Nancy Drew: The Secret of the Scarlet Hand

Sleuth Nancy Drew is at again in yet another suspenseful mystery where she has to uncover the Secret of the Scarlet Hand.

Taking a break from her cases, Nancy Drew becomes Deputy Curator at Beech Hill Museum. She gets assigned many tasks to take care of around the museum and along the way gets to learn about the Mayan culture. Soon she learns that’s not all she will be doing at the museum, a precious Mayan artifact gets stolen and all that is left behind is a scarlet hand. From then on, the rest of the case unfolds through the clues she discovers.

With the help of Nancy’s friends and co-workers she is able to learn more about the case. Basic game play involves wandering throughout the museum and collecting clues which help you gain entry to new and exciting places. A lot of these clues or items can be seen in plain view but in order to get all clues you need to solve puzzles and play games.

One of the more exciting features is that Nancy gets to travel around Washington D.C. using the Metro subway as her transportation. There she interviews and runs into more suspects which makes her case more difficult but also more interesting. Another new feature added to the collection is her laptop that acts as her journal and helps her remember key points during the investigation.

Throughout the game you have to pass three levels that test your knowledge. You have to take a quiz, play a game related to Mayan culture and match up things such as gods, symbols and numbers to pass each level. It is frustrating because there are things that get in the way of you beating each level. When this happens you should call your friends for a hint or do some of your other tasks.

Gameplay: 8.5
Hours of fun but it gets very frustrating. Most of the activities test your knowledge at every level but they can be quite difficult and makes you wait for further clues.

Graphics: 8.5
Clear and very realistic!

Sound: 8
The music made the game scary even though there isn’t a wide variety of different songs. It seems like the same thing is playing over and over which may get annoying after playing for hours and hours.

Difficulty: Hard
The activities were hard and it seems like you need to take notes on everything to be able to know what you have to do next. It is a pretty challenging game!

Concept: 8
The storyline is very good and intriguing which keeps you wanting more.

Overall: 8.5
I would recommend this to anyone who wants a challenging mystery and isn’t afraid of the unexpected.