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 | Nancy Drew: Trail of the Twister |
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Product Description
Apprehend a Saboteur Stirring up Turbulent Trouble! $100,000,000 is at stake in this competition to discover a formula to predict tornado touchdowns. But when equipment starts failing and crew members are injured, you as Nancy Drew, must join the team to keep them in the competition. Is it just bad luck that's plaguing the storm chasers or is someone sabotaging their chances of winning?Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #829 in Video Games
- Brand: Her Interactive
- Model: 23
- Published on: 2010-06-29
- Released on: 2010-06-29
- ESRB Rating: Everyone
- Platforms: Windows Vista, Mac OS X Intel, Windows 7, Windows XP, Mac OS X
- Format: CD-ROM
Features
- Playable on both PC and Mac platforms
- Play as Nancy Drew and go undercover as a storm chaser
- Immerse yourself in meteorology by studying clouds, reading Doppler data, and surviving tornadoes
- Collect pennies by playing arcade games to purchase candy from the store
- Choose from Junior or Senior Detective difficulty levels
Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Customer Reviews
What's there is good, but what's not there is disappointing
Here's the setup: P.G.
Krolmeister--yes, THAT P.G. Krolmeister--has hired you to investigate a
series of accidents befalling a team of Oklahoma storm chasers. As
expected, the storm chasers are a bit of a motley crew, with the
stirrings of distinctive, engaging personalities. By completing a series
of assigned tasks, you move the plot forward without too much free
exploration or play. However, unlike the equally task-driven Ransom of
the Seven Ships, these puzzles are thoroughly solvable and not too
time-consuming--which is too bad, because that's pretty much what you
do. Talk to Debbie. Receive tasks. Complete tasks. Move on. This goes
along at a pretty good clip; I watched the credits 10 hours on the nose
after completing installation, and I did not play the game the entire
time.
With such a shallow experience, the ending felt sudden and
forced, with barely any suspense and even less sleuthing. You do suspect
various characters throughout the game, but not because you've
uncovered surprising new clues. Instead, the game--at times
literally--tells you to. There are no plot twists. There are no new
phone friends. There are no secret passages leading to new locations.
For that matter, there are hardly even any locations. This is very much a
linear, what-you-see-is-what-you-get game.
And that's what's so
frustrating--and disappointing--about ToT: it's the smart kid who bombed
the big exam. There's so much potential in this game that simply goes
unrealized. The combination of sharp writing, solid characters, a
logical plot, and challenging but beatable puzzles sounds like a sure
winner, and indeed it would be if the game did more than scratch the
surface of what those had to offer. As it is, it's a fun diversion
rather than an engrossing story.
It's worth noting, too, that if
Warnings at Waverly Academy was the ND game for tweens and teens, then
this is the installment for adults. The subject matter, the characters'
back stories, even the vocabulary level of the written texts all seem
geared toward an older audience. Not necessarily in a negative way, just
in a "what fourteen-year-old knows or cares about tenure?" kind of way.
Tedious and uninteresting
My 11 year old seemed to like
the game. However, as an adult Nancy Drew fan, I found it boring. There
are LOTS and LOTS of tedious chores to do, many of which have nothing
to do with solving the mystery. If you like spooky, edge of your seat,
this is not going to provide that. I found the characters to be hokey
and annoying. It was hard for my 11 yr. old to drive the car in this
game. However, she solved many of the puzzles without cheats. One thing I
love about HerInteractive is the great opportunity to learn something
new in their games. You do learn about weather patterns, cloud
formations and the like. Not my favorite by far but lots to do in this
game if you like puzzles. VERY excited for the next game coming out!
Looks very spooky and it takes place in Japan!
Doing Chores Comes Before Chasing Tornadoes, Nancy
Drew
Nancy Drew 22: Trail Of The
Twister
-Before I Begin...
My review will be spilt up into
sections and have a in-depth look at that topic. Then at the end of the
review I round up the stars and give an overall rating.
-Interface
The
interface is just the same as Warnings At Waverly Academy and the other
newer games. Just point in the direction you want to go in and click
basically. There is a new icon though that is special to this game, that
is the Phone icon and the Pa Pennies icon. The Phone icon lets you go
onto Nancy's phone to make calls, take pictures, change the time in the
game, and change the settings (background and color). I really liked the
cell phone feature of this game. It's a lot of fun to take pictures and
change the background of the phone to whatever you want from the game.
Throughout the game, you can collect Pa Pennies which can be used to
play an arcade game and buy candy. Overall, a great interface for
playing, very intuitive.
