Product Details
 | Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Ships |
| List Price: | $19.99 |
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Average customer review:
Product Description
What could be better than an all-expense paid vacation in the Bahamas with Bess and George? But when Bess is kidnapped and held for ransom, it’s up to you, as Nancy Drew, to discover the treasures of the sunken “Seven Virtues” fleet and find the missing artifact that the kidnappers are demanding in exchange for Bess. Team up with George to sail through the perilous waters of this mystery and defeat the dastardly villain!Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1608 in Video Games
- Brand: Her Interactive
- Model: 767861000722
- Released on: 2009-07-14
- ESRB Rating: Everyone
- Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
- Format: CD-ROM
- Dimensions: .10 pounds
Features
- Play as Nancy Drew and George?see her best friends, George Fayne and Bess Marvin, for the first time
- Immerse yourself in the Bahamas diving, sailing, and interacting with island wildlife
- Quest for a lost treasure?decrypt a riddle book, unlock treasure chests, and explore underwater shipwrecks
- Play mini-games with the monkeys at the research center to earn fun prizes
- Choose from two difficulty settings (Jr. or Sr. Detective) to allow players of all skill levels to solve the mystery
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Product
Description
What could be better than an all-expense paid
vacation in the Bahamas with Bess and George? But when Bess is kidnapped
and held for ransom, it's up to you, as Nancy Drew, to discover the
treasures of the sunken "Seven Virtues" fleet and find the missing
artifact that the kidnappers are demanding in exchange for Bess. Team up
with George to sail through the perilous waters of this mystery and
defeat the dastardly villain!
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Customer Reviews
Frustrating? Check. Confusing? Check.
The ND games are always at
least moderately fun, but this one offers something of a departure from
the feel of previous efforts. Largely, I found it fell short.
From
almost the first moment of the game, you're presented with a lengthy
and ever-increasing list of tasks to accomplish. Thankfully, these can
be completed in pretty much whatever order you like; however, the
motivation behind them is rarely more than "because El Toro/Johnny/that
squawking bird said so." Even at the end, there's no real sense of
urgency - perhaps because there's practically no one to talk to. No
phone, no funny e-mails, no Prudence Rutherford. Just a stressed out
George and a none-too-talkative beach bum. There are barely any
suspects, and while the big villain reveal at the end is clever, for me
it took away from the story not to try to figure out whodunit on my own.
Also, the island, while beautifully depicted, is limited. Driving and
sailing have always felt like time wasters to me - I much prefer the
near-instant mass transit systems of some previous games - and the
locations offer little to explore beyond the bare essentials.
As I
mentioned, the game is highly task- and puzzle-driven. I found some of
these puzzles to be obtuse or simply way too hard; at times I knew what I
had to do, but I just couldn't do it in the limited time available or
without what seemed like a lucky stroke. One of the mini-games is a
(long) game of complete chance, which I don't remember ever happening in
an ND game before and is really pretty boring. The puzzles might have
been more of a pleasant mental exercise and less of an irritation if not
that so many of them were timed. I've never needed so many second
chances before, and found myself resorting to the Internet to get the
solution because I got sick of either dying and restarting or leaving
the puzzle to refill my air tank and return.
Unlike many of the
previous ND games, I had little sense of discovery or excitement with
this one. There's no deep storyline to unfold or layers of secrets to
discover. There's just a lot of traipsing around the island collecting
stuff that seems completely pointless until it's required by a later
puzzle. If you like the ND games for the mental workout of the puzzles,
you'll love this one; if you prefer the character interaction, the
snooping, the suspense, and the wit of many of the previous games, this
one won't be your favorite. It's not mine.
This game is difficult!
I had always heard that Curse
of Blackmoor Manor was the most difficult ND game so far. I can't
comment on that, being as I haven't played it. What I can say is that I
have played many of the Nancy Drew games and Ransom of the Seven Ships
beats them all for difficulty level---and I'm playing on junior mode!
For those of you who like wall-to-wall challenging puzzles (some of them
timed, no less), you will probably enjoy this game very much. For those
who don't like having to look at a walkthrough every 30 minutes or so
to figure out what to do next/how to solve a puzzle, I would recommend
that you steer clear. I really can't believe that I am actually saying
this, because I *love* the Nancy Drew games--but I feel that potential
purchasers need a heads up about this one before they decide whether to
buy or not to buy.
This is going to be a love-it-or-hate-it game
for a lot of people, I suspect. It will either rank in their top 5 or
their bottom 5, but I feel there will be very little middle ground here.
