Irrepressible, thy name is
Nancy Drew. Through countless books, movies, television series, board
games, and now computer games, the plucky sleuth is always ready to
dive into a new mystery. Nancy Drew: Secret of the Scarlet Hand
is HerInteractive’s sixth PC adventure for Nancy, and it’s without question
the best of the series.

In
this series of games, HerInteractive has wisely chosen the first-person
format, which makes the player feel more like she (or he) is
actually Nancy Drew (1). The games have been mostly targeted to older
girls so far, and have consistently been solid and entertaining, if
modest and short (and nothing wrong with either, in my book).

All of the games in the
series have featured beautifully photo realistic pre-rendered environments
for Nancy to investigate. And all of them create a lovely, intriguing
atmosphere that is decidedly on-target for the franchise.

The talented folks at HerInteractive
seem to have been a bit more ambitious this time around, however,
because the new game is superior to the others in several key areas.

“DREW. NANCY DREW.”

First
of all, voice acting. I’ve consistently complained (in a loving way,
of course) about the fairly flat level of vocal work in the series.
Secret of the Scarlet Hand represents a leap forward in this
department. The characters consistently have more personality and
are more believable. This is particularly evident with the several
characters that Nancy meets only on the telephone. A lot of important
sleuthing in the game takes place during conversations on the phone,
and there are several very well-drawn and enjoyable folks that Nancy
gets to interact with in this way.

BIGGER BARS FOR BETTER
BARGAINS

Even more significantly,
the core adventure game elements of puzzle and story have been deepened
for this outing. The game feels about thirty percent longer than the
earlier episodes, giving more opportunity for storytelling and puzzle-solving.

Also,
the setting of the game – a small Washington, DC museum – is absolutely
ideal for what makes an adventure game tick. This setting, and specifically
the Maya exhibit the museum is about to open, pays puzzle-wise off
in two ways. First, the entire show in the museum is set up as an
educationally interactive experience for the patrons. The show consists
of several levels, each of which unlocks only after you solve a series
of puzzles on the previous level. This gives the designers a chance
to have a lot of fun with different puzzle types. There are quizzes,
board games, and even – a Nancy Drew first – a real-time rendered
3D sequence! Okay, it’s a maze, but still, it’s kind of cool!

The second way the museum
setting pays off in the puzzle department is it creates many opportunities
for very organic situational puzzles. Nancy has to break into computers,
rifle through notebooks, repair exhibits, hack a cb radio, etc. In
fact, early in the game, Nancy is working off a list of tasks she’s
supposed to accomplish. When each task is completed she can cross
it off of the list. Tantalizing shades of RPG game play . . .

A real-time maze? Hmm .
. . A “quest” list? Hmm . . . The game is full of little
touches like that that really perk up the player’s interest.

A QUESTION OF CHARACTER

The
characters are more solid this time around. It’s a motley collection
of interestingly flawed folks, each of whom may or may not be on the
level with Nancy. I particularly liked Nancy’s boss, the museum’s
chief administrator. She’s a woman in a tight spot, the circumstances
of which are actually quite believable.

Visually, the characters
are improved as well. They’re varied and interesting. And for the
first time in the series, the “hunk” character is actually,
well, a hunk.

Two character elements
in the game I particularly liked. First, for a big chunk of the game,
almost all of the characters are offstage, and Nancy has the museum
(seemingly, at least) entirely to herself. This was a bit of a daring
game design decision, but the game makers really pull it off. The
other is the fact that one of the most interesting characters in the
game is never seen or heard – he’s the young man Nancy is replacing
in the internship. Perhaps I’m prejudiced, however. It turns out the
kid has great tastes in game websites . . .

AMNESIA? THERE GOES
MY CAREER!

Nancy’s
story isn’t limited to the museum. Using the handy Washington Metro,
she tears around town with ease, visiting several locations connected
to the main story.

Perhaps the most entertaining
challenge Nancy has to face in the game is the daunting project of
helping to reconstruct another character’s memory. After a suspicious
“accident” at the museum, a vital figure in the story has
the key to the mystery locked in his head, and it’s up to Nancy to
help uncover it.

One other excellent sequence
has Nancy locked in a very creepy enclosed space armed only with a
small flashlight. The player has to navigate with only a small area
of the screen visible as Nancy moves the light around. It’s quite
effective.

I have only two mild qualms
about the game. First, the game menus are still clunky, clunky, clunky.
It takes waaaaay too many keystrokes to save a game and get back to
playing. Also, I still wish the Nancy Drew games could involve the
player having to actually make a choice about who the culprit is,
á la Clue. Actually, the second game in the series, “Stay
Tuned for Danger,” attempted this. I’m not suggesting some random
shuffled-choice bad guy (which truly ruined the end of the otherwise
excellent mystery adventure Ripper),
but some choice the player has to declare the perpetrator in some
meaningful way. It’s a small dream, but it’s my dream . . .

This
is very minor quibbling, however. From start to finish, this is a
dandy of a game. Lovers of adventure games who’ve maybe stayed away
from this series because they think these games are “for kids”
might want to take this opportunity to check out what HerInteractive
is doing. This isn’t just an excellent Nancy Drew game, it’s an excellent
adventure game, period.

(1) Okay, it’s
true. I feel like Nancy Drew almost all of the time. Even when I’m
playing Diablo.

Final Grade:
A

System Requirements:

Windows 95, 98, ME, or
2000 Professional
166 MHz Processor
16 MB RAM
42 MB available hard disk space
16 Bit color graphics video card that’s compatible with direct X
6 or higher.
8x CD-ROM drive
16 Bit compatible sound card
A pointing device and speakers

This
review is copyright Ray Ivey and Just Adventure and
may not be republished elsewhere without the express written consent
of the author. Republication of said review must also contain a link
back to Just Adventure.