Nancy Drew: The Captive Curse
Nancy's latest adventure has her hunting monsters at Castle Funster in Germany.
Fun, cute - somewhat predictable (not hard to guess end reveal).
Junior version puzzles are easy to moderately difficult but are still necessary to move story
along. Zero violence with discussion of three disappearances.
Mostly linear with the following exceptions that I ran across:
If I picked up the hidden key behind the sparrow painting before working the
tile puzzle box in the alcove near Karl's office or getting trapped between the
gates, chasing the monster, it would no longer be in my possession by the time I
needed it. It would also no longer be behind the painting so finding it again
could not be done.
If you get a monster alert while performing a task, the game may not seem to
recognize you have earned that clue to continue. You have to revisit the
sequence when you are not interrupted by the monster alert to trigger the game
correctly. I discovered that problem when using the cutout on the book in the
alcove and again when trying to open the secret compartment of the clock in the
gift shop. The monster alert rendered the alcove clue useless and then again
disabled my ability to open the clock.
After those two incidents, I made the connection that a monster alert would
affect the game tasks. If I had not been able to finish the task before a
monster alert came on I would return to my previous saved point to complete or
discover some task in order to make sure it counted. If there are more burps
with that connection, I no longer encountered them because of my backtracking.
Basically, that's it. I enjoyed the game. Most puzzles were fun. One in
particular would completely reset to a new starting combination each time I had
to begin over, which was challenging. I like the setting, the graphics and the
music. It was well done.
$19.99 from www.herinteractive.com
Reviewed by: Adison Garzon - Jul/11
Rating: E - Everyone
Fun Factor: As always - Drew comes through
Female Factor: Oops – Nancy' boyfriend is feeling neglected
Player Friendly: Strong linearity can cause problems