Hello fellow nerds and loyal blog readers! I personally replayed all my Nancy Drew Herinteractive collection and re-experienced them all - every single one. Without further adieu, I give you my observations after doing so.
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Courtesy of Herinteractive
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Starting with Secrets Can Kill (and the remastered one) and going straight through to Midnight In Salem, I played them all. I love them all to different degrees and for different reasons because I am a Nancy Drew nerd and own them all. I actually pre-ordered some of them to acquire it (like Ransom of the Seven Ships) and got most of them for Christmas until we had to wait for Midnight In Salem and they stopped making them so frequently. I had to get downloads of some games because I couldn't play them on my college laptop. I don't think you need any more proof of my nerdyness.
*Be aware that you will find spoilers in this series of blogs. In order to make my point about trends in games I have to say these. You have been warned. *
Early Games - Classic Era - Secrets Can Kill to The Final Scene
Secrets Can Kill, believe it or not, takes two discs that switch back and forth for game locations (a real pain) and the remastered is nice because you don't have to do that. The endings are different in both versions and the remastered has more puzzles because Herinteractive didn't want a super-short game and needed a reason for those bulletin boards you see all through the original game design. Remastered also includes a task list (which the oldest games lack entirely), which helps you avoid wandering around not knowing what you need to trigger or do.
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| Courtesy of Tumblr |
The oldest games are also super short if you know exactly what to do and trigger. And I do most times, so basically, it takes a day to play Treasure in the Royal Tower and one go to finish it. The one downside to older games is that the game does not automatically take notes for you or give you a task list. Lost? Forgot a puzzle? You end up wandering around if you aren't careful enough to take notes yourself. Sometimes Nancy also has to see something to make a connection and allow you to finish the task (thus you have to do the legwork in the game to progress). Not all of them are like that but do expect that in older games. They were targeted at ten-year-old girls. While Herinteractive knows now that more than ten-year-old kids play it, the early games are not aimed at adults, thus they are easier upon reaching adulthood and more nostalgic for players that loved them as kids.
The music is different as the games progress. The older the game, the more dramatic the music. It is kind of funny to listen to that and notice it. Go ahead and pull up YouTube and listen to the soundtrack videos in order of the first game to last. Feel free to tell me what you think. Am I right? Or is it just me?
Dialogue and snooping everyone's areas are a lot of the older gameplay. Yes, they have a few puzzles, but the majority of the game is sneaking around to snoop or talking to the characters in person and on the phone. Final Scene has a lot of talking to characters and making calls. The rest of it is practically all snooping. That is just one example, but STFD (Stay Tuned For Danger) is similar in format. You have to talk to people to progress or find something in their stuff to keep the plot moving. Otherwise, you don't progress. One reason for this is that the games are somewhat linear in nature. You have one plotline and you follow it all the way through. Again, we're aiming at children demographically, so this makes sense.
I will note a unique game in the Classic era, which is Final Scene. It is unlike other games for two reasons. One reason is the urgent tone of it. That tone is maintained throughout the game and even emphasized at the end with a time challenge. No other game does this so well. Reason number two is the sheer sass of Nancy throughout the entire game dialogue. Other games may give her sassy moments, but here we see an entire game of Nancy's sass. I live for her dialogue in this game, especially toward Brady Armstrong and his agent.
From Scarlet Hand To Carousel - The Second Era
The first trend in the second era is that we see a to-do list develop, though it isn't in the screen's bottom bar until the era after this. You have to go to the location of your laptop in some and others have a PDA (ghost dogs) or a list on a desk. Also, journals begin here. Some key clues get written in it automatically, but you need to take notes no matter what because it isn't recording everything. This is where the games transition from the possibility of wandering to trigger an event to a more guided experience that leaves you clear feedback on your tasks. Scarlet Hand is a transition between eras and a combination of both in some ways. It is classified as the second era because of the list on the desk.
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Trend two is the length of the games. They have packed more into the games at this point. More puzzles, plot, and tasks are programmed in, making it a longer gaming experience for players. Classic era games are shockingly short compared to this era. Part of the way they did this was by adding chores to your mystery, which are usually balanced out amongst the puzzles.
One thing I noticed starting with Scarlet Hand was the beginning of doing chores or tasks for objects. The balance of chores to game puzzles/interrogation is pretty evened out in Scarlet Hand and the games in this era, but gets a bit annoying when you reach Ghost Dogs because of that bait puzzle. It isn't the only game chore that can get frustrating, but it is the beginning of the "You do this and I give you that" trend.
