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This new Nancy Drew game in the series is called the The Phantom of Venice. The interface is the same which you will recognize if you have played some of the other games in the series. You begin in Nancy’s room. She then explains to the different options for the game.
The beginning of the story is told through a flashback. The player is then given an incentive to finish the game. It is an easy to play point and click adventure. There isn’t a learning curve and as long as you can read and click you can play it. It also has an ESRB rating of E for Everyone without any content descriptors, So it is pretty mild considering it is a mystery.
The plot has various twists thrown in as the game progresses. There is the fun of snooping around. And you get to reveal the skeletons that characters are hiding in their closets. The puzzles are fairly easy to moderate. The plot seems almost like it is getting you to acting like a spy film.
The game is short and linear. With only about eight to ten hours of play time. The theme song from the previous games was back. It had a bit of an upgrade to it also. The graphics are fair and there is some improvement. However they aren’t very good at all compared to other games. Adventure games are making a comeback. We are going to see adventure games and casual games out for every movie and game show.
The casual games genre is expanding. The little short cuts like putting up stills, or cartoons instead of animations aren’t going to cut it for much longer. Big developers are starting to notice that long standing statistic that 80% of mystery book and media consumers are women. Women have very high expectations for things like graphics and other details. Even though a long term franchise like Nancy Drew is pretty safe, to bet on for marketing, other competitors are now out for the same girl powered demographic.
Character movement can be choppy. As far as graphic quality and animation, you get the feeling that this game didn’t have much budget. It is a real mistake of developers to rush through games that are designed for women and girls. Gamers expect games in a franchise to improve each time they come out.
The voice acting was not too bad. There isn’t much actual character interaction. But it does give the details about each character in a clever way. The facial animations while the characters were speaking were ok.
The ending of the game is somewhat challenging. All the steps must be completed to finish. Players could be left guessing who did it because the usual misdirection points the finger at each suspect along the way. There are a few moments of suspense.
There are very few flaws in the game itself. It’s fun and interesting and it is a solid average point and click mystery which you can’t go wrong with as a gift or a diversion for yourself. I give Nancy Drew: The Phantom of Venice a 6.5 out of 10.
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