A decent first outing for the series
User Rating: 6.2 | Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill PC
While this game is geared towards the younger set, it's a nice lightweight diversion for the adult crowd. The ability to set your difficulty level is a good move on the developers part, though from what I understand, there isn't a huge difference between the settings. With it set on the "Master Detective" level, there were actually a few times though that I really had to think about what the clues were trying to tell me. (Which made me feel a bit dumb, to have to really use my noggin on a game ostensibly designed for preteens!) My hope though is that in the later games, the difficulty levels are a bit more pronounced. I think it's admirable for a company to finally realize that girls like computer games too and to have a smart, tough female heroine, and this series is encouraging more girls to try out adventure games. The animators made a smart move in using cartoon characters on 3D sets, the animation technology available when the game was designed would have probably been a distraction considering the vast majority of the game is spent talking to characters. Overall the voice acting is good, but the actual dialogue can be a bit tedious or even downright insipid at times. I was a voracious Nancy Drew reader as a girl, and the Nancy I remember would never repeat back the last word every person says to them as a question . For instance Hal- "I don't want to disappoint my family." Nancy-"Family?" (imagine it said with the questioning inflection of someone who's perhaps a bit slow on the uptake that doesn't quite understand what the word means....) There were many times that Nancy had questioned someone to the point where they got ticked and blew her off quite rudely, but she could question them again immediately afterwards and they'd greet her with a "hey Nancy, how's it goin'?" just as friendly as pie. Or begin with "What do you want? I don't like pushy girls!" but then respond to the following question with a friendly smile and a pleasant demeanor. Nitpicky stuff I realize, but it detracted from the logical progression of the game. I found myself really thinking about the killer's identity. For a high school centered plot, it has an interesting concept. When I first realized what was going on with the murder victim, I had one of those light bulb over the head moments but unfortunately after the motives were revealed, the end was wrapped up a bit too abruptly for my tastes. I would have liked to have worked for my resolution a bit more, but I suppose for beginner players it's about the right game length. All in all, a nice light diversion for adult adventure gamers but don't expect Kierkegaard. I will get around to playing some more of the games in the series since this was a nice break from those games that consume my time and thoughts and make me have dreams every night relating to the game. For me this was kinda like watching Malcolm In The Middle. I don't need to obsessively see every episode, but I'll enjoy it if it's on. (And I really am interested to see how the series progresses.) Worth playing, but not a lot of replay value since all the fun really lies in not knowing who the killer is. If you went into it already knowing their identity, it all becomes meaningless legwork. (And the disc swapping is EXHAUSTING, I hope that's been fixed in the newer games. Having to always put in disc one to start the game, even if you saved at disc two is irritating, especially since as soon as you hit Load Game you then have to put in disc two...) 
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