To be clear about "Chores" and my definition of them, I will give you an example from Scarlet Hand of a "puzzle/task" and an example of a "chore" from Ghost Dogs. Both involve doing favors for a character. A puzzle/task that involves doing a favor for someone is Alejandro asking for the monolith agreement (which is relevant to the plot). A chore would be the bait finding from Ghost Dogs (which could be cut out and not affect the plotline anywhere). A necessary task you are asked to do furthers the plot and a chore prolongs the game without affecting your game storyline. This is why the second era has longer games. The classic era did not include chores, but only relevant tasks. You may point to TRT as having chores, but because Dexter's tasks do further your plot with Hotchkiss, they are not chores in my eyes.
Haunted Carousel introduces what I call "minigames", which will be classified in this post as a game within the main game that can be played over and over again for fun or money collection. That definition goes all the way to the end of the series. Carousel includes a fun laptop game of matching flags and midway games that you need to play at least once to conclude the main game. Minigames do not need to be part of the main plot to be classified as such, but often are anyway and can double as tasks in some games. Midway games, in this case, have to be played in order to acquire items you need. Technically, you could include the temple games in Scarlet Hand here, but I hesitate to because Bull is not a particularly fun game to play (at least for me personally). Long story short, if you have the option to play an arcade game, fish and make necklaces, mix drinks, serve food over and over, or any variation of such things it is a minigame. There are so many variations throughout the games that I won't list all of them. I will say, though, that most are food-related.
At Haunted Carousel we also get to read email and have a cellphone, which makes calling people more convenient because you can be anywhere to call someone (not just your hotel or office). I think from here on out we do have a cell phone, and from here on out we do check email (in some games, not all). Also, this laptop checks off tasks for you, which is kind of nice. Deception Island does the same thing.
The Experimental Era - From Shadow Ranch to Kapu Cave
From here you have a bottom bar with your checklist and journal, which is far more convenient for checking the progress of the game. It makes it possible to not be running all the way to your hotel every time you want to see your checklist or read your journal. You can even read emails and search the web from your phone. This also has those cute awards that you get at the end of the game (only one award, sadly, but later games make up for that).
Depending on the game individually, they go from incredibly padded with chores to all tasks and only a few chores (Blackmoor, Last Train). Some are notorious for being mostly chores or mini-games (like Kapu Cave). This era goes all over the place with the balance of chores and tasks. It is known for being experimental and varied, so I dub it the experimental era. It goes from a ranch, to a creepy English manor, to the 1930s, to a train, to France, to Hawaii. I have grouped this based on the taskbar style, so some trends might run off into the next era.
I will say that the trend here is a linear storyline, but nonlinear play. In this era, we are looking at a mix of many balances, but the similarity is that the storyline is clearly linear, even if the ability to do the tasks doesn't have to be. It is hard to lose your place when it comes to the plotline. This is built for younger adventurers (during which I would have been in elementary school). Games grew more mature based on their fanbase age (judging by later games compared to these). The only exception to this is the creepy nature of Blackmoor, which scared the living crap out of me as a kid. To this day I avoid playing it and I have found it is better played as an adult. Everything else is tame and built for younger players except Blackmoor.
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The basic idea of this era is that Herinteractive was trying out a whole bunch of balances and puzzles, which means these games are extended by chores or tasks, as well as vastly different when it comes to environments. Another thing you'll notice is the presence of the hardy boys starting with Blue Moon Canyon and Kapu Cave. You also switch perspectives to the hardy boys in both of these games. This trend continues even into Midnight In Salem.
Another trend continuing into future eras is that Bess and George actually help you over the phone and send you information for the second time in the series (counting Carousel). This continues throughout the rest of the eras periodically. You actually have to call them in these specific games. This isn't every game, but at least four are like this. The trend I'm describing here is the beginning of the games where you can't ignore Nancy's friends. This leads to the newer games where you have to call her friends. Eventually, we see that you can't ignore Nancy's personal life and it is a vital part of the plot, but for now, we only see the beginnings of it.
Another note I'll add is related to Ned's jealousy. Play Kapu Cave and use all the conversations for Ned to find a conversation similar to the Midnight In Salem one, minus the relationship talk. He is already jealous of Frank in Kapu Cave, ladies and gents, which is interesting to me. Given Nancy hung up on him to talk to the Hardy's I'm not surprised.
Nancy also begins showing you around her room in this era, around Danger by Design and Kapu Cave. It isn't a big thing, really, yet I wanted to note that began here.
The next eras of Nancy Drew will be continued in part two of this blog. Stay tuned for part two next week and......... stay beautiful!
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PS. I am not including the dossiers in this until the last blog where I talk about Midnight In Salem. I say this because the dossiers are lightyears different from the original games, and much like MID, are not the same gameplay style. I will tackle MID and the dossiers in the same and final part of this blog series.
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