive and we wish Nancy would have said more out loud to help the player at specific moments. Again, please note that we may have fried our puzzle brains and we could have been the problem. Still, when we came back to it, it was still hard. You'll need help at times. 

I played classic mode. We figured out way late (at end game) that we could hold the right mouse button and look around. I think they could have said that in the beginning. Keep this in mind when choosing the mode at the beginning.  Also, we didn't catch the entire room in some places because of this mode and our lack of knowledge on right-clicking. I love that they included classic mode, mostly because it feels like the old games. 

The storyline is amazing. I'd suggest going into it blind. It is a fun, not overly out there, story with fun characters to interact with. The story had thought behind it. You can tell it wasn't a last-minute script. It all comes together at the end. If you do something specific you'll find an extra scene, too. I didn't, but I know that because of an award you can get. I called Ned at the end of the case and got an award. 

Holy Mini Games Batman!

Mini games are usually quite fun, but what I discovered about making latte art is this; it was so much like Shadow At Water's Edge name painting I did not like it. The rest of the coffee making? Fine, but I'd rather skip the latte art. Also, the book had you going all over it to complete the coffees. In my personal notes I intend to simplify the whole book into what buttons to hit and how many times. 

Mini game two is the puppetry. Radek's notes are truly an awful mess. I understand that's the puzzle aspect of it, but we need a bit more notes to get it right without ten tries. If Radek expects an assistant to understand "she....." without reading his mind he should do it all himself or have a permanent assistant to help him. With that said, many had issues with this. We looked on the forums to find that forum had been flooded with this puzzle to the point of a warning to "not write duplicate questions". We were not fried at this point, either, so keep that in mind.

Concluding Thoughts

Courtesy of adventuregamers.com

I put this game up with Silent Spy, where I also have to cheat to finish the game. It isn't easy. Coming back to it proved to me that you should pace yourself, and that you'll still get frustrated. The puzzle level is high. It has a lot of hard puzzles you can figure out, but some that aren't overly intuitive. Any alchemy is not intuitive. Blackmoor (another Nancy Drew game with alchemy) was better at clarifying instructions if I'm honest. 

All that being said, I loved it. I just suggest you keep a walkthrough up and ready on your first go around. I write cheat sheets down and will do my own personal one on my second go around, where I won't fry myself and kill my brainwaves. The story is amazing. Don't ruin the ending for yourself. I'll let you all go in blind like I did. I give it a 7 out of 10. 

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I wrote a book! I am delighted to say that I have 5 five-star reviews up on Amazon now, which is amazing. I hope you like it, too. If you're interested in buying a paperback, hardcover, or ebook version go to my website link in this blog or click here to go straight to my Amazon page. 

Jack Thomas is running from a past case. He's hiding in Wrenville. Is his past case catching up with him? 

Find out in my first book, Wrenville, a stand-alone suspense novel.