Nancy Drew: Shadow at the Water's Edge

Nancy Drew series is filled up with one more project. It should be mentioned that Nancy Drew: Shadow at the Water’s Edge is every bit as good as the previous parts in the storyline, gameplay or navigation. Her Interactive developers have put many efforts in the work on this edition to maintain the level which they have set themselves.

This time the story brings Nancy Drew to Kyoto, Japan for a vacation. But another spooky adventure captures the girl here, too. She is staying at the Ryokan Hiei, which looks like a very pleasant place at first sight. As it turns out later, the rest of the tourists are driven away from here by someone or something. Therefore Nancy decides to study out the supernatural events taking place in this cosy and charming Japanese inn. The young fearless detective flings herself into this ghostly story.

The gameplay of Nancy Drew: Shadow at the Water’s Edge is as solid and complicated as Nancy Drew’s fans have got used to. Fitting the theme, several mini-games are based on the classical Japanese pastimes, such as Pachinko, calligraphy, origami, rock gardens or Sudoku. In the meantime, most of the other puzzles will be recognized by the savviest players and the lovers of logic and number puzzles. As we treat the game as belonging to the Hidden Object category, we can’t omit mention of gorgeous Hidden Object scenes, which are very realistic and attractive.

And as the conversation has turned on the artwork, tribute should be paid to the graphical designers of Nancy Drew: Shadow at the Water’s Edge. They have managed to create such atmosphere and to reflect the Japanese theme in a way, that you feel as if in a traditional Japanese ryokan indeed. Splendid themed locations and original educational material absorb your attention for hours. The same case is with the sounding. Superb music, brilliant sound effects and perfect voice acting make the game completed and irreproachable.

Thus, Nancy Drew: Shadow at the Water’s Edge is the next first-rate entry in this perennial series and is sure to meet tastes of not only its old admirers, but the beginners as well.

21, July 2011