Among all the impressive variety of computer games, alas, it is quite rare to come across truly worthwhile detectives. Now stealth-action has rapidly come into fashion, and all sorts of semyfishers sneak across users’ monitors, not forgetting to take into account the illumination of narrow corridors and the silicon brains of numerous security guards. And detective stories, which once, along with quests, proudly bore the title of the most popular genre on the PC, are dying out. However, some developers quite rightly do not succumb to a pessimistic mood, and among them Her Interactive, creators of a brilliant and very revered series in certain circles Nancy Drew.
So, meet Nancy Drew, a pretty, restless, curious, nosy and devilishly smart girl with a downright Potter-like (although, in fairness, we note that it was this dark-haired British citizen who took this skill from Lady Drew) ability to get involved in various stories. Okay, if all the catharsis was limited to a cat that climbed a tree and, poor thing, can’t get down. No! Scoundrels, bandits, murderers and other criminal elements hang around Drew in a dense swarm. The number of crimes and secrets in which our heroine is one way or another involved is increasing every day in geometric progression. And, what is especially gratifying, she, demonstrating abilities that Sherlock Holmes would envy, unwinds tightly coiled balls of secrets and brings skeletons out of closets into the world over the course of fourteen games!
And on our agenda today – Nancy Drew: Danger by Design, the last part of the series for now.
The Ways of Conan Doyle.
The developers from Her Interactive. Nancy seems to have seen more countries of the world in her young years than some venerable geographers and travelers of advanced years. The new game corrects one small but serious oversight: Lady Drew has never been to Paris before. However, instead of going to this capital of lovers with one of her boyfriends, or just gawking at all sorts of architectural wonders, she flies there with an important mission: to understand what exactly is rotten in the kingdom of fashion.
The fact is that in the life of an extremely gifted couturier woman named Minette (sic!) a dark streak has come. The threads, you know, are running away, the seams are coming apart, there is almost no time to fulfill a huge order for the spring collection, male workers are trying to pinch the most interesting place. In general, life quickly went to hell, and Minette takes her anger out on her subordinates, firing almost all of her staff (approx.: She’ll probably sew everything herself. ) and putting some kind of wonderful mask on his pretty face. What is the deep existential meaning of this act of protest is, of course, unclear at first, but the players usually sigh knowingly and wonder if they should wear such a mask in their office so that the boss will condescend to demand a vacation for a year, or better yet, two.
The immoral paparazzi did not take into account the plight of the unfortunate French woman and immediately inflated the elephants to colossal proportions, mentioning the city psychiatric hospital, and “defamatory connections”, and, to put it mildly, the unusual headdress of the fashion designer. So now Minette doesn’t just concentrate, pull herself together and order her to calm down – it’s a shame to go out into the street, because ten people run up at once and point their fingers in an uncivil manner.
Everything is so bad that the kind-hearted acquaintances of the disgraced couturier call the best detective they know (the “lucky” ticket fell on Nancy Drew, undoubtedly!), so that he gains the trust of Minette, who has begun to be afraid of her own shadow, and finds out what kind of outrages are poisoning the life of the poor thing.
Nancy Drew will have to work undercover, or rather, she will have to pretend to be a spy, sneaking across the enemy border, tying pounds of moose hooves to her feet. The couturier should not learn anything about the “sent Cossack” so as not to provoke her brain centers responsible for destructive actions. Well, for the first time or something?? And our heroine gets down to business.
Elementary, https://paris-casino.co.uk/games/ Watson!
Before us is a classic adventure game with detailed quest elements. Having successfully screwed half a kilogram of choice noodles into the ears of the long-suffering fashion designer, Nancy gets a vacant position as an assistant (by the way, in order not to get it, it was worth trying very hard – the angry Minette dispersed all the slaves working for her, leaving, for some reasons of her own, only the slightly intimidated fellow countrywoman, lady detective Heather McKay). This means that along with the investigation, the girl will have to carry out instructions from the irritated madam. Moreover, there is no point in delaying their implementation: the long box in which the player puts the designer’s quests aside is quite capable of becoming a kind of “wooden mac” illustrating the inexorable Game Over.
