#i never caught that with Mickey Malone's front business he's literally LAUNDERING MONEY

[argonianprince]

I see you talk all the time about the Nancy Drew games, and I’ve heard great things about them but have no clue what the actual gameplay is like. Could you describe what the games are like? And would you recommend them for someone who’s into narrative and puzzle games?

AAAAAH my very first ask!!! Thank you!!! :DDD

I'm happy to chatter about these games!! Is definitely recommend them to someone who likes narrative and puzzle games. They are very character heavy, as in you learn more about each suspect and their motives during the game by talking to people directly and also asking them about each other. You untangle the story as you go. The puzzles are very varied in type (from sudoku to chess to reflex/motor skill games), and have two levels of difficulty, which you pick at the start of the games. There are game-ending events, but afterwards you are just deposited right back to before you made the error, so it's not too stressful when you fall to your death/drown/offend someone so hard they kick you off the property, etc. Except for some cutscenes (which are used very effectively-- rare enough to be impactful), you control where Nancy goes and when. In some mystery and hidden object games I've played, you get one view of each place you go (like having one visual of a living room from which you do everything in that room, but it's okay because Sherlock Holmes has x-ray vision apparently), whereas in ND games there's typically multiple angles at which to pick through every scene, getting to look behind furniture, hallways look different depending on which end you enter from, which I think is really cool. So the basic structure is you have 4 suspects to talk to, plus you can phone friends as an in-game hint system, and you solve mysteries in this universe where everyone keeps essential items you need in sliding-puzzle lockboxes.

One thing that really sets them apart though is the educational component. Every game has at least one topic related to the setting that you can read up on in-game, and it's genuinely good information presented in a fun way. Since like age 15 I've known that port means the left side of the boat, and the basics of how fire insurance works, and what stenography looks like, because of these games. As well as like.. how to spot some of the signs that a guy might be a creeper. Role models of successful women in positions of power. All while having funny and touching and interesting dialogue and things to read.

But yeah I'd VERY recommend these games. Just not the very first one or the very last one. Secrets Can Kill was before they had really perfected the formula, and Midnight in Salem is from after the company was under new management and the whole thing was outsourced to people in Russia or something. But they go on discount during steam sales so if you end up liking them, I'd suggest waiting for those to get the bulk of them when they're all half off. Let me know if you'd like a rec for a starting point?? And if you try any let me know how you like them plz? :D

Honestly since I grew up with these it's hard to find games that measure up. There's really good walking simulators, but they don't have puzzles really, and there's decent mystery games, but except for a few like Scratches and And Then There Were None they tend to be ariel view, less intuitive controls, less engaging. Artifex Mundi games are fun, they are hidden object mysteries, but the plots tend to be thin and they have a limited array of puzzle types. I dunno, after a game series makes you practice typing at a certain words per minute speed and teaches you Chinese checkers and Roman numerals, for everything else it's like, okay but what are these other games doing to expand my world and exercise my brain cells? xp And the writing is very good and very funny, my partner is catching subtle jokes I never saw in all this time and it's great