To those who enjoys a good weekend mystery novel should play this game.
Graphics 7
Sounds 7
Value 6
Tilt 8
It would absolutely suicidal to release a new adventure game during the late 90s. Many huge hits were introduced to the ever-hungry PC market backed with aggressive marketing campaigns. Titles like Quake 2, Fallout 2, Unreal, Planescape Torment, Jagged Alliance 2, are just a few examples. What about mega adventure titles like The Longest Journey, Grim Fandango or Sanitarium?
Now picture this: A point-click adventure game called Nancy Drew: Stay Tuned for Danger by Her Interactive.
Now picture this: This is targeted for female teenagers.
And I played this game.
Seriously this game was a lot better than I thought it will be. Considering I was impressed by the style of game play in Secrets of the Old Clock (Nancy Drew’s 13th adventure released back 2005) I decided to install Nancy’s 2nd adventure Stay Tuned for Danger and equally was impressed by the 1st person point-and-click adventure game that really makes you feel like a detective snooping around gathering clues to solve the mystery.
The tale starts off when the young detective Nancy is directly called from the murder case in Florida (Nancy’s 1st PC adventure game) to New York, to the production of a successful television soap opera ‘Light of Our Love’. One of the main character (and apparently the ‘heart throb’) Rick receiving death threats however Rick, being super cool about it all, turns his back on this however Mattie Jensen, the female leading actress and friend of aunt Eloise (aunt to Nancy), and, as turns out later, also girl friend of Rick, takes it very seriously on the other side and calls Nancy for help.
During the first five minutes of the game, take heed of the girly talk about Rick however thereafter the game ventures beyond this ‘female teenage audience’ and onwards to some serious puzzle solving detective work. So serious there are actually three levels of snooping. The main difference between them all is the level of difficulty the puzzles presents themselves.
There are quite a number of puzzles to solve and it’s not just a simple ‘hunt-the-pixel’ thing either. You will be treated with code breakers, sound analysing, jigsaws and even that famed ‘Hanoi Tower' puzzle! And if you happen to get stuck, dial your friends to provide some-what cryptic tips. It’s also highly recommended to grab some scribble paper and a pencil to jot down some of the juicy gossips. And as a side note, the ‘Dreamcatcher’ version (2001) comes in a fold-out study box, manual and a notepad. Now how cool is that!?!
The general pace of the game is perfect for this type of game play. In the beginning there’s a lot of chit-chat to potential suspects to snooping around gathering clues around midway (and even watch two videos in the process) to that fast-paced cliff-hanger ‘who-done-it’ ending. I really enjoyed this type of pace as it really does not drag and getting that ‘not again’ feeling.
However I thought the actual navigation is a little clumsy and a tad frustrating at times (ironically enough being a point-and-click adventure game). Some of the actual navigation requires Nancy to enter a certain spot in a location by clicking on it only then to make Nancy do a full 360 spin and view the entire scene. This can cause irritation as it requires some thought just to investigate, say a coat on a stand at the other end of the room by clicking on the middle of the room (indicating by the highlighted magnify glass) then using the left-right arrow keys to make Nancy spin 180 only to click on the coat which then clicks to that wallet hanging from the coat’s pockets.
There are some real noticeable graphical improvements from Nancy’s first title ‘Secrets Can Kill (1998)’. The main difference between the two is the character animation. Secrets Can Kill uses cartoonish-like animation whilst Stay Tuned for Danger uses well sync realistic animation. The overall surroundings haven’t changed too radically yet still pleasing to the eye. Considering the resolution is fixed at 640 x 480, I’d played this game using a 24 inch monitor and yet still visually pleasant. On the contrast, I have seen some games fixed at 1024 x 768 and viewed under the same monitor with terrible consequences. On the other hand, the system requirements are quite heavy for its time. My PC back in the late 90s at its peak was a P1 166 32MB with 10GB hard drive yet the system requirements for this game was P1 166 16MB 42MB hard disk. So in a nut shell it would have pushed my PC’s CPU to its limits.
I have played some games where the voice acting can bring the entire game play down to its knees. Examples are males’ impersonating elderly female voices or wannabes doing some hero macho-talk. In Stayed Tuned for Danger there is quality voice-acting. Anger, suave, concerned tones are just some examples that delivered almost convincing characters. The musical scores are quite haunting yet suitable for the scene at hand however I was hoping for some more tunes (similar to Secrets of the Old Clock).
Depending on how clever you are and if you are willing to read all the interesting articles (like me) it can take close to 10 hours to complete. However the game, if you are switched on, maybe 6 – 8 hours max. Take note about the targeted audience that if any longer maybe the player may loose interest in the game (however not me – it should be much longer).
Stayed Tuned for Danger delivered all the ingredients of classic detective work. Peering through the eyes and ears of Nancy Drew, I’m glad Nancy wasn’t portrayed as some airy flim-flam Barbie girl. Nancy is a matured young adult and the message from the developers brought this across very well. I really cannot understand why the ‘targeted audience’ of teenage females as surely it’s not only for teenagers, but for all, who enjoys detective work.