Hi Boomers!

I'm curious what you all thought of the game.

I found it nicely sentimental and I loved the letters from Kate and the dialogue between Nancy and her dad at the credits.

The puzzles were pretty good too.

I've moved your post over to Adventure Game Discussions and look forward to hearing what other players thought of the game, too.

Ok Marian

I played the Ghost of Thornton Hall just before, and I liked that one so much, that I was a little sad to leave Blackrock Island for Glasgow. I find Nancy does her best job in old dusty mansions

The sentimental aspect was nice, but Nancy's usual lack of emotional response was a bit weird here. She discovers terrible truths about her family and the voice acting doesn't reflect that. Meeting Moira should also be an intense experience, yet Nancy doesn't seem to go through any strong feelings about that either. (Don't want to explain more to avoid spoilers.) I think the ND series should have stayed away from that storyline, it just doesn't suit the gameplay.

Having only dad and Ned to phone is not very fun either, especially after Deirdre and Savannah in the two previous games. OK dad was needed because of the context, but Ned is a very boring boyfriend (sorry Ned^^).

Now the game itself was captivating, I must say, always something to solve, codes to crack, as you mentioned, the puzzles are good, and very pleasant graphics.
A shame there aren't any fake passers-by in the train station: it feels a little depressing, empty like that, like the metro in Japan in Shadow at water's edge did.

OK I didn't mean to be this negative, the game is really entertaining, even though it won't be one of my favourite (I need my spooky manors :D).

Thanks for letting us know what you thought of the game, Ana_Wolf.

I find myself in agreement with Ana_wolf in many ways, after playing The Silent Spy - hi Ana I found it an enjoyable game in the main, and I think maybe the game designers were trying to get away from the usual format perhaps, with mixed results. I agree with Ana that Nancy's voice acting did seem flat and inexpressive, particularly with the subject matter, although I think she redeemed herself to some degree at the end, reading the letter and remembering her mother. However, I have been getting the feeling over the last few games that Lani Minella who voices the heroine is rather going through the motions nowadays? Or are her pre-recorded phrases getting recycled throughout the series and have to be more neutral in tone? I found the puzzles were certainly up to their usual truly fiendish level and surprisingly enjoyable. The locations though, although nicely presented, did seem somewhat limited. I also didn't really get into the whole spying thing and I felt that some of the background could have been better filled out. Also, why Glasgow? There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for it - unless it was for the US gamers to have a trip to Scotland. And there didn't seem to be anything particularly Scottish about the place apart from the food stall, it could have been set anywhere. One of the locations was an old country inn but there wasn't much to do or see there. I did quite enjoy the cookie chore, and my son did too! However, this just felt like a disconnected activity that had been inserted to fulfil the purpose of earning money for chores and there was no explanation, so it didn't tie into the whole story very well. And that I think characterises the game for me, it seemed put together from individual elements that didn't quite mesh that well. All in all, it ticked most of the boxes for the Nancy Drew format, but I feel it could have been fleshed out better and the locations been more interesting and varied.

Hi, Vegpot!
You are very right about the local aspect. I was all "yay, Scotland!", expecting to see more of it than haggis being mentioned on the food stand's menu . We only got to hear a bit of Scotland in the voices. Those promising destinations at the train station lead to nothing than static pictures of landscapes we can't explore. No, wait, there was the bagpipe, haha!

That's why I prefer the ND games to be set in one place where you can snoop around, explore, open doors and feel generally more free (like Blackmoor manor) than that deceiving illusion of variety (train station in Glasgow, metro in France or Japan, probably others I'm forgetting).
Also, because there will usually be four "local" characters, it's probably best to keep them in one space, that way if feels more "lively". I felt bad for poor Alec, stuck to his wall like the guard of a forgotten army, I wish we could have at least gotten him a cup of coffee from the food stand or something

Yes Ana, I also think ND works best in a smaller localized setting where there are more detailed areas with locked doors to open, nooks and crannies to explore, secret areas and people to find. Saying that though, am I right in thinking she did travel around a fair bit in The Secret of Shadow Ranch, but I feel that the game designers did that a lot better job of fleshing that out as it was based in the States rather than bonnie Scotland! I would say that in general the US based ND games do often have a more complete feel to them. I remember finding the Phantom of Venice a real bore, the travelling especially so, and for me it was another one that could have been set anywhere. I wonder how the next adventure will pan out!