*****
-Plot
The plot was
pretty "tried and true" for this series. Basically someone is sabotaging
the Canute College Tornado Chasing Team's equipment. The Team is in a
competition with other tornado chasers for $100,000,000 which puts the
stakes pretty high. It's a good plot, but if you have played the other
Nancy Drew games, you recognize the plot pretty well. Also the plot
wasn't really developed as well as it could have been. Plus there
weren't very many examples of sabotage that really made the plot
believable. Some examples were a broken coolant pipe in a car, a video
camera that doesn't work, a mice infestation, and a phone line that
explodes. Frankly the sabotage was somewhat juvenile to me.
***
-Characters
The
characters were great and well developed. But the interaction was only
great in the beginning. The conversations with the characters only last
for the first and second day, then it just seems like you are doing
tasks for them ALL THE TIME. But the personalities were great, they got a
good variety of possible suspects. And each character had a good
possible motive for sabotage. The voice acting was very good as well. If
only they developed the characters more and allowed for more
conversation then it would be awesome. The phone characters were great
too. You get to talk to PG Krolmeister and The Hardy Boys. Too bad you
can't talk to more people.
****
-Setting & Graphics
The
Graphics are amazing and lifelike as they always are. The outdoor
scenery is beautiful and the farmhouse interiors are cozy and real. The
only problem with this is the Setting. There just isn't much to see or
explore. There are only two environments you can really explore, the
farmhouse, and Ma 'n Pa's General Store. There are a couple of little
places where you can take pictures of clouds but other than that there
is literally nothing else to see. And it is really disappointing since
there are so many roads you get to drive and a huge map to drive through
with hardly any locations to stop at. It reminded me of Secret Of The
Old Clock, but even in that game there was more to explore.
***
-Puzzles/Activities
The
actual puzzles were great. They were natural to the game and made sense
with the plot. They were challenging and fun, but small few of the
puzzles were just outrageously annoying. You have to set up a number
grid/pyramid when the camera dies and it just takes forever. Another
thing I didn't like was that it was all about chores. Leave it to Nancy
to be gracious and help every character with their chores. But these
characters are just plain demanding. It would have been fine if Nancy
did these puzzles/activities on her own, but having the character force
you into doing it to advance in the game is really annoying. It takes
the fun away when you are doing these puzzles just for the sake of doing
it for someone else.
***
-Ending
The ending was just
standard to this series, similar to the other endings in different ND
games. Although just like Warnings at Waverly Academy, it ends sort of
abruptly and even reveals the culprit before you get a chance to
determine who it is. The ending scenes are still suspenseful and worth
getting too. And the conclusion scenes tie up all the loose ends very
nicely. I felt rewarded after finishing the game which made the chores
worth it. Still, I wish the game didn't end so quickly, I finished it in
one day (about 10-12 hours).
***
-Fun Factor
As much as I
griped about the chores and the lack of exploration. I still had fun
playing the game. There is some funny moments that take off the
seriousness of doing work all the time. Playing Land Rush was also very
addicting, and I kept buying candy so Nancy would throw up. And I would
buy candy to give all the characters. Like almost all of the Nancy Drew
games, you will have fun.
****
-Overall
The good parts of
this game are good. But I just feel that this game is missing that extra
development that would have made this game a hit. I love that Her
Interactive puts out two games a year. But maybe they should only put
out one game a year. That way they could spend more time on making an
extra long game that is fully developed. They have put a lot on there
shoulders this year with releasing Trail Of The Twister AND Secrets Can
Kill (Remastered) while also finishing up on the Fall release. I commend
them for staying strong these past 22 games. I really enjoyed Warnings
At Waverly Academy it had the right amount of everything. This release
feels off balance. Too many chores, not enough REAL detective work. I
would still recommend this game because its pretty exciting to learn
about tornadoes this way. But this game is definitely not one of my
favorites, it's missing the things that make a good game GREAT. If you
are new to the series try Warnings At Waverly Academy or Phantom Of
Venice.
Add all these up and divide by 7...
4 *'s (Interface)
3
*'s (Plot)
4 *'s (Characters)
3 *'s (Setting & Graphics)
3
*'s (Puzzles/Activites)
4 *'s (Fun Factor)
3 *'s (Ending)
= 24
Stars Divide By 7 (Categories) = 3.4 = Rounded to 3 Stars
-Recommended
Games
Ransom Of The Seven Ships (See my review of this game)
The
Phantom Of Venice (See my review of this game)
Danger On Deception
Island
Last Train To Blue Moon Canyon (See my review of this game)
Thanks
for reading my review!
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