You are a vampire seeking to be made mortal again. In your pursuit of mortality, you wind up becoming a top-notch vampire with incredible skill and power. It's rather ironic that you go thru so much trouble just to throw it all away for the sake of becoming human again and spending your remaining life with the one you love.
The game has all sorts of fun things to do, such as buying furniture and accessories for your residence which you can decorate to taste and buying clothes and dressing up. You can even choose what colors you want for the various parts of your outfits. In addition, you get to choose from a variety of pets, skeletons, and spirits as well as some pretty wicked transportation. There is plenty of variety.
The story is somewhat weak, yet it still entertains and amuses as you play along. The only thing that can become somewhat tedious is completing all the professions and learning all the magic, courses, spells, etc. Even still, you are sufficiently motivated by all the things you can buy. Game play lasted about 6 hours for me so that's a pretty decent amount of playtime for what you pay. No complaints here.
I definitely recommend this game and the bonus is that it's a great game for all ages.
This game has an excellent storyline. There's nothing that will make you jump out of your seat, but it has such a wonderful immersive feel and manages to pique and hold your interest.
The mini games and HOS are fun and not too hard and anyone on a beginner or intermediate level should be able to handle them. For expert level players, the games will be very easy, but fun, and you will most likely be enthralled with the story to the extent you don't mind the simplicity. The only thing about the HOS I didn't like was the hazy effect which strains the eyes ever so slightly. If you play casual mode, you can skip what you don't like and for the HOS you have the Match 3 option which isn't my particular taste, but it's nice that the option is there.
The graphics are beautiful but the animation could have been a bit smoother. The voice-overs were decent. Regardless of how you feel about them, they don't detract from enjoying the game and mercifully you have the ability to speed them up without losing any tidbit of the story.
Progression in the game is fairly straight forward. While it is linear in nature, you don't really mind it; and yes, there is some going back and forth, but it's not excessive. It would have been nice if there was a map, but again it's not like it took a lot to move from one place to another.
Over all, a very enjoyable game that really does entertain and leave you with a sense of satisfaction. You won't regret buying it. I have the CE version and while it is nice, the SE is probably the better deal. I say this because the epilogue bonus play is entertaining, but not necessary to the story. Total play time was about 4 hours for everything.
I've played them all in order of release, and I seriously must say, this is by far the worst ND game of them all.
The interface was convoluted and clunky, the mini games were basically the same few games with increasing difficulty.
The story was .. so so and about the only saving grace was the character personalities, voice-overs, and avatar graphics.
I do NOT recommend this game to anyone, but especially to not for people who have grown accustomed to the former style of ND games - this will be a huge disappointment.
Discover the city of Apothecarium, where inhabitants are caught in a perilous struggle against a powerful alchemist who is taking the lives of innocent!
I loved the graphics, (not the animations) but lets be honest., the voice acting was atrocious to the point of making me cringe.
The story was vague and just didn't draw me in. The thing about this game is the fun of exploring and solving puzzles which it does a really good job of doing.
Progress is mostly intuitive with a few really bad black holes that leave you scratching your head trying to figure out what to do next. These usually occur where the hotspots are fickle. What compounds those situations is that even the hint function is useless when you need it most.
Overall I enjoyed playing this game. It's a fairly good length game that can keep you entertained even if you completely ignore the vague story and non existent plot.
I've been playing all the ND games in order of release. I can honestly say it was incredibly refreshing to finally have a navigation system that didn't make your blood boil. FINALLY! HURRAY!
Fun Factor: I'd say it wasn't captivating, but I still enjoyed the game (after ignoring the short-comings). I got about 2 hours game play out of this one. There were waaaay too many translations but I could look past that b/c it was an Egyptian tomb and it wouldn't be quite right if you could just read everything. Most of the mini games just didn't grab my attention. Dialogs between characters were often long-winded and severely hampered progress momentum. Skip buttons not available for anything (very annoying!)
Visual/Sound: Visuals were decent, voice acting was spot on, and sound was pretty good. Overall well done.
Level of Challenge: I would say this had an ok mix of games and such, but more geared for beginner and intermediate level. Game play flow wasn't quite as intuitive as it could have been but like so many prior ND games, typically all you needed was to go run around and talk to people or call people on the phone to get back on track. Note system still......insufficient.
Storyline: This was a disappointment. While it was refreshing to see history taking more of a front seat again (which is a wonderful trademark of the early ND games), due to interface changes there was no story introduction (no case file!) and you are ultimately thrown in the mix not knowing what's going on.
