Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Seven Keys | Her Interactive (2024)

Average rating:

33 reviews

Jun 27, 2024

byRachel

sort of middling, but feels like a return to the classics!

story: 6/10 overall I liked it, but felt it had a big cast to the point where the characters weren’t properly developed. There were also some serious pacing issues, as the endgame felt like three or four endgames stacked together.
puzzles: 5/10 this is a hard one—I liked both the variety and the stylistic return to puzzles that rely on you to make use of information provided in the game background. On the other hand, the first real puzzle was quite a ways into the game, and I would have liked to see more logic/game-type puzzles, and more ways to interact with the environment. I also think the difficulty balancing was off for all the wrong reasons. Admittedly, I was playing on master sleuth mode, but I felt that the difficulty of the puzzles most often lay in just figuring out how you were supposed interact with them, whereupon solving them became much easier. The puzzle mechanics were very rarely intuitive, an issue which was exacerbated by the clumsiness of the UI; manipulating objects could be extremely challenging, which made fiddly tasks particularly annoying, and sometimes I would overlook possible interactions because the hit box was so small. There would also often be multiple places or objects a puzzle or clue could be referencing, which means that without solid luck it would be very easy for a player to just…not see a vitally important clue as they chase down a dozen red herrings instead. On the other hand, while the execution wasn’t great, I really was happy to see what felt like a return to the classic ND puzzles.
aesthetics: 7/10 The game looks pretty clunky in comparison to modern rpgs, especially the character animation, but I liked the background scenery and music, which in a point and click like ND is a major feature. I did find the ubiquitous presence of cloned NPCs to be awkward and somewhat frustrating before I knew who the main cast was, as I kept trying to interact with people who were glorified furniture. I also spent an absurd amount of time simply traveling from one location to another, and it really did feel like the devs were just attempting to show off their new mastery of unity—since they can do a three-d, open world-esque map, of course that map must be huge (and empty). I miss smaller maps, but even a function like the coin collecting in prior games would make the environment feel more interactive, rather than simply wasted space. I found the new VA for Nancy to be good at emotional expression but a slower paced speaker than I like; but by an hour into the game I mostly didn’t notice it anymore
dialogue: 4/10 honestly this was probably the absolute biggest L for the game. The script was mostly fine with some absolute clunkers here or there, but for me the biggest issue was the complete lack of dialogue trees!!! A hallmark of ND games has always been that the things you have Nancy say usually matter. The conversation can go in very different directions depending on your choices, and sometimes there is even a clearly wrong choice. But in this game you just go through every possible dialogue option one after another, helpfully pointed out to the player by graying out any responses that were already said. This makes for a less interesting game, less interesting character dynamics, and frankly just lower stakes in any given conversation. Also I miss how much more of the conversation you could see at once in the classic dialogue boxes.
mechanics: 6/10 oh boy. To give the herinteractive team credit, they spent the five years since the last game very well—the game mechanics and UI are leagues better than in Salem. Much smoother. Likewise, the ability to rotate an object in 3-D when looking at it was used effectively on a fairly consistent basis, not just as a gimmick. On the other hand, there are still some kinks to work out. The “classic” point and click navigation option was appreciated, but it wasn’t very well interfaced, making navigation so clunky that I eventually switched to the new open-world navigation style despite it not being my preference. (The new navigation mode did on the whole work pretty well once I got used to it, though I noticed some glitching after loading second chance auto saves). My biggest gripes with the game mechanics and performance are a) the aforementioned impact on puzzle solving and b) some this-game specific choices, like the lack of any definite in-game time or currency. One big plus is the reader’s mode for in-game text like newspapers and books, which I think is a great accessibility option, but on the con side there was less attention towards making the original text readable. Having to open up the reader's screen really breaks the immersion, and it would be nice if a newspaper just…unfolded instead of me having to rotate it just to read it.
overall: 7/10 why? because I had fun. As much as I point out all the flaws of the game that were apparent to me, it felt like a proper Nancy Drew game. Having grown up with the series, I was pretty crushed by Salem, and this game brought the joy back for me. So if you, too, played and loved these games when you were younger, I think it’s worth the time (though maybe wait until it comes down from its current new release price lol)

