Atmospheric, bordering on creepy sometimes, this game has everything you could wish for in the genre. Lights, sounds, nightmares and interesting imagery. It is a game (like all nancy drew games) for very patient people, who like to follow through with a story and discover its techniques of creating suspense. I especially loved the dialogues and the night-vision concept. The game has no daylight, which contributes to the ghost-like trend in the game.

Adventure games are not for me...

But, this one has got some good qualities. Most noticeably, at least to me, this particular Nancy Drew game features a lot of traditional occult symbolism and you have to familiarize yourself with it to pass some of these puzzles. You get to learn runic, alchemical symbols and astrology symbols as well. So that's cool. The puzzles are also quite satisfying to solve, once you get it. Admittedly, I did have to consult a FAQ on a few occasions.

The interface of the game is pretty traditional for first-person adventure games. You have to click left or right or up or down in order to get anywhere, otherwise there's a scrolling screen where you get a 360 view. The thing is that navigating through the manor can get really tiresome. You sometimes have to solve a puzzle over again in order to get where you've already been. At that point, it's just annoying.

And speaking of annoying, there was one particular puzzle where you had to get an answer from a character, navigate to the point of the puzzle, plug in your answer and then run back... four times. And did I mention that you have to do one of those puzzles to open a passageway to get to the place where the puzzle is?

Well, I give this one a passing grade, but you feel more like a puzzler than a detective. THOUGH, there is a plot point that was never resolved that is driving me crazy.

TL;DR - It's a puzzle game, not a mystery solving game.

My god. If you are looking for a good mystery game, this is it. I seriously have no idea how they expect little girls to play this and know what they are doing. You must do a great deal of in-game research, and talk to everyone in order to understand how to solve the insane ammount of puzzles. I learned every symbol for the Zodiak, the Planets, and I even memorized RUNES for goodness sake! Not only that, but you can actually die in this game, multiple gruesome ways! The lack of blood was the only thing that probably kept this at the rating it is now.

If you put the hardmode on (senior detective), all that changed as far as I can see if that you don't have a checklist to help you along. That said, I inform you to do two things: 1) Write stuff down in your own physical notebook. I had every bit of information at my fingertips, and I could put down what I thought would happen, and possible solutions and translations. 2) For the love of god, and all that is holy, finish the game without taking multiple days off fromt he game. There is no way you will remember all the things you were supposed to do after a few days of not playing.

There was absolutly nothing in this game that wasn't incredibly satisfying to solve. I loved this game, it's setting (very dark and spooky), and all the puzzles and the big mystery itself! The only sad thing is that it's pretty much one playthrough. Regardless, if you love mystery games, this is the game to get. I will be buying the other Nancy Drew games eventually to enjoy just as much as I did this one.

This is one of the first point and click adventure games that I played. I picked this up during a large sale as a way to introduce myself into the genre. And I'm glad that I did. It isn't the perfect game, but it is good. Some of the puzzles weren't exactly logical and you might need to guess until you get it right or look at a guide to figure it out. I'm sure some people will scoff at the idea of playing a Nancy Drew game, but I'd say you should look past that.

I haven't played any of the other Nancy Drew games, but I'd consider picking more of them up at the right price. I'd recommend picking it up at 75% off or maybe in a bundle that would offer the games at less than a dollar each.

I will update this review to be more in-depth at a later time.

From all the Nancy Drew games I have played (about 10), this is by far the hardest, and by a big margin. Many of the puzzles are extremely obscure and hard to figure out without a guide. If you like easy casual games and do not like hard puzzles that you have to figure out via vague hints given in the game, then you will get stuck and you will not like this game. Getting through this game without reading an online guide even once is a real challenge, and probably unsurmountable for most casual players.

That being said, you might notice that I'm actually giving this a positive review. That's because personally I just loved this game. When I started to play this game and noticed how amazingly hard and obscure the puzzles are, I decided that come hell or high water, I will complete this game without looking at an online guide even once. And I did.

And the thing is: When I finally succeeded, it was amazingly rewarding. I don't mean that the game rewards you with something special; I just mean that being able to figure out all the puzzles without any external help feels really rewarding all in itself.

All puzzles are solvable with logic, either using what the puzzle itself presents, or information gotten elsewhere (and most often both.) No puzzle requires blind guessing or trying all possible combinations. You will most probably require making notes or take screenshots to remember some of the info, but that's just part of the charm.

If you like hard logic puzzles and want to challenge yourself, I recommend this game. It's technically speaking very old (even for the year it was published), but that's not a big deal. However, if you don't have the patience, you will most probably not like this game.

I've played this game twice now, once on junior detective and most recently on senior detective. It was my first Nancy Drew adventure game and it's my favorite so far. It is very challenging to discover all of the secrets of the old mansion where Nancy is staying as she tries to find out what's wrong with a friend's newlywed daughter who married into a mysterious family with a very long ancestry. Is there really an ancient curse, and is the beast of Blackwood Manor real? This game is packed full of such features as alchemy, heraldry, runes, gargoyles, secret passageways, and numerous puzzles. Do not be fooled by this being a "Nancy Drew" game. It is quite difficult with very little (if any) handholding. I can easily imagine myself playing this game again a few months from now when it has become less fresh in my mind. If you decide to give it a try, I hope you enjoy it too!

No one seems to be interested in these games because they have Nancy Drew in the title...
If you're a fan of point-and-clicks, like I am, you know that less and less of them are coming out each year. This series of games completely fills my addiction to P-n-C games, and as long as you can get over Nancy's voice they'll fill yours too! The games are mediocer-to-great in my opinion, but I've been playing them since I was 8 or so. I'd totally reccomend trying one out while they are on sale :)

walkthroughs are your friend... OH and have a note pad near by.

Good game! Make sure to take note of the little things thou

Love all ND games...duh

Very nice game if you are into mysterius games

The best game that ever existed. A titillating experience. Although I never solved the case.

I cant believe I paid few euros for this crap. So much work was put on the modeling but the textures and sound effects make my eyes bleed. Controls are so bad it took minutes to simply get from place A to B... ugh.

I finished this game in 8ish hours, with immense help from guides. I cannot believe that this game was made for young people. The time mechanic made it tedious to progress, while the timed challenges did not add to the difficulty of the task, but did add to the frustration. The dark hallways served no purpose, except to throw you off in what direction you were going. The most important item in the game (The Silent Book) you could not take with you, meaning that you either had to document it yourself (like I did), or backtrack a million times. The ending left me highly unsatisfied. The amount of work put into the challenges, versus the satisfaction one feels from completing them, was not symbiotic. Some of the games were left to pure chance with minimal amount of stategy.

I played these games with my mom when I was a kid and has a blast. I play them now mostly for the nostalgia. The graphics aren't amazing and the games are a bit old. But the puzzles in this one take no prisoners and some of the areas are pretty creepy. It incorporated a lot of anchient European history/folklore and astronomy which I enjoyed a lot as a kid and still do now. If you like a relaxed, point-and-click mystery puzzle game, this is the one for you.