Overall I found it to be moderately entertaining and quite frankly one of the better ND games if for no other reason than the navigation was much better than usual LOL. It's fine for something to distract yourself with and pass the time.
Ive been playing all the ND games in order of release. Yet another ND game plagued by terrible Navigation and oh joy it's so much fun to visit the same 4 places over and over and over again. YAY. (yawn).
Fun Factor: Initially you get excited thinking oooh I'll get to run around town and interact all over the place. NOT SO! You will run back and forth to Nancy's House, the Police station, the ice cream shop and the antique store. It was fun getting to play various characters at first, but then it began to get a little irritating having to bounce back and forth. Anyhow, much of the story depends heavily upon triggers and usually that is resolved by just playing round robin with talking to people, although there are one or two triggers such as the alarm in the town hall that you must find if you don't want to scream in frustration and hit a dead end on leads. I am grateful that this time they didn't make us drive the cars.
Visual/ Sound: Visuals were OK, and voice-overs were ok I guess.
Challenge: not very challenging. In fact the biggest challenge was setting off triggers to progress the story. There weren't very many puzzles and only the very last maze proved to be a challenge.
Storyline: I liked this storyline. The last several ND games have been just terrible in this department and it was such a nice relief to see a well done storyline and a half-way decent plot.
I would recommend this game but caution you that patience will be needed. It's an Ok game for passing the time.
Everyone is frightened by the sights and sounds of something large stumbling through the darkness. Can you solve the mystery before the monster adds another chapter to this legend?
Ive been playing all the ND games in order of release and I really must say that at this point the navigation issues just leave me perplexed. How is it that so many of them have horrific navigation? The interior of the castle of was more like some demented puzzle box which only made the navigation more cumbersome.
Fun Factor: not much. The nav system killed any fun to be had. I did enjoy the board game tho and that was about it. There was too much dialogue and often times the game would get hung up on waiting for you to trigger something. So essentially, you spend a lot of time running around like a chicken with your head cut off with very little reward for your efforts.
Visual / Sound: the graphics were actually well done for the most part, but the voice-overs were awful. The only one I like was Markus.
Level of Challenge: Her Interactive needs to learn that terrible nav systems aren't the type of challenge game players want. The board game was fun but there wasn't really much in the way puzzles and such in this game.
Storyline: Very Shallow with no satisfying closure at the end.
Sorry, I really cannot recommend this game and I seriously do not understand why it received so many rave reviews. If you are a big ND fan, wait for a 2 for 1 sale or something.
Ive been doing all the ND games in order of release, and this one is just wonderful. I really enjoyed playing it and the biggest miracle was that navigation was fairly decent this time around!
I would like to point out, this game is premised on a "Japanese" theme, so it stands to follow that there will be themed puzzles and such in the game - the robotic cat is an example.
Fun Factor : Loads of fun here and all nicely themed puzzles and games. In addition, game time freezes while you are doing them. YaY! I personally love Sudoku, and Nanograms are easy enough, but I did need a walkthrough to complete the Nonograms. The puzzle box was a headache tho. The Pachinko game is fun at first, but does get a little boring after the first round, so fire them all off as fast as you can and just let the odds work in your favor. There are some frightening challenges to get your heart pounding as well.
Visual / Sound : Awesome! The sound effects and music perfectly set the mood and help to immerse you. The graphics are really good and at times will give you a a good scare! LOL Voice acting was .. ok. Only Miwaka sounded right and the rest.. really bad impersonations.
Level of Challenge : Overall, there is plenty to keep you busy and difficulty ranges from novice to expert level. Upside, you get to use the amazing train system, but the downside is you can only travel to 4 locations. No sight seeing which was a real disappointment. Once you manage to navigate your way to each destination, the next time around it will auto nav for you (thank goodness!)
Storyline : Ok, so here is one of the weak spots of the game. There was sooo much they could have done with this, but didn't. The story isn't really that great, and the side story is just.. bland and leaves you scratching your head in confusion. The Historical and cultural components were fun, but left so much out. For some reason after the 10th ND game, the historical / educational components went severely downhill and seems to just get progressively worse. Fortunately, this game offers so many other perks that you can overlook the pathetic storyline and still enjoy it.
This is one of the best ND games as far as immersion goes and I would highly recommend this game! If you are a novice to ND games, you may want to start with one of the easier games first so you can get a feel for how ND games work.
