Image source: Source: HeR Interactive
I haven’t been on Twitter much, so apparently, I missed this gem of a news item. On April 1 (thankfully, it wasn’t an April Fool’s joke), HeR Interactive's Twitter account tweeted a letter from Nancy herself indicating that she was ready for her newest case. While there isn’t yet a name for the game or a release date, this will be the 34th entry in the series. Yes, you read that right: 34th.
Now, I’ve played all but one of those games. I never played the most recent one, Midnight in Salem. There was a change in the game engine and a new Nancy Drew voice actor, and some of the reviews weren’t that great, so I never got around to playing it. Though I haven’t had much time to review adventure video games on the side these days, especially as I’m absolutely obsessed with the release of Nintendo’s Tears of the Kingdom (have you seen all the crazy things the new fuse ability lets you create?), I do still have fond memories of the Nancy Drew video games from HeR Interactive. I’ve reviewed quite a few of them, including The Silent Spy, which was a genuinely moving entry in the series.
The intrepid teenage detective is usually quite independent, solving mysteries with her own intellect and occasionally the aid of her friends, Frank and Joe Hardy and Bess Marvin and George Fayne. Nancy’s father, attorney Drew Carson, is usually a silent background figure lending a sense of gravitas and offering up legal advice every now and then, but actively helps her in The Silent Spy. She lost her mother when she was young, and in The Silent Spy, Nancy learns more about her mother’s death. The game explores Nancy’s feelings about her mother and her father, including what she feels about growing up mostly without a mother, which adds some welcome depth to a game typically about educational learning and puzzle-solving.
It was the possibility of such narrative depth that had me disappointed with HeR Interactive’s most recent outing, Midnight in Salem. It got mediocre reviews, with many fans not happy with the game engine change. A new voice actress, Brittany Cox, took over Nancy’s voice work, which was quite a change from Lani Minella, who had previously voiced Nancy for the 32 earlier games. I just couldn't get myself excited enough to purchase it.
There was a period where there was a new Nancy Drew game released once and even twice a year. I loved each game as they came out. I always enjoyed figuring out the logic puzzles, meeting zany characters (like the gruff pub-dwelling Gunnar Tonnisson from Sea of Darkness, who states: “[Magnus] was too tall. Too poetic. Too cry-into-your-guitar-and-mourn-for-the-sea. Always quiet. Always thinking. Too soft. Beard too short. Coat too long. Eyelashes too full.") and learning new facts and history about times and places (like learning about "Traditional Japanese family ryokans (inns) in Shadow at the Water's Edge).
And then there were four years between Sea of Darkness, the 32nd game, and Midnight in Salem, which was released in 2019. While there’s been no official release date that I can see as of yet, let’s hope this is the beginning of a new adventure-filled future for the teen detective.
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