Developed by: Her Interactive | Published By: Dreamcatcher | Played: 9/27/04

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After playing #6 and #7 first, this first installment of the franchise has shown me that there are a few key features of Nancy Drew that make it appeal no matter which mystery you play. There are sophisticated, deep characters with unique personalities and motives, and, well, all the other stuff I said in the review for #6.

This one is particularly unique from #6 and #7 because the culprit is not one of the main characters that you talk to. This shows the franchise has even more diversity than previously thought.

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I played this mystery shortly after player #6 and #7, and I have to say that Nancy Drew is definately a series that has gotten better with age. There are many things about this version of Nancy Drew that make it much worse than later versions. The puzzles are much more obscure in their solutions, the graphics and sound is a lower quality, the characters are animated with 2D drawings instead of the more life-like 3D renderings, the dialogue is cheesier, the people you call for help have much less to say and hold less characterization, the backgrounds are more generic-looking, the music is more tacky, and probably a few more things.

The cryptic messages scattered thoughout the game seem very out of place. Why would these clues be written all over the schools and diners? Who would bother to write these strange messages everywhere?

The brail keypad for the boiler room entrance is also out of place. Why would there be a keypad for the custodian to use, and the only way to tell what each button says is if you can read brail?

Constantly switching between Disk 1 and Disk 2 is by far the worst thing about this game. You'd think that with more primitive content than #6 and #7 it would take up less disk space.

This game was released shortly before Myst III, and it was definately much further behind the times compared to that game.