Jun 25, 2024

bySusie M

Hi there Her Interactive and Nancy Drew fans! I’m here to say a big old THANK YOU for bringing Nancy Drew games back in such a fun way. The incredible lead up to the new game with all the puzzles and mystery was unmatched, and truly built up SO much hype for me! I was incredibly fortunate and received the game for free to try for helping build up the hype/review. I don’t believe that colored my opinion. I do think that there are plenty things I’d like to see improved upon/just made differently hopefully in future games though!
Okay so this game was GOOD. The mystery really captured my attention and kept me interested the whole time. The characters were all so fun and there were so many!! I want to say so much more but I don’t want to talk to much about that all because spoilers so just know that I loved [redacted] and [redacted] and absolutely adore [redacted] and really want to see [redacted] and [redacted] [super redacted]. The graphics were nothing short of incredible.
As for negatives for me, music was repetitive and didn’t make me feel like I was in Prague, but was good nonetheless! The puzzles were HARD or at least to me haha and I would love a bit more context for puzzles next time like maybe Nancy can say something about how to get started or there could be instructions like there used to be. I also think that Nancy’s voice needs a lil work, sorry to say that because I love her voice actress, she’s so sweet and talented!
I loved all the references that were put into this game too! I have to mention that because it made me SO happy to see references to past characters and such. This games was a really fun time and I look forward to playing it again!

Jun 20, 2024

byKatie

Worth the Wait - Excited for the Future

I was so nervous to play this game after MID, but this felt like the Nancy Drew games that I know and have loved for most of my life! The scenery was stunning, the interactions with characters felt natural, and I could not guess the culprit! The ending was such a shock (in the best way!). My only critique is that the puzzles were HARD (which is great) but the method of getting hints was a bit clunky as you often had to click out of the puzzle to look at your phone then return to the puzzle. I am so excited that HER interactive is back and I am counting the seconds until they release the next adventure.

Thank you to the HER Interactive team for listening to the criticism from fans and persevering to make a new game in spite of many out there who doubted you. It was such a pleasure to get to play a new mystery in this world and I can't thank you enough for all the hard work that you clearly put into this game.

Jun 10, 2024

byDani V

Hope for the Future

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this game, but I want to sandwich the negative in between the positives

It was nice being back in the thrill of a new mystery! The characters looked ten times better than they did in the previous game, the movement was a lot better, and the graphics were a lot better.

But there were quite a bit of negatives on my part. Unfortunately, my laptops (and I tried several) would not either load the game or the game looked terrible and lagged. It took me over a month to finally finish because of the major issues.

Secondly, I was very disappointed with the lack of fun phone conversations that were such a great part of the older games. I wish there had been more of this.

Thirdly, one of the characters had hinted at a card game, and we never got to play it. This was also disappointing, as fun side games had been such a great part of the older games.

Forthly, it did take me forever to find certain areas of the game and I often had to use hints or the walkthrough to figure out where I had to go.

Fifthly, some of the items had glitched, which made it impossible to finish a puzzle and I had to cheat to finish.There were also issues seeing important parts of a puzzle, even with the brightness turned up.

Other than that...the storyline was amazing and I was floored several times! The characters were all interesting and I loved the suspense in various places. The puzzles felt exactly like they used to, which I was happy with. I loved playing the game when I was able to.

I do have hope for the future that these reviews would be taken into consideration to making the next game even better and fixing more issues, and continuing to make Nancy Drew as great as it always has been.

Jun 10, 2024

byLaura

better than I expected!!

This game had all the great elements of a Nancy Drew game -a huge world to explore, interesting characters, and Nancy's nosy dialogue questions lol. I loved that the traditional point and click style was offered as an option, and really enjoyed "walking" around Prague just looking at the buildings. I also liked the minigames (I didn't find the latte art tricky but I know some did). the only reason for 4 stars is that I felt like the alchemy room puzzle was SO confusing and not well explained, and if you did one step before the other you could get a glitch that forced you to restart! All in all a really solid return to form, with pretty scenery and fun characters.

Jun 9, 2024

byKseniya

Go Go HER Interactive!

It was such an interesting game, thank you sooo much! We've been waiting for a long time and it was worth waiting! I will surely look forward from hearing about a new game 🙂

Jun 7, 2024

byDoom Maestro

Nancy Drew IS BACK!!

Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Seven Keys is awesome! Nancy is back with a new case that actually feels like a Nancy Drew game. It has detailed locations a cool new dual choice control system and lots of puzzles.

The voice acting is good and I liked all the characters in the game. The only real problems I had with the game were the lack of options to converse on the phone; it kind of just shut you out when you tried to call anyone. The phone calls felt very scripted.

The only other thing to note is that the point-and-click version takes some getting used to. I feel like the cursors are too similar-looking, which makes it hard to tell when you can click and doesn't completely follow the normal areas for point-and-click but you can learn that as you go.

I recommend you give this Nancy Drew game a try it is a huge step in the right direction and it is really fun and enjoyable with a cool new setting to explore.

Jun 5, 2024

byJessica

Loved the game!

