cracker24's Full Review: Nancy Drew Treasure In The Royal Tower for Windows
I purchased Nancy Drew Treasure in Royal Tower after playing the first 3 games in the series based on the hit book written by Carolyn Keene.
For those of you unfamiliar with Nancy Drew, she is a female detective who always seems to get herself into some tricky situations. Every vacation she goes on turns into a case she has to solve and Treasure in the Royal Tower was no exception.
At the beginning of the game, players are given 3 options before starting play. If players are unfamilar with the interface, they can elect to do a tutorial. The other 2 options determine the difficulty of the puzzles and the game itself. Junior Detective allows you to call various friends for hints. Senior Detective, on the other hand, doesn't give you the hint option and the puzzles are more difficult.
Plot:
After solving Message in a Haunted Mansion, Nancy decides to go for a much needed skiing vacation in Wisconsin. However, when Nancy arrives a blizzard hits and Nancy becomes stranded. Meanwhile, a rash of "vandalism" has occured at the lodge and Nancy decides to investigate.
During the course of her investigation, Nancy encounters 4 suspects. Dexter, the old caretaker, who periodically asks Nancy to do various tasks for him and in return gives her various items to use later in the game. Lisa a journalist with multiple identities. Jacques a ski instructor who can be found in the basement, and lastly an elderly historian named Professor Hotchkiss who stays in her room and only comes out during certain times of the day.
As the investigation unfolds, we learn that the tower has an interesting history behind it. Apparently the tower was given as a gift to Marie Antoinette and she used to frequent it on a regular basis. There are also rumors of a tiara and a hidden treasure in the ski lodge. It was interesting to learn more about such a legendary person in an informal interactive type setting.
Places -
As with most myseries and old castles etc, there are a plethora of places to explore. Nancy starts off in the ski lodge with a basement and of course multiple floors and dead ends at every turn. The dead ends drove me crazy as I tend to be GPS challenged and I was always getting lost in this castle. As you progress there are also secret passages throughout the game, a secret garden, ski lift, shed etc to explore and clues to find throughout. One room in particular the library is closed off due to vandalism and NO ONE is allowed in there, but does this stop Nancy. No- Where there is a will, Nancy will find the way.
Hints-
It is a good idea when stuck to call George or Bess, Ned or any of the other available numbers on your phone. Unfortunately you have to go to your room to make these calls as your cell phone doesn't work. It is also advantageous to constantly talk to the other guests as they will have new information and clues for you throughout. I would also recommend changing the time on your alarm clock from day to night as different things can only happen at certain times of the day or night.
Danger lurks at every corner so make sure to save often. Personally, I like to save after I solve each puzzle or add a new inventory item this way I don't have to redo that particular segment of the game .However, Nancy Drew Treasure in Royall Tower has a bult in second chance option so if you die or do something you shouldn't, you can restart where you made the fatal error. Nancy does die on ocassion taking various risks such as hopping from elevator shaft to door etc, freezing to death outside in the snow etc.
Graphics were very realistic and the attention to detail was precise. There were photographs of family members and historical references to Marie Antoinette were valid. Music changed dpending on the scenario from creepy and sinister to eerie and even calming at times it fit. Sound effects were also realistic from the howling wind outside, the rain on the windows, and even the hissing of the radiator all fit what one would expect to find in a house of this nature. I found the characters to be much better than the earlier games and more lifelike.
Complaints- Characters never seemed to move around very much. They usually stayed in one spot throughout the game. While this is good in that if you need to find someone its easier, it doesn't seem realistic to me that someone would sit in the same place for hours on end every day.
My other complaint was the movement and the multiple dead ends. In the game you see everything through Nancy's eyes. I found it difficult to navigate through out the mansion. In order to move it was necessary to locate the movement arrow which changed location from scene to scene and in some cases wasn't present at all. The other issue I had with movement is that sometimes you have to come at a particular item from a certain way to examine it. Say you see a key on the desk and you pick it up and want to use it on the drawer below. In many cases, you have to backup and approach the drawer from a different direction in order to unlock the drawer.
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