Ive been playing all the ND games in order, and this one is the worst. I've come to expect the constant horrible navigation that plagues nearly every single ND game, but this one really took it to the limits of my patience. Just moving around the house was bad enough, but driving the car and finding your way around the roads was just awful. The roads were deliberately set up to be maze-like for no other reason than to be a time sink and ..to be irritating!
Fun Factor : The only part I considered fun was playing the Land Rush game.. until I realized I would have to play it until I had 9999 Pa Pennies just to purchase the mystery box. OMG.. Just ridiculous! The game overflowed with constant annoyances. I didn't like any of the character personalities, and worse, the person who was made into the villain.. wasn't really a villain. It was someone who got shafted from start to finish, stabbed in the back, betrayed, and then intentionally pushed to the limit..then.. framed as the "bad person". The other characters where far more underhanded and villainous. To be frank, the ending was just all wrong and left me somewhat angry. You do not end this game with a satisfied feeling at all!
Visual/Sound : Visuals were.. ok.. animations were moderate quality, but the NPCs had a delayed response in nearly every conversation. The music was pretty much the same as from Shadow Ranch which wasn't bad, but something a bit more suspenseful would have been better for setting the mood.
Level of Challenge : *sigh* While the Land Rush game was fun, overkill ruined it. The puzzles were pretty easy - beginner level, and there was really only one challenge which was over-the-top stupid and hard (and apparently other reviewers felt the same as I did about that chart challenge)
Storyline : It was fun to speak to Krolmiester, but most of the dialog added nothing to the story. While the story was full of great tidbits of information on Tornadoes, the story itself was weak. There was also no explanation for all the mice and there were hotspots in the game that were never used. Most of the story flowed fairly well, but there was a major break / hole right after you fix the phone jack. Aside from that, it wasn't difficult to figure out what to do.
I do NOT recommend this game. Only if you are a die-hard ND game fan and have the patience of a saint would I ever say yeah - go ahead and waste your time. This is definitely a game you can skip.
I don't recommend this game.
+1point
2of3voted this as helpful.
Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Ships
Solve a 300-year-old Bahamian mystery to save your friend, Bess Marvin, from dangerous kidnappers in this Adventure game!
Overall rating
3/ 5
7 of 11 found this review helpful
Its' really only worth 2.5 stars
PostedJanuary 2, 2014
Spazn
Skill Level:Expert
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Large File
Fun Factor
2/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
4/ 5
Level of Challenge
3/ 5
Storyline
2/ 5
I've been doing all the ND games in order of release, and as usual, the number 1 issue that seems to plague nearly all ND games rears it's ugly head again. Terrible navigation system. Just awful. Finding your way around via golf cart on pathways that unnecessarily take you all over the place before actually going to where you need to go, is NOT a legitimate puzzle. It is nothing more than an annoying time sink.
Fun Factor: Not much fun here. Most of the mini-games, puzzles and challenges were actually downright annoying. I think the only one I actually enjoyed was the decoding simply because for the first time, it didn't require 5 pages of hand-written notes. YAY! Only one suspect to speak to? *yawn* and .. well you can't really count George b/c she's pretty much useless the whole time and you only play her 2 times. The parrot.. I wanted to smack it. I don't like simians to begin with so they don't get any cuteness points here.
Visual/Sound : the graphics were ok. The sound was ok. Nothing spectacular, just par. Not very immersive.
Level of Challenge : There were 3 mini-games with the monkeys; two of which were easy, but the coconut throwing one was a pain. It wouldn't have been so bad if the AI for it didn't cheat! Most of the puzzles were intermediate level, but some of the challenges were downright brutal. Playing colored tile Sudoku under water with the air running out at the speed of light... well jeez... can't imagine why that wouldn't be fun. WARNING: if you are even the slightest bit color blind... just use the walkthrough for this. Then there were the time sinks... like finding the parrot a drift-wood perch, ONE piece at a time.. maneuvering the paths, boating, and all the other back and forth nonsense.
Storyline : Ok, so some people may have had a problem with this b/c in actuality it is derived from The Scarlet Hand game which was the 6th game in the series. In essence, it felt like the writers went on strike in the middle of the game development so they short-cut the story. How sad. The history part about the ships was o.k. but not enough to fill the black hole in the storyline.
Overall.. I think I will just recommend people to skip this one. I really don't think it would be worth your money unless you get it during a 2 for 1 sale and even then .. nah.. not worth it.
To be honest, the best part of this game came AFTER the ending credits. The out-takes were pretty funny. That's about the only positive thing I can really say about the game.