Customer Reviews

Nancy Drew Secrets Can Kill

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

As a longtime fan of Nancy Drew games, having currently played (and sometimes replayed) eleven different titles, this first one in the series is not all bad, everything considered. According to the publisher it's not Vista compatible (probably due to its' age); so you will likely need an older computer to run it. This can be a plus or a minus, depending on the PC system you have. Like many of the Nancy Drew games made for the PC (particularly the earlier ones in the series), they are relatively easy on computer system resources like hard disk space for installation, memory and graphics card requirements.

One of the most annoying features (and difficult if not impossible to overcome) is the two installation CDs and having to switch between them to access different parts of the game. HerInteractive would have done better (and saved a lot of users' tempers) to design it so that the disks were needed for installation only.

There is also an annoying in-game navigation (discontinued in later releases) where the player has to pan vertically as well as horizontally to view the entire field in certain scenes. Most of the time the areas along these top and bottom edges are not interactive and contained no visual clues; but it was time-consuming and tedious to have to keep checking them *just in case*.

Other than this, it was an interesting and intriguing game to play. Unlike later Nancy Drew games, it offers a third "Master" detective mode along with Junior and Senior. The often-derided cartoonish-looking 2D character graphics did not bother me in the slightest, as it was the storyline, interactive areas and puzzles which kept the game moving along. While they admittedly were not "glitzy," unlike some other 2D and 3D games of this class created during roughly that same time period they were at least well-drawn and clearly rendered. There are a lot of areas to interact with; and although some of the "evidence" and in-game hints (including cryptic encoded messages posted on walls and bulletin boards) were obviously a bit contrived and illogical, they serve to entertain and keep the interest of younger players during times of lesser overt activity.

Speaking of the pre-teen crowd, this game came under fire from some more family-oriented advocates when first introduced, as it was the first (perhaps only) Nancy Drew title to directly involve the death of a potential murder victim as part of the main plot. The background music served to heighten the suspense relating to this theme at certain points during the game. Although neither graphic or gratuitous, later releases in the ND series (or at least games #1 through #10) noticeably tend towards a considerably lighter atmosphere, if more limited and predictable plot.

In the end analysis, I would conclude that "Secrets Can Kill" is a worthwhile addition, just perhaps not a good *introduction* (especially for the novice adventure gamer) to the Nancy Drew series. Except for experienced die-hard gaming fans and/or those with considerable patience towards investigating mystery puzzles, it'd be better rather to go back and pick this one up only after becoming acquainted with the more user-friendly interfaces and mechanics utilized in ND #'s 2 through 5 or later.

Well, for a first effort, it's a good game. Sure, it's got two disks you routinely have to swap in and out. The characters are drawn up cartoon style, and it's probably a miracle someone hasn't sued for the stereotypes that surround them...aka the smart Asian, the jock, blah blah. Thankfully, Nancy Drew games got a whole lot better after this. Unless you're a diehard fan, you might consider skipping this. The school itself was kind of plain, and two dimensional, causing me to actually get lost in the halls a couple of times. (Yeah, this can happen at a real HS too.) The cartoon characters made me laugh sometimes too.
But...if you can get past these things, the storyline of this game is actually the best of pretty much all the games. We'll probably never get murder as a storyline again...not that there's anything graphic here for sure. Also...the music. It's some of the creepiest stuff I've ever heard. Kind of a psycho, knife murderer blend that peaks when you enter the kitchen in the diner. Wow, I don't think I've ever heard anything scarier! Desperation and fear to the tenth power. There's also the typical Nancy Drew style investigation. I really had fun with the slider puzzle at Aunt Eloise's house. Phone calls can be fun on here too.
Really, it's not a terrible game by any standards. It's actually edgy for a Nancy Drew game, and I wish more of them would have that edge now.

If you enjoy puzzles, and like mysteries, this game is for you. When played correctly, this game will stretch your thinking skills.

If you have played other Nancy Drew games, remember this one was the first. Every time a new ND game is released there are improvements, but this one is still good.

I orginally bought this game for my son's 10th B-day. I ended up playing it too. Now I'm hooked and keep coming back for more. The puzzles are challenging, and the setting interesting. We now own 17 of the 19 games released.

For those of you who have played some of the later games, you might want to back up and play this one so you can see how things have changed, and so you can say you have played them all. But beware there are a lot of "clues" in this one that don't really lead you anywhere. They are just there for the fun of solving them (or they go to motive). Be careful and don't miss the real clues.

Nancy Drew fans will not want to miss this one.

Oddly enough, this game seems to be fairly popular among the fans of this series. Many users on the HerInteractive website seem to have a good opinion about it. I can only conclude that this is because of fond memories they have of it, resulting from it being the first one they played.

When people do mention shortcomings of this game, they usually mention bad graphics and lots of disc switching. Those are legitimate problems, but the real problem with this one is in the writing. Nancy herself has little personality. Most of her dialogue consists of one word questions that repeat back something someone else said. ("Repeat?")

