Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill

The Good
I played this game three times mainly to see the differences between the 3 difficulty levels. You can choose to be a Junior Detective, a Senior or Master Detective. The gameplay was the same for all levels and the story remained the same. Only a very small portion changed between them.

As is usual within the adventure genre, many of the important puzzles involve talking to the other characters within the game. Nancy must really interrogate her suspects without giving away the fact that she is, in fact, investigating a murder. This was handled very well with the topics you could choose from. The dialog with everyone moves the plot along and gives her clues about the crime and the other suspects.

In addition to an interesting story, the puzzles were good too. This game is full of word and letter puzzles. Anagrams and cryptograms galore, they range from very easy to medium in difficulty. You'll also find one pretty easy slider puzzle and several puzzles that involve finding passwords, including one in Braille! What I found nice, especially since I played it more than once, was the fact that solving the word puzzles was not necessary to complete the game. (You work them on paper - not as interactive parts of the game.) The first time through you'll want to try to complete as many as you can to get enough clues about the case.

The scenery and locations were drawn very nicely in 2D. The characters looked surprisingly realistic in their two-dimensional form as well and they used body language when they talked. The voiceover actors did a fine job and portrayed their characters very well. The lip-sync, too, was well-done, although not perfect.

The music is different than in the other games in the series, which was a good thing. I had grown tired of the other melody, so I was happy to hear something new. But, it did become repetitive at times. Sound effects were done well and sounded the way they were intended.

The Bad
There were a few things I didn't like about the game, but none of them really interfered with an enjoyable experience.

There was not enough difference between the difficulty levels. Playing the game as a Junior was exactly like the Senior. The Master Detective level only had one puzzle different.

Phone calls to Nancy's friends are short and to the point. Nancy asks for a hint and they give it, true, but without much other interaction. (In later games you can get a feel for their personalities, but not in this game.)

The interface was a bit sluggish. Clicking on the proper spot to make choices in conversation mode and on the Main Menu was harder than it needed to be.

There was quite a bit of disc-swapping. Start the game every time with CD1 and for one specific location, you must swap discs.

Another common trait with the latter Nancy Drew games is the limited number of save game slots.

The Bottom Line
This is the first Nancy Drew mystery made for the personal computer. Although this one is not as well designed as some of the later "issues", it is still a very good and interesting game. It is perfect for younger players and older folks too, making it enjoyable for the whole family.