Developed by: Her Interactive | Published By: Her Interactive | Played: 9/12/04

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Very well-developed characters that seem like real people as opposed to accentuated stereotypes. As I interact with the characters I find out more about them and they seem very believable and like they are real people.

Simple easy to understand interface. Just point and click your way through the game.

This game makes learning fun, and it does it in a way that is intertwined with the story. I am not only trying to figure out why somebody wants to steal a valuable Mayan artifact, but I am also learning about the history of the Maya as well as the history of westerners looting ancient cities.

Each character has a different take on things. Joanna seems to just be interested in it in general, Taylor is very concerned about the money, Sonny is just plain banannas, and the Mexican Consulate guy is bitter about the looting of ancient Mexican heritage. These different attitudes of the characters can lead the player to speculate about whoddunit, what their motives might be, and basically if that character is likely to have been the culprit based on their attitudes and personality type... definately an activity appealing to girls.

For 20 bucks a pop, Nancy Drew games are very worth while. I actually got this one in a bundle of 16 bucks for 2 pops.

Variety of different types of puzzles to solve. Aside from the theft mystery, there is also things like the Maya quiz, the maze game, the Bul game, the Maya numbering re-ordering, and the audio narration reassigning. Many of these puzzles involve management of things and reordering, which also makes it appeal more to girls.

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Like all adventure games, it lacks the crucial addictive and enguaging gameplay with a feel of rhythm and flow. Many puzzles are confusing and the game generally requires several visits to uhs-hints.com, like almost all adventure games.

The hint system in the game of calling up Nancy's friends presents some inconsistencies. They seem to know things about the case that they haven't been told. How do they have such insider information? They give hints and tell Nancy she's doing a great job like they are putting her through some kind of maze.

Some phone numbers can only be called from certain phones. For example, I could not call Schultz at CCCC from the phone at the museum, I had to use the one at my hotel room. It makes no sense why it would be this way.

There are some issues with button alignment. Sometimes some text will not be highlighted and clickable unless the cursor is in the region towards the top of the text or slightly above it.

Not very flashy and pretty primitive graphics... but hey, it's 20 bucks full price.

When you save your game, a save slot will simply say, "Data saved here," instead of a description the game that was saved there. Simple information could be displayed, such as the number of hours and minutes that had passed since that game began, instead of the generic text that they chose to display.