I have played quite a few Nancy Drew adventures and I can honestly say I have enjoyed them all including this one. Learning a bit about Hawaii was interesting. I even found the "chores" fun, collecting shells, making necklaces, fishing and even sorting and analysing the frass samples was interesting believe it or not, makes me wish I was clever enough to be a biologist ☺
I have not played a ND game that I have not enjoyed. The only slightly annoying thing is having to keep walking up and down the train. It would have been better with map of the train so you could go straight to a carriage , apart from that this is a very enjoyable game.
The graphics are good but as others have said the controls are tricky. The biggest problem I found was using the Chicken with the shield without getting killed. The only way I found of doing it was by controlling the Chicken with the joystick instead of the mouse (yes, the game supports joysticks but I found that the mouse was better for some controls and the joystick better for others so ideally you need both to play the game properly). I've played about 20 levels and they are repetitive and easy. There are about 50 levels so they may get harder as the game progresses. The bridge game in between levels really is a chore, it would have been better if that part had been taken out of the game. To me the most enjoyable part of the game was exploiting a bug in the program. On the bridge level, if you walk across the bridge (after repairing it) and through the doorway in the rocks at the other end (I think it is only possible to do this using the joystick) you can walk through the rocks and over the lava and back round to the other side and wander around the scenary. My kids thought this was hilarious. By the way the game saves automatically if you quit after completing a level. I only recommend this game if it is on offer, I would not pay full price for it though.
I have not yet played a Nancy Drew game that I have not enjoyed . This one like the others I have played is interesting, has a good story with some challenging puzzles. Some reviewers said they did not enjoy the 'Barnacle Blast' game but I actually liked it. I must admit that the Stenography puzzle put me off and I left the game for a few months before I decided that I should finish the game. Anyway after all that I actually enjoyed learning a little about stenography and found it a great achievement when I worked out the clue. I am looking forward to playing my next Nancy Drew adventure.
I only played the demo but it did not make me want to buy the full version. I loved the original Dire Grove but somehow this game did not draw me in. The graphics are well done and to be honest it probably is quite a good game but it did not do it for me. If a standard version is released I may buy it. I am playing Nancy Drew games at the moment and I find them more challenging and entertaining with good stories.
I recommend this game!
+3points
4of5voted this as helpful.
Rhiannon: Curse of the Four Branches
Explore a haunted farmstead in Wales called Ty Pryderi! Chris has been asked to house-sit, and is in for a spooky surprise!
Overall rating
5/ 5
4 of 4 found this review helpful
More games like this please.
PostedSeptember 22, 2013
Fish_Pie
fromWales UK
Skill Level:Intermediate
Favorite Genre(s):Adventure, Large File
Fun Factor
5/ 5
Visual/Sound Quality
5/ 5
Level of Challenge
4/ 5
Storyline
5/ 5
This is the best Big Fish game I have played so far, 'Dire Grove' being a very close second. At last a proper adventure game with a proper story, not a load of hidden object scenes and click puzzles 'tied' together by a lame plot #the developers of this game must have really been interested in what they were doing#. I really felt like I was 'playing a story'. The game whilst challenging is not very difficult, most of the puzzels are fairly logical to work out and I only had to cheat once and I kicked myself when I found the answer #if you think this game is hard then you should try some text adventures for the ZX Spectrum#. There has been some criticism of the navigation in this game and although it seems a bit awkward at first it is totally logical and not really a problem when you have got used to it. Apparently the developers of this game were working on another game called 'Coven' but unfortunatly were unable to finish it which is a real shame because we need more games like this!!