Cheap Nancy Drew: Secret of the Scarlet Hand (Video Games) (Windows 2000, Windows 98, Windows 95, Windows XP, Windows Me) Price

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Customer Reviews of Nancy Drew: Secret of the Scarlet Hand

Calling all history buffs!
If you love history, this is your game. Seriously. If history class is a drag, you'd be best off skipping this one. However, if you think you can stomach what seems like a 10-hour field trip, feel free to go ahead and play it. <
>I, personally, am not a history fan. It bores me to tears. If it were not for my determination to play all the ND games, I would've stopped playing. I mean, a mystery in a museum about Mayan culture is bound to be boring for someone like myself. <
>Another downside to this game was that there's actually no real MYSTERY for the first hour or so, making the first hour even more of a drag than the rest of the game was. I still remember my boss, Joanna, bursting into the room saying, "Beech Hill (the museum) has been hit! Sit tight, Nancy, the police are on their way!" And my sis and I are jumping around going, "YES! We finally have a mystery to solve!" <
>The puzzles were pretty easy, but there were a LOT of them! Why on earth I had to make my way past three levels of quizzes just to get to a place I've already seen, I'll never know. The only challenging one, I found, was those idiotic audio narrations, which were a bit TOO hard, seeing as everyone in my family confirmed that they were sevens when they were really ones. <
>They scaryness of this game was limited. Very limited. The only time I even got anything close to scared (I was only 12 when I played the game) was: <
>1. When one of the NPC's fell down a long flight of stairs and was knocked unconcious, resulting in amnesia and a very LONG hospital stay. I was very attached to this character, and, being the sap that I was, starting crying when I heard him falling down the temple steps and then seeing him on the ground. <
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>2. The ending. I think HI was trying to outshine themselves. Either that, or they were trying to make up for the boring-ness of the rest of the game. If you can't stomach being trapped in an airless space with a half-rotted corpse, you'd best have a partner with you to finish the game for you. That's what I did! <
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>Other than that, there is really nothing else of importance about this game I probably should mention other than the fact that it was long, boring, took me 3 years to finish because I kept stopping and starting, and felt like a field trip. Most of the NPC's were very annoying (I kept wanting to smack this one 'pillowhead'... if you've played the game, you'll know who I'm talking about! If he offered me a stale cookie one more time...) Anyway, if you love history, you'll love this game. If you don't... well... it's up to you to decide if you want to put yourself through hours of pointless puzzles.

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Most enjoyable so far!!!
I have 13 ND games, and this one is the best!! This one is full of surprises and adventure.Also,it isn't to easy or hard.And even though you get stuck at times, you'll always find a way out.This game sure beats hunting for clams in Danger on Deception Island and looking for jewels in The Haunted Carousel

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Gets 4 for interface
I've been playing these out of order, and it took me a while to realize this is #4 in the series, which explained the choppy interface. Some of the camera angles were awkward and this often made it difficult to see where exactly you could go. The cursor in this game is particular. As with other ND games, it changes depending on if you can go right,left, etc. In later games, there is a pan icon. In this one, the pan icon is also the left/right icon, depending on which way you are panning. I had a hard time adjusting to this because I would see that turn icon, click, and think I had made a 90 degree turn, when in fact I had panned slightly to one side. This icon, along with some of the camera angles, also made it difficult in some areas to see that there were other areas to be explored. The cursor was also picky. There wasn't much screen area afforded to the different icons. If I had a left icon, it would be in part of the left side of the screen. If I went too far left, I would fall out of the hot spot. The back (not reverse) icon was also cumbersome. Considering this is one of the early games, and in later games this is fixed, it's a very minor issue, but one you should be prepared for. <
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>Aside from that, game play was great. Again, the puzzles were well integrated into the story. There were a few stinkers that I thought were silly and just there to waste time (the camera comes to mind), but overall, most of the puzzles were well done. <
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>In game hints were well done and helpful. The story line was interesting and there were many secret places to be found and explored, which I thought was a very nice touch and extremely engaging. Overall, I highly recommend this installment of Nancy Drew, just watch that cursor!