I have been playing Nancy Drew games since I was a kid. I have played every single game (multiple times!) and have bought each game at release since Treasure in the Royal Tower. I have the merch, I have the original CDs, I have the limited time offers. 

I am a huge fan. 

I followed all the excitement online, waiting and hoping for that coveted release date, losing my marbles as I marked my calendar for May 7th. 

When that day finally rolled around, I waited “patiently” by looking at my email for the newsletter, Instagram, and the HerInteractive website every few minutes for any sign that I could finally download the latest game: Mystery of the Seven Keys!

Finally, the time came. The website changed from “Available May 7th” to “Play Now!” and I clicked through the download screens as fast as my little mouse could handle. Fifteen hours later, I sat back, breathing a sigh of relief, as I watched the end credits roll across my screen. 

So…How was it?

Actually, pretty good! After the Game-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named was released a few years back, I was skeptical. I was worried that that game was the beginning of a series of poorly made games with pandering stories and terrible mechanics. However, Mystery of the Seven Keys did not (totally) disappoint. 

There are some good things and some not so good things about this new game. I’ve highlighted a few of both in the sections below. I graded out of 10 on Story, Mechanics, Voice Acting/Characters, Puzzles, and Appearance. 

Overall Score: 29/50

STORY
8/10

This is actually one of the best stories we have had in a long time! High stake heists and alchemy and ghosts and secret societies, it’s everything a mystery fan could love. Learning about the history of alchemy and the Czech people was very informative. 

I would say, however, that technology did not play as big of a role in the game as it was made to seem in the promotional material. Other than a few repeated puzzles on the computer/vault, there wasn’t much technology at all. I did like the dichotomy of new versus old that followed throughout the game. The gems and heists also didn’t play a big role other than that’s how we got there in the first place. 

Overall, good story!

Mechanics
3/10

Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of good things to say about the mechanics of the game. This is the first ND game to feature WASD controls and it was actually pretty nice versus the clunky, old (though very nostalgic) point-and-click. This movement, however, made traveling distances time consuming. I go into this a little further in the APPEARANCE section. 

Object viewing in 3D was a lot of fun, but could sometimes be difficult to maneuver. 

A lot of the objects in-game were difficult to see and finding some of them seemed almost impossible. The spyglass icon that players often use to help find things that Nancy needs is small and doesn’t appear until you are directly over the object. It is also not different enough from the regular cursor to be much help. 

Some typical mechanics found in other games not present such as right clicking to go back or get out of a screen. 

Texting characters was really nice, but when long conversations happen (ex. the clock puzzle hints with Ned) listening may be more beneficial than reading big blocks of text. 

Voice Acting/Characters
6/10

I loved how many characters there were in this game! It helped keep me guessing on the culprit right until the very end. Almost none of the characters are particularly likable, but that does give you the sense that you are not wanted there or that you are an “annoying tourist”. Even the person who called you and “wants” you to be there is cold and aloof, but again, this actually helps with the feel of the game. 

Due to the size of the cast, even the really important characters tended to play small roles. When the culprit is revealed at the end of the game, there is a sense that you barely even know the person. I’m still a little unsure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, I lean a little more toward a bad thing. The culprit gives a big speech about everything that they did and are trying to do and I mostly felt indifferent.

I can’t say much about the authenticity of the accents provided by the voice actors. Overall, the voice acting was pretty lackluster. Nancy’s voicing was poor, sounding more like she was reading off of a page rather than actually feeling what she was responding to in context. Also, Nancy often felt more like she was being arrogant rather than curious. 

Radek and Marek had fairly good voice acting and seemed authentic. 

Puzzles
7/10

Many of the puzzles were actually quite fun. The alchemy lab was probably one of the best in the game, I would play that one over and over again! 

Puzzles do start out a little slow, but about halfway through the puzzles get better and more frequent. 

The new Second Change screen was cute and appeared very 1930s bringing back a nostalgic feeling from the original books. 

A lot of the puzzles seemed almost impossible. This was either because the information we needed was too difficult to find due to mechanics or that you needed to make odd leaps in logic. This change in the puzzle difficulty could be because HerInteractive is trying to elevate the puzzles for an older audience, but I find it to be very disjointed from the challenging, but ultimately solvable, puzzles from past games. There were a few puzzles that I solved accidentally and even knowing the answer couldn’t piece together how I was supposed to figure it out. 

Appearance
6/10

The grandeur of the Castle Square is breathtaking! Players can really get a feel for how big and beautiful the castle and city are. There was gorgeous scenery and the magnificence of the area really shines. 

Some of the lighting is a little odd. Even with the ability to adjust lighting many of the areas are too dark to see details or even the supposedly “obvious” items in your work area. Often there is no way to zoom to get a better look either. Also, when we first meet Adel, she is glowing like the sun and angel had a baby. Good for her, bad for my eyes. 

Although the grandeur of the area really comes through, the square and the cafe are a little too big. There is almost nothing to do in the square except run between places and the cafe has books, upon books, upon books. Maybe a player can cross the square quickly with the point-and-click, but the WASD controls take forever, especially once Nancy runs out of breath. 

The NPCs just stand around, not talking and just staring into nothing. It kind of creates a bit of an uncanny valley feeling. 

Bonus: Was this game true to ND lore?

Ned – Still the silly, underappreciated Ned that we all know and love.

Carson Drew – He is usually much more worried about us if he is in the game. However. he sends one text before we even start and never talks to us again except through Ned. A bit unusual.

Hardy Boys – Very little interaction. Why were they even in the game other than to introduce us to the agent? This could have been accomplished in many other ways. I think this was just pandering to the audience. 

Overall, this was a good game. I would definitely play it again. Are there better ND games that took 1/8th of the time to make? Absolutely. Still fun to play? Of course. If the developers simply fix a few of the mechanics and make the puzzles a little more solvable (not easy, just less frustratingly difficult), the next few games will be great! I look forward to where Nancy will go next!