Her characterization is way off. At one point, Nancy encounters a locker that's marked as a Federal crime scene, with warnings that trying to break into it is a prosecutable crime. Having played some of the later games in the series, we figured that trying to get into this locker was a sure fire way to lose the game instantly. But no, it turned out that that's what you're supposed to do. Later, Nancy finds a glass cutter, so naturally she uses it to break into a Teacher's Lounge and hack their computer system. (Who knew that Nancy Drew was a juvenile delinquent in her earlier days?)

At the end, rather than call the Police in (maybe she thought she couldn't afford to do so after the crimes she herself had comitted?), Nancy deliberately walks into a trap (she usually falls into them unkowingly) and is only saved when someone who said they weren't coming fortuitously shows up. One can only imagine what her plan had been.

All sorts of odd things crop up throughout the game. The environment is littered with ciphered messages written, not from any characters in the game, but from the game's designers themselves. Most conversations end with a character saying that they're leaving, or they're outta there, but they stay right where they are. Even the idea of a murder mystery is a bit too high stakes for a Nancy Drew mystery.

We've played a dozen games in this series so far, and this is the only one we'd consider substandard. All the others have been great, but if we'd started with this one, we might very well not have come back for more. It is a passable start, and they do seem to have learned their lessons very quickly (we haven't seen the 2nd game in the series, but the 3rd one was quite good). As a bit of nostalgia it may be nice, but as a game, it's more likely to drive people away from the series, than attract them. That may be why this original version of the game was withdrawn from the market recently, and replaced with a "Remastered" version.

ordered this game for my daughters birthday, supposed to be in xp OS, it is not, when I complained they sent another, guess what? it was the wrong one as well. not very happy RM

I bought this secrets can kill game and I started to like it but the garphics were very poor.That was the only game that i have played witth bad graphics.My sister said they had bad graphics too.I was in the middle of the game(i think?)when i was going to talk to people and the y didn`t wabt to talk to me.I went to Maxines diner and Darl Grey would nit talk to me.I don`t know what too do.It is a very hard game in master and senior.I don`t like it.

This game may be older & not quite as sophisticated as the newer titles, but it is challenging and very cute. If you collect the Nancy Drew series, Secrets Can Kill is a must have before the game becomes too old to play. Great for pre-teens and a refreshing break from ordinary shooting games.

Notice this one was made by Dreamcatcher (sorry Dreamcatcher) the good ones are made by Her Interactive. Im sorry I bought this, it had unenjoyable tedious clues, artistically amateur renderings of characters (the environment art was ok) but a waste of money.

This game was not nearly as good in graphics, or plot, so if you have played only this one, all the other Nancy drew games are WAY better and please don;t think that all the rest are like this. I don't mean this review in any offense to HER (herinteractive) but this was their first game and they improved alot even between even the 1st two games.

NOTE - I have posted this review on both product pages for this game. Not on the remastered version, but on both of the different box copies.

Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill was the first game ever created in the series-and it shows. It is definitely the worst in the series, but it still is able to give quite a fun gaming experience.

Story-The story is that your Aunt Eloise (who is the librarian at a high school) has asked you to come help solve a murder. A boy was pushed down a flight of stairs, and it's your job to find out who did it. It's a very generic story, and it really isn't developed as much as it could have been.

Graphics-They aren't good at all compared to today's graphics, but in the '90s, they were awesome. The backgrounds are 3D, somewhat, but they are VERY grainy. Still, they are done quite well. The characters in this game are cartoon characters and are slightly disappointing visually.

Sound-The music is nice in the game and sets a mysterious mood over the game. The voice acting isn't really good at all, but the background sounds are very nicely done.

Gameplay-This is a first-person point-and-click game. You simply click arrows to determine your direction. This game is a little strange in the fact that at some locations you can look up or down slightly for no apparent reason, but otherwise, it's not too hard to figure out. The puzzles in the game are fairly easy and don't require too much thought. They are mostly just finding objects to interact with other objects later in the game. You can call your friends in order to get hints, but all they do is give you a hint before hanging up; in other words, unlike other games, you cannot have conversations with your friends on the phone. Probably the most annoying aspect of the game is that you have to continuously switch discs as you switch locations in the game, which can be quite annoying.

Fun-It was fun, but it really doesn't have replay value as the others in the series do. It's too boring. It wasn't scary at all, but you can die in the game. If you do, you press second chance and you go back to the scene right before you died.

Length-It seriously took me 3 hours to play and finish. And the constant disc changing factor probably took 20 minutes of that time. It's not long at all.

I recommend this game to fans who are waiting for the next game to come out, but only if you can get it cheap. It's fun, but it is short, and it is a one time thing.

EDIT - There is now a newer version of the game called "Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill Remastered" that improves the game immensely.