Nancy Drew Secret of the Scarlet Hand
Sold Out		(Win95/98/Me/2000/XP) (Mini Retail) (NANCYD6PR)

Publisher: Her Interactive

Ages 10 and up

Ratings:

A from Just Adventure

from Four Fat Chicks

Unlock the Ancient Secret of a Maya Legend!

Between cases, Nancy Drew has taken an internship as Deputy Curator at the Beech Hill Museum in Washington, D.C. Nancy soon discovers she will be doing more than learning about ancient Maya artifacts—there have been a series of thefts and the only clue left behind in a mysterious scarlet handprint!

As Nancy digs deeper into seemingly unrelated thefts, the know ledge she gains about the Maya culture makes her realize that she may have unearthed a larger plot.

The Case: You, as Nancy Drew, have taken on a summer intern position as Deputy Curator at the Beech Hill Museum in Washington, D.C. The museum specializes in ancient Maya culture and has just won a heated bidding war for the rights to borrow and display a strange Maya monolith recently excavated in Guatemala. While preparing for the exhibit Nancy learns about Maya culture and artifacts. When a thief nabs a prized piece from the museum, Nancy realizes that the missing artifacts may have more in common than just the thief’s signature scarlet handprint!

In Secret of the Scarlet Hand Nancy’s investigation will take her outside the museum walls and into the U.S. capitol where she meets characters at the Mexican Consulate, visits a hospital and takes the D.C. subway.

Will Nancy be able to put the pieces of this ancient puzzle together? Or will the mystery remain entombed forever?

Features:

New "journal mode" to keep track of clues

20+ hours of game play

`Second Chance' option - without starting over

New puzzles tie directly to storyline and give important clues

Original, high-quality music and 3D sound effects

New navigation tools make it easy to explore

Built-in game hints (but only if you want them)

Great opportunities for collaborative sleuthing with family and friends

Requirements:

Win95/98/Me/2000/XP: Pentium 200 MHz processor, 16 MB RAM, 160 MB free hard drive space, 8x CD-ROM drive, 16 bit color graphics video card and sound card, mouse and speakers.

Reviews:

Just Adventure by Ray Ivey

"From start to finish, this is a dandy of a game. Lovers of adventure games who've maybe stayed away from this series because they think these games are "for kids" might want to take this opportunity to check out what HerInteractive is doing. This isn't just an excellent Nancy Drew game, it's an excellent adventure game, period."

"First of all, voice acting..."

"Even more significantly, the core adventure game elements of puzzle and story have been deepened for this outing. The game feels about thirty percent longer than the earlier episodes, giving more opportunity for storytelling and puzzle-solving."

"The characters are more solid this time around. It's a motley collection of interestingly flawed folks, each of whom may or may not be on the level with Nancy. I particularly liked Nancy's boss, the museum's chief administrator. She's a woman in a tight spot, the circumstances of which are actually quite believable. Visually, the characters are improved as well..."

"...From start to finish, this is a dandy of a game. Lovers of adventure games who've maybe stayed away from this series because they think these games are "for kids" might want to take this opportunity to check out what HerInteractive is doing. This isn't just an excellent Nancy Drew game, it's an excellent adventure game, period."

Quandary Review by Emily Sheehan

"This was the third Nancy Drew game that I had played and in each one the game play has the same structure. I played it with my cousin, Aaron, who enjoyed it. It was his first Nancy Drew game and he said he would gladly play another."

"The graphics are impressive, the people are realistic and have good movement and things are able to be closely inspected. The people doing the voices for the characters have good expression. I thought Taylor Sinclair was annoying and Alejandro at the Mexican Consulate was interesting because he didn't tell you much about himself so it made him more mysterious."

"We played on junior level and only had to get hints from the internet twice. I thought Secret of the Scarlet Hand was harder than the other Nancy Drew games I have played, a bit more grown-up. There was a lot of writing things down. I didn’t write down very much except phone numbers in the other Nancy Drew games. I particularly liked playing this one with Aaron because it meant we could discuss what we were doing and come up with more ideas about what to do next."

Four Fat Chicks by Jen

"In her quest for the truth, Nancy becomes steeped in Mayan lore, and—guess what?—there will be a test (or two). You as the player are forced to pay attention to the museum exhibits in order to pass these quizzes and progress in the game. I found the educational aspect a little heavy-handed this time around, but hey, I'm a grown woman. I already know all about Mayan culture—after all, I did play Timelapse for Pete's sake!"

"When you begin, you may choose to play as a Junior Detective or a Senior Detective, the difference being, I assume, in either difficulty or quantity of puzzles. But since I never play as anything but a Senior Detective (I have a reputation, after all!), I guess I'll never find out. The game was not a brain-buster, although I did scratch my head a couple of times."

"On the whole, Secret of the Scarlet Hand really is another good, solid, well-put-together offering from Her Interactive. It is certainly not the stuff of which classics are made, but neither is it a complete waste of time. I found it to be a nice weekend diversion ... These games are all formulaic, much in the same way as the Nancy Drew books are formulaic. That never stopped me from reading them all when I was 9, but as an adult I like a little more variety in my entertainment and am not compelled to play 'em all."

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