Haunted
Carousel
Developer: HerInteractive
Publisher: Atari
Every time I hear the theme music start up for another new Nancy
Drew title, I wonder if this one will entertain or has the series
worn out it’s welcome on my PC?
As a fictional character, Nancy Drew has been winning over fans and
readers since the 1930’s. This series may not continue even remotely
that long. Hopefully, way before then we will be able to play a holo
deck version of Nancy Drew and other adventures. But for a series
comprised of eight games with a ninth due out soon. HerInteractive
has done an amazing job of keeping the series going without becoming
contrived or predictable. In fact each game has had its share of
subtle innovation and advancement. Over time, HerInteractive has
deftly honed their product. The overall good news is: Yep, Nancy
Drew still has the capacity to charm and our fearless detective is
still going strong. So what mystery has she gotten mixed up in this
time?
In Haunted Carousel, Nancy finds herself embroiled in the mysterious
events surrounding an amusement park. The park, owned by her new
client, has seen more than it’s share of unexplained events. There
is the theft of a valuable antique carved horse. Odd malfunctions of
other equipment persist and a whole host of annoyances occur. Then
there is the mystery surrounding the vintage carousel at the heart
of this tale. While ghostly music echoes through the park, it starts
up for no apparent reason. As if that wasn’t enough, the roller
coaster shuts down one day, full of passengers. The powers that be
react to this last event by temporarily closing the park. It will
not be cleared to re-open until the cause of the calamities can be
discovered. However, this may be easier said than done. The park is
supposedly haunted, by the dark and moody spirit of the artisan, who
created the carousel and carved its amazing horses. So is the
Carousel truly haunted? Or are the culprits of an earthly variety?
These mysteries and more await Nancy and will require all her skills
and caution.
Graphics and Ambient sounds
The graphics and ambient effects have always been a plus for these
games. Even better, each successive game has edged the mark a little
higher. Haunted Carousel has kept pace with higher graphics
capabilities, improved the eye candy portion of the game and managed
to keep requisite hardware demands at a very accommodating level.
This game loads and plays well on XP and W98. I also noted subtle
improvements in the characters, their movements and their fit into
the background environments. The pre-rendered look to the places and
interactive areas was very easy on the eye. The close up puzzle
views have always been well executed – even going back to the very
first game. Haunted Carousel is no exception.
The sound quality was another plus factor for the game. There were
audio clues that added to the atmosphere and the game play. The
music when the Carousel started up was old fashioned and spooky at
times. These side sounds are woven into the game play subtly and
never over power the game play or environment.
Characters
This game had more credible suspects and a greater variety of NPC
types and voices. I liked the increased interaction very much. Nancy
Drew games have a wide age base that it draws gamers from and they
are not always the toughest games. But this one had a variety of
suspicious characters, all with very good motive to cause minor
trouble and perhaps more sinister ills. We have a mild mannered
bookkeeper Joy. But is she as mousy as she seems? Her life is tied
the park in a variety of ways and she may indeed be secretly seeking
revenge for real or imagined wrongs. Then there is the park
designer. An engineer, she certainly possesses the means to create
all sorts of havocs. We have a young art designer – who certainly
seems to be hiding quite a bit and a security guard with a murky
background. Who knows – it could even be Nancy’s client herself. All
of the main characters were detailed and I actually had more than
one or two suspects in mind as I played through the game. The voice
talent seemed a notch above some of the past games – though none of
the games are really lacking in this area. I think that character
development has improved in this newest game and is a big plus to
the game play.
The Plot Thickens
I have some fave games from the series. The Royal Treasure, Haunted
Mansion and Ghost Dogs satisfied on many levels. But I think that
Haunted Carousel creates the best whodunit plot of the series. There
are plenty of red herrings and real plot mini-twists that bedevil
you. Even fairly close to the end of the game, I had doubts about
several of the suspects and had not really narrowed the field to
just one person. One minor grievance is I think this game would
have benefited from more attention to the back-story. I would have
liked a bit more story about the creator of the carousel and the
history of the park. However I enjoyed the sleuthing very much in
this game. One thing that tickled me and provided great side fun was
the incidents where Nancy could get “fired”. I can’t recall in past
games, instances where she could mess up and get canned. Killed
maybe – but not fired. I have to admit, I started looking for ways
to mess up, just to see how it would work out. Great touch of humor
to the game and a more realistic plot device. If this was an
experimental trial run for this plot device, it’s a keeper for
future games. It’s a whole adventure in itself.
