The Deadly Device
is the 27th Nancy Drew adventure from developers Her
Interactive.
In this most recent outing Nancy
is hired by Victor Losset, co-owner of the “Technology of Tomorrow
Today” research facility, to investigate the death of physicist Niko
Jovic. Electrocuted while working on the Tesla coil and believed by all
to have been murdered, the case has gone cold and it is up to Nancy to
solve the mystery.
Hmm?
First and foremost, where am I?
I think I must have ended up in the seventh circle with no available
exit and no sunscreen. What I have in my hands is The Deadly Device,
which I feel I must award the gold medal for Most Fiendishly Difficult &
Unapologetically Tricksy. In fact, I'm going to need a larger medal just
to fit all of the letters on.
Yes, I do believe that this
might well be the most challenging Nancy Drew adventure released to
date. A ten-year-old child would agree with me. (Someone run out and
find me a ten-year-old child, I can't make head nor tail out of it!)
The story is not immediately
complex from the outset: a physicist dies on-site under suspicious
circumstances, with the finger pointed squarely at a colleague who
denies any involvement. All of the characters that we meet are defensive
and abrasive; they dislike one another, and are quite often obnoxiously
rude to poor Nancy who, after all, is only trying to do her job. Albeit
in a furtively undercover manner, as is her wont. There seems more
dialogue too, than usual, and via scattered books a great deal to read
and digest.
Locations are restricted to the
research facility, which to the player will comprise of two floors
accessible by elevator with several offices and laboratories, a lounge
area and, well, that's pretty much it. There are no exterior scenes. The
game feels claustrophobic in that regard, and perhaps that was the
developer's intention. The plot unravels slowly with a lot of necessary
to-and-froing in the process, and repeated alternating from day to night
and vice versa in order to move things along. I quite frequently found
myself at a dead end and unsure of where to go or what to do. Peeking at
a walkthrough confirmed that, alone, I would never have come up with the
solutions to certain puzzles or stages, for their processes seemed
illogical. For me, personally, the gameplay was not as flowing and
therefore less immersive than I might have liked.
The graphics are of a good
standard, as always, with expressive facial animations and excellent
voice work by the actors. Nancy's phone is bombarded throughout the game
with texts from Ned, who is in full-on “dopey” mode. I could have done
without them.
The gamer has the initial choice
of an Amateur or Master level of play. Amateur provides a full task list
with hints and slightly easier puzzles. The Master's puzzles are more
challenging, offering no hints with only a basic task list.
Game play is in first person
point and click as all previous games in the series. There are full
subtitles and unlimited save slots. Your character can die, but there is
the welcome Second Chance feature to back you up to try again.
.....Hmm
This being a Nancy Drew
adventure, you can bet your last penny that there will be timed puzzles
of some description. There are several. A coloured tile puzzle is a
particular challenge, the timed aspect of which can be stalled briefly
by leaving the area to repeat a diversion before returning to continue
where you left off. There is a timed maze, and a lever/light puzzle to
tackle.
There is a “beat the high score”
mini game, which thankfully has no set time limit. There are colour and
sound puzzles, but no sliders. We are given circuit boards to mess with
and various binary whosits to mangle. We operate machinery, combine
chemicals and do our best to not blow up the facility or scorch our
eyebrows. I didn't want mine anyway.
Hmm!
The Deadly Device
installed with no issues, and played perfectly without any noticeable
bugs or glitches.
Overall, this is an ideal
adventure for those who enjoy their puzzles on the demanding side of the
spectrum, with a patience for timed puzzles and an acceptance of playing
within a small, contained environment.
Grade: B
I played on:
Windows 7 Home Premium SP1
AMD A6-3650 APU @ 2.60GHz
4.00 GB of RAM
Radeon HD 6530D Graphics
GameBoomers Review Guidelines
November 2012
design copyright©
2012
GameBoomers
Group
