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Sunday, November 02, 2008 |
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Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy
By Sheep @ 5:59 PM :: 1628 Views ::  :: PC
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First, let's just be clear on something: video games developed specifically for girls have never been that great. In fact, they're usually terrible. It's as if people saw the opportunity to sell over simplified, trite games to a whole new market and ignored all aspects of quality control. As long as you tie a big pink bow on top of a box of used kitty litter, girls everywhere will spend their parents' money to have it, right? Luckily Her Interactive, the creator's of the latest Nancy Drew mystery game (titled the Haunting of Castle Malloy) completely disregard this philosophy and released a game that is both entertaining and challenging, while not catering to the lowest common denominator.
Fans of point and click adventure games will find a lot to enjoy here. It’s full of classic puzzle solving (slide puzzles included) and clue gathering which has you interviewing various characters throughout the castle. The game begins as you travel to Ireland to attend your friend’s wedding. Driving to the gate, you have a brief encounter with some type of ghostly form and soon find out that the groom is actually missing. It's up to you to locate the groom while learning more about the castle's many mysteries. As you progress, you uncover more information and shed light on many of the seemingly supernatural elements at work. Of course, this being a family friendly game, the plot never becomes too ominous and younger players should still be able to fall asleep after turning it off at night. Minutes into the game, I was already exploring the castle, interviewing the different characters, and searching for new items to use, which was actually a lot of fun. The puzzles start off simple enough, but became increasingly challenging. I was playing on the lower difficulty setting, Junior Detective, and found a few areas to be troublesome. While some areas definitely tested my patience, I never really became frustrated. The higher difficulty isn’t necessarily a bad thing; I was actually pleased the developers wanted to challenge players instead of making it too easy. However, very young players might need some extra assistance if playing on their own. The overall slower pace of these types of games should also be kept in mind; it's the type of game you can sit down and enjoy without worrying about fast reflexes or hand-eye coordination.
The basic formula of Nancy Drew stays true to the point and click genre, which makes it very easy to pick up and play. For those younger players or others new to the genre, the developers have included an extensive tutorial, which is helpful. The game’s interface and menu system are very clean and easy to use as well. Castle Malloy’s graphics are adequate and succeed by not looking too generic or boring; I can quickly become disinterested with similar games that feature mostly static backgrounds so I appreciated the level of detail employed here. Nothing ground breaking, but it gets the job done. I enjoyed the music quite a bit, which had an appropriate Irish flavor to it. The sound effects and music together help create an eerie atmosphere and add to the overall sense of mystery.
The Haunting of Castle Malloy is number nineteen in the Nancy Drew series and already joins the previous installments as a best selling game. Admittedly, I haven't play a Nancy Drew game before this one and was dumbfounded to find the titles often topping the best sellers list when released. The entire Nancy Drew phenomenon became a running joke on Medispective as it dominated much higher profile titles every week. After playing the game, however, I can see why these titles are so successful. While not necessarily pushing the envelope, Her Interactive has created a game that gives the player an interesting environment, quality writing, and quite a challenge within the confines of the point and click adventure genre. Girls and guys alike can find much to enjoy in this game. My wife, who rarely plays video games, was able to jump right in and start playing after going through the short tutorial. She actually liked the fact you only used the mouse and working to solve some of the puzzles collaboratively was actually more fun than playing solo. Nancy Drew’s classic, solid game play should appeal to any open-minded individual looking for an entertaining and challenging mystery adventure game for twenty dollars.
8 out of 10
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