Puzzles
There was a wide mix of puzzles in this game. For the most part,
they were challenging, but true to the spirit and format of the
game. Much of the puzzles were hands on and logically integrated to
the game design and flow. This doesn't translate to easy and you had
to think in practical terms how to get past some of them. With the
exception of the Barnacle Blaster, I enjoyed them. The other arcade
puzzles were somewhat reminiscent of the interactive games in Final
Scene. They were not truly arcade games – but puzzles to figure
out. There were some locked doors, but since this was an amusement
park – not a "Haunted Mansion”, they were practical challenges. I
thoroughly enjoyed the mix in Haunted Carousel.
I do have to comment on the Barnacle Blaster, the one true arcade
type puzzle in the game. I went “uh oh!” as soon as I laid eyes on
it. I am sure that the people who love this type of in game
challenge will all surface as soon as this review gets published.
But on a personal note – they make me crazy. It’s pure twitch
stuff. I play shooters and I have never felt as coordination
encumbered as when trying to beat an arcade duck shoot, asteroids or
pong game. I dearly wish there had been a work around for this
puzzle. That being whined about, the one saving grace for this gamer
is that you could save after beating either or both levels But I
made absolutely sure I saved after each level. I can swear that even
the thought of having to do any part of that again leaves me
exhausted. I am not sure what the feedback has been on this
particular challenge, but I am hoping that this type of puzzle that
will not pop up in the next Nancy Drew title.
How are They Doing?
This makes my 9th journey with Nancy and friends. It was fun; it
charmed and was just classic Nancy Drew. Like any forward thinking
developer, HerInteractive has introduced some changes, a little
tweaking here and there. One of the nicest surprises was when I
suddenly realized there were now an expanded number of save slots. I
am not sure if they were unlimited, I only used 12 – but having more
than the traditional eight was a great improvement for the game
play.
I also liked the re-appearance of the map navigational feature they
used in Ghost Dogs for the lake excursions. In H.C. to get from
location to location you just walk until the map auto loads. I can
tolerate aimless running back and forth in a good game – but I was
happy to see this aspect of gaming eliminated. My only regret about
this feature is that I didn’t get to see as much of the environments
as I would have liked. I know – it sounds weird – first I praise the
map movement feature and then say I wished there was more roaming.
What I missed was not so much the roaming in between areas, but the
walking around within the areas themselves. I liked walking through
the paths around the house in Ghost Dog. I enjoyed strolling through
the theatre in Final Scene and looking at the pictures and reading a
bit of the theatres history. In Haunted Carousel, I felt much more
constrained and almost as if I were back in a slide show mode at
times. I would liked to have seen a little more of the park itself
and then have the map feature available to avoid old ground. Would
have been nice to see more of the Haunted House rides and the hotel.
Making the map interface an optional feature, rather than an auto
load could, have eliminated this sense of being overly contained. Of
course this would also create a need to build additional areas for
minor strolling in future games – so it may not be feasible. This
game did fall on the shorter side of game length in contrast to
prior titles and it may have been the reduction in environmental
space that contributed to this.
There were also some new tools of the trade to use in this game.
Where in the past Nancy had her telephone, in this game we also have
our trusted laptop. It was cute checking your email and “Sassy
Detective” tips of the day. There was also a clever puzzle that
involved Nancy’s all time buds, George and Bess. I won’t say more
and give away the puzzle – but your friends are more active than in
the past. Of course we have Frank and Joe Hardy making an encore
appearance for help over the phone. Another nice change was that
when you ran across new numbers they auto loaded into Nancy’s phone.
I didn’t miss having to re-enter those numbers every time.
So how did they do? In short, they did well. The graphics,
characters, game play, innovations and ambiance all added up to a
captivating time with my favorite girl sleuth. There were a few
items that I thought could have been left out or improved – but
nothing that gave me real pause. I would give the Haunted
Carousel a solid B rating.
PC Specs of Reviewer
I played this on XP
System OS XP
Pent. 4 CPU 2.6 GHz
512 RAM
SB Live
GeForce FX 5200 video card
Also installed and tested it briefly on W98SE and all went
perfectly.
design copyright ©
2004
GameBoomers
Group