Average game with too many puzzles and not enough
sleuthing.
Sigh. This game looked so
good, thrilling, and exciting. And really, it had a great plot, but
overall, it was poorly executed. So much more could have been done with
this just average game.
Plot:
The plot was amazing. Bess,
Nancy's best friend, has won a trip to a tropical island! You as Nancy
Drew, and George Fayne, are excited to go, but Nancy has to arrive a day
late - and when she does, she finds out Bess has been kidnapped! The
kidnappers want you to find a long-lost treasure if you have any hope of
getting your friend back. I thought the plot was great. It was simple,
and you knew what your goal was. The plot gets a 10/10!
Characters
Sadly
the characters were very lacking. My favorite part of ND games is
interacting with characters, finding out their motives/secrets/getting
comic relief, etc. Unfortunately there really have been no memorable
characters since TRN.
Besides George (who does nothing the whole game
besides shake a phone trying to get it to work...), the only person on
the island you can talk to is Johnny Rolle. He's a Jamaican beach bum
who won't let you borrow his stuff unless you fix his stuff in return. I
actually quite liked Johnny. He was a complex character with a cool
accent, and you discover a huge secret about him in the middle of the
game which is great. Now if we had about 3 other characters it would
have been great!
Coucou is a parrot...kind of like Loulou from CUR,
because Loulou is Coucou's grandmother. How original. Coucou is like the
"teenage" Loulou, she was actually very funny and helpful, moreso than
Loulou was. Coucou helped provide some comic relief.
George is kinda
useless the whole game. She doesn't offer help and really you don't even
need her. Plus she looked like a granny (so did Bess). Kinda
disappointed in that. So the characters get a measly 4/10 because I
liked Johnny and Coucou.
Graphics
UGH. Are the graphics people
getting lazy or something? Why were we in 3rd person for practically
the entire game? :( I really prefer clicking around the island rather
than using the car/boat to get around. I appreciate the graphics more
when I can actually see them! The beach and the water were well-done
though as was Coucou. IDK if it was just my game, but Johnny's shoulders
were like...disconnected from his body the whole game. The graphics get
a 6/10.
Ending
WHOA. Totally wasn't expecting that! The twist
with the culprit is incredibly surprising. I loved it! I just wish the
actual ending puzzle/sequence was more intense. It wasn't timed; there
wasn't even any music in the background! Not very exciting. But the
twist was great, so the ending receives a 7/10. Also, I liked that the
ending didn't require chasing someone like the past like 5 games have.
Length
This
game was a pretty decent length. Not too long, not outrageously short,
although I wish it was a little longer! That being said the length gets a
6/10. It did feel a little too short. I finished it in 3 days playing
less than 2 hours a day.
Miscellaneous
Where do I start?
The
music sounded like they just ripped it off from Danger on Deception
Island. Sometimes the music would be cheery and upbeat and sometimes it
would be really intense/scary when it didn't need to be.
I really
do not like playing mini-games! I've noticed this is a trend in the
later games. Mini-games should be optional. I do not like having my
progress in the game being determined by luck. So I really didn't like
when I had to visit the monkeys and play games with them.
As
previously mentioned, the third person drove me crazy. More of the game
was in 3rd person than in 1st person! I felt like I wasn't Nancy the
whole game. sigh. Plus I kept getting lost on the road, it would have
been much easier to just click around and have signs or something. Dear
HER, please get rid of the 3rd-person driving and walking!
I
loved the puzzles in this game. I know some people found them hard, but I
liked them! I have felt like the puzzles weren't hard enough in past
games so these were good. I also liked how if you read El Toro's journal
the puzzles were pretty manageable. However, there were simply too many
puzzles. It got very tedious! But, the only puzzle I disliked involved
hourglasses. That drove me crazy!
I can't help but compare this
game to FIN (the Final Scene, game #5) because both games involve a
kidnapping. However, in FIN, you were on the edge of your seat, fearing
that you would run out of time and Maya would never be found. In this
game, no one seemed to care that Bess was missing! There was no rush, no
intensity to the game that I feel like they should have added. I mean,
this is Nancy's best friend at stake here! Miscellaneous receives a
5/10.
---
Overall, this game gets a 5/10 (rounded up to 3 stars).
It's definitely a better "island" game than Creature of Kapu Cave (game
#15) is. If you like scary games, though, this one is definitely not for
you - it wasn't scary at all. Of the two games involving a kidnapping,
The Final Scene (game #5) is much better and has more memorable
characters.
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