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Being a fan of a "Nancy Drew" series for many years, I have seen all sorts of games about her. Some I just adore, I like most of it, a few left me indifferent. But with all confidence I can say that «Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy» is the most personal game of the series, opening the window to the player in the world of a young girl-detective and in the past of her parents. Attempts to learn more about the car accident, in which her mother Kate died 10 years ago, lead an curious girl in Glasgow, and each new step leads to even more mysteries. Even the person closest to Nancy, her father Carson, behaves strangely, apparently hiding something and not talking about the circumstances of the accident. And gradually, a whole spy story is revealed in front of the player, with interesting plot moves, terrorist organizations and special services, the rather grim and viscous atmosphere of Scotland and suspicions around every corner.

The 29th game of the series, of course, cannot hit with some revolutionary changes (and for what?), but there is some improvement in the graphic part, there are some interesting solutions in sound design, technically the series is moving forward, while not forgetting its traditions. Like any modern teenager, the phone in the hands of Nancy is a powerful weapon that can help in any situation. According to him, she will be able to consult about the difficulties of the investigation with her closest friends and father, gather important information, and when it’s boring, just play simple mobile games. An important role, as the name of the game actually implies, will be played by various spywares, with the help of which it will be necessary to solve puzzles, hack and eavesdrop, getting to the bottom of the truth.

If we say that I was not touched, it is mandatory to make money for various purposes (but I’ll just say that I didn’t like it in previous games too, because it distracted from the main investigation) In this game you can either find them in hidden places, or get baking cookies. This job is fun, but after a while it gets boring. This is not a critical minus, and it does not affect the overall impression of the game. Yes, and some musical puzzles do not always like all the players.

And of course, the creators of the game will give the player not only to carry out an investigation, but also to learn many new interesting facts about Scotland, through studying various books, brochures, visiting many beautiful locations. I like this theme very much, so I sincerely enjoyed every new discovery. Together with very personal experiences, all this created a very interesting and coherent picture, which was fascinating to follow. And forward to the new adventures of our beloved Nancy!

A silent spy is a dead spy

Nancy Drew is one of the most well known fictional detectives in literature. Many grew up with her books and games, and even if they forget the name, Nancy Drew can easily bring up an image of a teenage girl detective solving mysteries. For her 29th adventure in her game series, it gets a little more personal. In both her books and the games, Nancy’s mother is not looked into nor given any extensive backstory. All we know is that she died when Nancy was young. So what happens when Mrs. Drew is the mystery?

With Mrs. Drew’s bare backstory, Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy builds on it to give her more character. Named Kate Drew, she visited Glasgow, Scotland after getting a phone call eight years ago. She never returned and died in a car accident.

Eight years later, a mysterious letter is delivered to Nancy from a MI-5 organization named Cathedral asking her to go to Scotland. Kate’s death is not what it seems and has gone unsolved since. Soon learning that her mother was a spy taking down a terrorist organization called Revenant with the cost of her life. But Kate’s death is believed to have been intentionally caused by Revenant. Nancy soon finds herself taking her mother’s place as Revenant starts to rise again.

As she arrives in Scotland, it seems like the few people she meets is nice and immediately wants to help her. Each character has their own quirks that I could not help but love. Other than the repeating characters of Carson and Ned, both wanting Nancy to get home safely and giving you information this time around, there are only a few characters. There is Bridget, a friendly native that takes an instant liking to you, Moira, a woman who has a close connection with Kate, Alec, a skip tracer, and Ewan, your Cathedral contact that assists you throughout your mission. Don’t put too much trust in them, after all everyone hides secrets.

A lot of the characters are likeable, my favorite being Bridget, and you do get the feeling that they are hiding something from you. Bridget in particular gives off an energetic vibe, mostly through her great voice acting and writing. In fact, everyone is written and voice acted well. While I do not know my Scottish accents, all of the people that is supposed to have one does have a constant and natural sounding accent. None of them suddenly changes it for no reason and you can hear that they share the same accent.

The dynamic of Carson and Nancy is heartwarming. They both miss Kate, but they have different ways of showing it. While Nancy agrees to go to Scotland to learn of her mother’s true lifestyle, Carson wants Nancy to be safe. He does lock up some of Kate’s papers but it is to keep her safe as Carson knows her drive to solve mysteries. When he realizes Nancy will not go home till she finds out, they both have a heart to heart and Carson goes along with it.

With Nancy, you do see why everyone wants her to go back home. Nancy is the only one not caring about the harm that can befall her, mostly seen with Revenant contacting her. You can decide to do the activities Revenant gives you to gain more information about your mother and thus show how far she is willing to go. She also gets to do some cool spy stuff with the gadgets she gets. A few flashbacks to Nancy’s childhood when Kate was still alive is also nice. It further connects her to Kate and makes it more believable.

You get a lot of history of Scotland through books and newspapers, some optional and others used for puzzles. With one of the ways you can get money making cookies at the stand outside of your hotel. Though you only get a few areas to go to. I’m disappointed that Nancy did not go to where Kate had her car “accident”, especially since she went mostly for her mother, or try to dig up any reports. Most being inside, with one of the pubs not able to enter. It would of been interesting to have a lot of areas to go to branching off of the train station to give it a more of a Scottish feel rather than just locations.

