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Saturday 9 February, 2008
Game Log Entry #2
Gameplay: I was actually not paying attention to the time, and went three hours overboard for the game, but that shouldn't be too important. I noticed after taking my break that the second round of tackling the case really didn't have any actual detective work at all! A lot of the game is sequence based, where I just run around, doing odd tasks such as delivering mail and running errands by driving around the whole town. It isn't until after I finish such tasks that I actually do get somewhat of a continuation into the story or have a new event open up for me to do. Despite the major annoyance, it was hilariously fun listening to the different voices and personalities of the townsfolk who actually do depict a very good 1920s/30s impression.
Solving puzzles became tiring and I actually found one of the obstacles that I had to go through in order to receive a toy that gives me the word "pony" to be ridiculous. I had to go through a golf course and win with the least par. Personally, I found a lack of actual detective work and its actually quite irksome in comparison to the past Nancy Drew games that I have played before. Somehow, overtime, the games went from actual sleuthing, where Nancy waits till nighttime to look scavenge through her suspects belongings with the intimidating feature that they'd be back any moment, to just regular puzzle solving and sequence of story. The thrill is gone when the idea of the game just goes off track like this.
DESIGN: Overall, the graphics design of the game is beautiful. The art and 3D graphics is artistic in a sense that it is not active, but still. The game bases itself on moving by using screen to screen images, making it seem like you're psuedo-moving. You click either right or left and a new image shows up to show you what's on your right and what's on your left. It's not very complicated because there's not a lot of animation with exception of the characters and certain background props (clock, steam, etc.) The cut scenes during events were actually quite disappointing because of all the parts where you actually get to see some bit of animation in the game, it's short, stiff, and choppy. For example, a quick cut scene where you're actually not controlling the character is when Nancy runs up the stairs to address the scream she heard. You see the bottom of the stairs shift to the top of the stairs, to the bedroom, and that's it. It's back to game play.
The game runs on a simplistic click-based type of style where you just click around to navigate, and pick up stuff. There is a very limited amount of space where you can explore the world. You're only allowed to go where the arrows on your mouse allows you to go, which is usually right, left, forward, or back to a new screen. You're also very limited as to what you can pick up when facing a certain part of the room and it's actually quite frustrating to me because sometimes you see very cool things in the background such as an instrument or a bright orange bouncy ball that you'd just have the urge to pick up if it was real life. Unfortunately , the game would only allow your mouse to glow red when you're over a magazine or tool that will assist you. Sometimes it's fun to explore the random parts of a game and I think that'd be an awesome feature to include, where not every clue is helpful. It'd definitely make the game more challenging aside from the sequences and sequences or puzzles that have nothing to do with detective work in which they just love to throw at you.
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