Thank you so much for making another game, and I hope there are many more to come! My sister, mother, and I have been playing Nancy Drew games since my sister and I was little, and we have played every game so far. I will say we did go in on master sleuth and got stuck numerous times, not knowing the exact steps to take to finish a puzzle or trigger the next event, but overall we loved the game and are hoping for more in the future.

May 30, 2024

byKyri

excited for the future!

overall as a long time playing nancy drew gamer I really enjoyed this game!! excited for the future and the upcoming games to play!!

biggest feedback is that it was quite laggy which made some of the puzzles nearly impossible!!

very impressed with the amount of characters we got to interact with, along with the npc extras floating around— I loved this addition!!

I was also very happy that it was downloadable on mac and hope that some of the older games will be able to download too.

May 29, 2024

byTori S

Plenty of Hope for the "Modern Era" of Nancy Drew Games

While Mystery of the Seven Keys is not without its flaws, it is such a clear step up from Midnight in Salem that I have plenty of hope about what’s to come in the “modern era” of Nancy Drew games! KEY is an enjoyable game I gladly recommend to current and future fans of the series, and I think HeR will continue to improve on areas of weakness.

Navigation

I love that players can choose between point-and-click or free roam. Having played the game entirely in both modes, I do think it lends itself far more to free roam. Certain hotspots in point-and-click didn’t seem intuitive, and it felt like more work to right click and swing the camera around at each point to see what’s around me. If there’s a way to improve the hotspots in future games, that would help immensely. Free roam was smooth overall, added to the immersion, and was quite fun (because SPRINTING).

Graphics

My laptop could handle high graphics, so I was quite impressed at the level of detail for both environments and characters and the cinematic quality of the cutscenes. It seems like such a big undertaking to portray Prague because of the city’s intricate art and architecture, but I think KEY succeeded. I also appreciate the attention to detail with minute elements (such as condensation at night on a glass door). The character graphics also vastly improved from MID, especially in animations.

Story

I was excited about this story going into it based on the game synopsis (heist storylines are some of my absolute favorites), and I finished the game feeling satisfied! The story’s different threads could have left the game feeling jumbled and incohesive, but I think overall it successfully wove the threads together and offered a satisfying conclusion. It was enjoyable on replay to catch all the foreshadowing and hints at the truth. Way to lay those breadcrumbs!

Characters

Overall I enjoyed the characters (though sadly some of my favorites got the least screentime). I do want more “just because” worldbuilding conversations (especially with the phone characters) and dialogue trees. It felt like we talked to characters because we had to, not because we wanted to, and almost all the dialogue options can be exhausted in one playthrough, whereas in older games you have to replay multiple times before you can say you’ve heard every conversation possibility. I also think the voice directing needs work. Some voice work was fantastic (especially Radek’s, Leo’s, and Marek’s), but other voice work (Nancy’s voice in particular since she has the most lines) did not come across as a natural, realistic way of talking to people.

Music

I liked KEY’s music, but I did not love it. Sadly the soundtrack can become tedious both because of the music itself and how it’s used in game. While I’m encouraged that most of KEY’s tracks had more melodic development than MID’s, I would love more musical complexity and less looping and repetition of certain measures, motifs, etc. I also think rather than having one track for each environment that loops constantly, each environment should have multiple tracks and even moments of silence in between. The looping of a single track was far too overstimulating in certain environments, especially ones where you had to be there awhile to solve a difficult puzzle.

Puzzles

The puzzles more than anything else made me think I was playing a game for adults rather than kids. I actually appreciated the heightened sense of difficulty and lack of handholding with these puzzles. I also felt like when I got stuck, the fault was more mine for not observing or remembering things in the game rather than the puzzle logic falling short. However, in light of fans’ common struggles with puzzles in this game, I do think more direction could be useful (e.g., Nancy making a comment about what to do or puzzle directions being included on the screen). KEY also has one definitively problematic puzzle whose logic rules lead to multiple solutions, but the game only accepts one as correct. Logic puzzles shouldn’t be left to trial and error!

Miscellaneous

Thankfully none of the glitches I encountered significantly affected my gameplay, but I know others were not so fortunate. Hopefully some or all these glitches can be corrected for future purchases, and Game 35 is better tested for such issues.

As a professional copy editor, I was disappointed in the number of errors that made it past proofreading. One or two is excusable because it happens even to the best of us sometimes, but the amount in KEY is unprofessional in my opinion.

The UI is so much more beautiful and elegant than MID’s (especially the watercolor style loading screen!), and I love the new tasklist with subtasks included. Finding and inspecting items in inventory is better than in MID but still clunky because you can’t scroll through the inventory easily.

*I received a free copy of this game from HeR. This review is my honest assessment.*