There are a variety of puzzles for you to enjoy. Some puzzles go with the Scotland area such as having you figure out the names of Scottish food and recreating and recognizing a tartan design. Others use logic as you try to figure out various codes or arranging letters to unlock something. There are interesting puzzles scattered around, one of the most memorable ones contain you having to understand sheet music. Only a few puzzles are timed and they give a good amount of time in relation to what you need to do. Be careful, as most have an implied timer. You can always start over if you are caught.

Though why is Cathedral using the same passwords from eight years ago, especially when Revenant needs the information Kate has to rise again. There had to be someone in Cathedral that knew, or could of hacked into, her password just in case Revenant figured it out before Nancy.

There was one puzzle that did not work out in their favor, the Jabberwocky puzzle. Early on you find out one of the papers in your suitcase was a poem Kate kept called the Jabberwocky. Once you receive a colored version, all you know is that it is a regular poem. Though suspicion is raised with some words being colored and most not. This is when it gets muddled. Nancy Drew games are designed in a way that you can do steps out of order if possible, so you do get some wiggle room. The problem with the Jabberwocky puzzle is that you will know it is a puzzle, and not just a poem, if you skip to the last clue. Kate left a recording of her giving instructions on how to decode the message, and even Nancy says there is a message hidden in the poem, but you can not solve it yet. You have to get told to follow those instructions on a note. This could of been handled with the note not being needed to start decoding but for the player to use it as a reference, like the books you get are. I am also disappointed that you can’t find all the letters yourself, as it already writes down the letters and puts spaces where it did not specify in the recording. It would of added another way for the player to take the role of a detective.

+ Strong story
+ Good voice work and soundtrack
+ Puzzles
+ A few easter eggs scattered around

+/- Limited locations

– Some unanswered questions
– Jabberwocky puzzle

Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy is a great game in the Nancy Drew series. It was interesting having a game where Nancy is driven by her personal need to know what happened to her mother. Everything is handled seriously and you can feel how the Drew family misses Kate. It was a risk giving Kate Drew this backstory and having the player not believing it from the other family members, but it does work out. If you have not played the others, or only played some of them like I have, this is a good entry point.

This is my personal favorite honestly. I love that I get to know about Nancy's mom and all the mystery behind her dissapearance. This one really shows a level of love that you don't really see in the others. This one is really emotional too and that really makes it great!

This is probably my favourite Nancy Drew game to date. The back story is interesting as well as emotional, and the game stays true to this all the way through. Aside from one puzzle that is built up more than it should be, the rest of them range between simple to complex, with a nice variety of each. The characters are all diverse and layered in their own way, and really add to the game's interest. I looked forward to playing this game, since it was announced, and it definitley did not disappoint!

This one is a blast! What happened to Nancy Drew's mom? Was her death really an accident? Loved the story and the puzzles in this one. (Except for the bagpipes. There's always one puzzle that just sucks.)

This game had a slightly different feel than the others in the series, in a good way. This game really has heart, something this series really hasn't tried to explore up to this point, but it is handled very, very well.

Scotland. Secret agent themed brain teasers. Scotland. Archery. Need I say more?

Seriously, if you are a long time Nancy Drew game fan, this one hits all the marks, not to mention it's a rare and responsibly told foray into Nancy's canon and they do such a good job with the story. The game flows well and there always seem to be something to do, even in lulls
(of which there were few). It has a good range of puzzles, ranging from fun, to medium to challenging (for me these are always the ones where you simply use association and intuition to put the clues together, and ultimately solve it using trial and error). Be warned there is a lot of text/letters to read and lots of dialogue.
Also, great endgame, not too fast and manages to be satisfying.

Overall, I'd give this one a 7.5/10! I liked the story and the puzzles were a good level of difficulty, perhaps it was on the medium side. Some of the characters were great, some were alright. The setting of this game was a good one as well, however there weren't that many places to explore. I'm glad that the "chore" type stuff in this one was super minimal - barely there at all. I also liked that most of the resources you needed were with you most of the time.

One of the weaker points to this one was that there was a lot of repetition in the conversations with the characters. I think Nancy asked the same questions like 10 times. But because I liked most of the characters enough, it was not unbearable, and you can skip through them. It also felt like a relatively short game compared to some others.

For reference, my favorites in the series are Blue Moon, Royal Tower and Ghost of Thornton. My least favorite is Shadow Ranch (too many chores and annoying characters lol). I think the ND games are very subjective, and the setting is usually what makes the most difference to me personally. If you like European setting/spy stuff you'll probably enjoy this one.

This is only the third Nancy Drew game I've played and I almost feel bummed out because it was so good that I don't know how any of the other ND games will top it. The spy stuff was really fun and the in-game hint system was great. Mainly, though, the fact that it touches on Nancy's mom and her relationships with Nancy, Nancy's dad, and even her friends is both really interesting and deeply poignant.

i've had about 14 years of history with this series, which makes this one feel so much more special than it would if it were my first ND game. honestly? play a few others first (try the highest rated ones), then alibi in ashes, and THEN this one. it's still a good standalone game, but it's a GREAT instalment in an ongoing series. being familiar with the characters and world makes the story so much stronger.

as for the puzzles and story advancement, they're fun. i hated the one with the grid of letters and the glass panels tho lol. i like that you can opt in to "helping" the bad guys in exchange for more info. this game is genuinely tense and exciting in terms of pacing and anticipation.

i rate it 9/10, only because there are a few critical hotspots that are hard to see and i would've been stuck for a lot longer if not for having accidentally moused over them, like a few locks/keypads hidden in the dark for example. sooooo frustrating! need better visibility. everything else is fantastic.