In addition, the tasks are quite interesting, although a little boring for a person far from the world of fashion. What is it worth just to create a variety of clothing collections, taking into account the tastes of fastidious and fabulously wealthy customers?. You say it’s nonsense? I’ll say – a full paragraph. One person can’t stand certain colors, and if you slip him clothes of that color, a global catastrophe is guaranteed: a meteorite fall will seem like a child’s snowball compared to the anger of a deceived client. The second one is even more picky and does not want to wear certain things in the set. A US millionaire categorically refuses to wear yellow in the warm season. There is a lot of trouble with these “big little children”, but we still have many other tasks and, in fact, an investigation. Having replaced, in fact, many, many people, Nancy must work hard for an entire department: work as a secretary, prepare drinks, solve problems with equipment repairmen (don’t smile – you won’t get any vulgarities here, friends). FedEx quests are very annoying, and there are so many of them here: they take up a lot of time, but are of no use. You see, our proud ward’s dad made her solemnly promise not to go out into the dangerous streets of Paris at a late hour. The late hour begins promptly at nine, so Nancy has the opportunity to conduct investigations only during “children’s time.”. Guess in one try, the fashion designer’s tasks are designed to be completed at night or during the day? It’s very unpleasant to run somewhere with a letter or another trinket, realizing that a measly thirty minutes will not be enough to solve the next terrible mystery.
But the investigation itself unexpectedly turns out to be a much more labor-intensive process than all these frankly side quests. In order to find the next clue, you have to talk with an innumerable number of characters. But this is by no means a boring process – some are so cartoonish that they make you smile the first time they appear.
Mysteries of the old house.
Naturally, the puzzles here can sometimes leave you scratching your head. Like memorable The Da Vinci Code, the lion’s share of riddles are linguistic, and they are related to data decoding. It would be nice if only English words were present in them, the developers, not forgetting about the geographical area in which the action takes place, generously crammed puzzles in French. It’s hard to say anything in D’Artagnan’s language other than "Cherche la femme"? Just like that. Some of these linguistic obstacles, which are quite slowing down the gameplay, can be overcome by involving characters in the passage. well, or a familiar French teacher, whoever is more pleasant.
The list of disappointments is successfully continued by numerous borrowings from past games in the series. The “creatives” of Her Interactive simply took it and, with great arrogance, inserted into Danger by Design some of the most successful and unusual quests of bygone years. "How do you like, for example, culinary practice? Already been? “Oh, well, repeat, don’t break,” the developers kindly inform the puzzled and indignant player.
The next (and last) splash – timed tasks. And the reason for my indignation is not that I imagine the braking system of twenty years ago, but the complete impossibility of the symbiosis of a maliciously ticking “alarm clock” and stupid controls.
Final comments.
Plot. The story is somewhat drawn out, but interesting and original. The only thing is, in my opinion, a new series Nancy Drew more designed for the fair sex, whereas the previous ones were much more universal.
Graphics. The graphics engine, as befits an adventure game, produces a nice picture; Some locations lovingly recreated by designers make me want to give a standing ovation. But for such logs of wood, covered with textures, which for some reason they stubbornly call people here, their hands were torn off for good two years ago.
Sound and music. Once again, the soundtrack suffers the common fate of games of this caliber: it’s unbearably drab. You won’t remember the music, even if you only listen to it 24 hours a day, and it’s better not to listen to the voices of the characters – they are well replaced by credits.
Throwing all their efforts into creating a fascinating, “specialized” narrative about the world of high fashion, the developers ignored the decrepit and wrinkled graphics engine, riveted a dozen boring tracks, drew a couple of divine locations and hurried to print the game.
Despite all the positive aspects, the conveyor craft. It is recommended to buy in two cases: 1. Are you a big fan of Nancy Drew? 2. You have nothing to play at all.