Alex Hill: Whispers at White Oak Inn

Short, but a good redux of the classic Nancy Drew games. Creative, and incredible it came from such a small team.

A short puzzle game that reminds me of the adventure games from earlier PC days. The story isn't anything new, but if you're like me and you like a good mystery involving ghosts then you'll enjoy it. I will say I had to use the official guide to get me through a couple puzzles, and the guide has a sorting puzzle wrong (Instead of another bike helmet, they've seemed to replace it with a drawstring bag? At least in my game). The arthritis mode is pretty cool, I haven't seen a mode like that and I'm sure it would help those with it.

This game is not only a love letter to Nancy Drew, but it is THE love letter to Nancy Drew. Being made by, primarily, one singular dev is already impressive enough but to have the same essence, charm, and feel as the old school Nancy Drew point and click computer games is beyond. Does this game still have it's issues and glitches post release? Yes, but every game has its own faults. The characters have individual personalities and do not sound like repetitive robots. Though, their body movements and facial expressions are a touch off at points. There's so much personality put into Alex that she really does feel alive. She can interact with so many objects throughout the game and even has a few comments to make as well. It's refreshing to hear the main character speak and do so much. I do hope for more characters with future releases. The art style of Nancy Drew has always been my favorite of any game ever, and Alex Hill hits almost every dot on that infamous cartoonish style mixed with realism. You can find paintings and pictures and even objects that look super realistic mixed in with the animated video game style. The sound effects when eating, riding the bike, using the boat, etc. are all so well done and mixed in as you move about the game. These together really pull in that ND charm that has been missing in HerInteractive's most recent games. The game flowed really well, for the most part. There were a few times when it wasn't entirely clear on what to do next or that you *had* to speak to someone. And if you missed out on an interaction with an item that was hidden a little too well, you could find yourself stuck in a loop of visiting places and talking to people with no hint or idea as to what you missed. The character of Cassandra felt like the type of character to provide a hint when needed, but does not do as such. And while Alex does have a note pad type of section built into the game, it also doesn't provide hints as to what to do, who to speak with, or where to go very often. My main issue with gameplay would have to be when you needed to trigger nighttime. Often I would already be outside and have to go back inside and then back out to trigger this. And sometimes a cutscene would need me to completely relocate to another area and then return to trigger it. I love and adore when games such as this give the main character a backstory and already established relationships. I hope as more Alex Hill games are able to be made, we get to learn more about Alex's backstory and history with detective work. I enjoyed how you can explore her work area and speak with a coworker and her boss in the beginning. It was very reminiscent of the ND games where you begin at Nancy's desk and can look at the items on it. I would love to have more interactions with Cassandra in future games. She was a wonderful side character who gave the personality of both Bess and George. I also hope she can be of use with hints in more installments. The puzzles are always what gives detective games life and Alex Hill does not skimp. I see comments saying there needs to be more puzzles, but this game had the perfect amount for what it was and how long it was. I do enjoy many, many, many puzzles in my detective games but was completely satisfied with the amount given. The puzzle which required the grandfather clock was clever and I enjoyed how I needed to use multiple ingame resources for it. Those are the types of puzzles that have made ND games so memorable for me personally. I do hope for more like that in future Alex Hill games. And lastly, the references! So many from Baldur's Gate to Doctor Who to (obviously) Nancy Drew! They gave for such a good, heartfelt laugh. I do hope for many more references to come in future installments including references to previous Alex Hill games within newer installments as Nancy Drew does. They are always fun to find! I highly recommend any ND fans to check this out and check the newest installment coming soon.

Definitely like old Nancy Drew games but also with all the same issues. Need to talk to characters over and over for game progression in a specific order, hard to see many things in the game but no use of flashlight or changing of brightness settings available, the voice acting is not great, setting was okay but wasn't really much to offer, game was too short in general.

loved so much, reminds we so much of the old Nancy Drew games. Can't wait till the 2nd game is released.

Wow wow wow wow wow wow wow Perfect balance of puzzles and story. Loved being able to discover additional locations later in the game. Good range of characters with well-developed backstories. The storyline also had a good progression spanning multiple days. This game was everything I had hoped for. Thank you Hannahontrek! I did need a hint a few times so it would have been nice to have a hint system integrated with the tasklist or a notepad that would update automatically whenever important information was discovered, but it wasn't necessary as there is a walkthrough on the website if you do get stuck. Good mystery. Good culprit. I really don't have much in terms of feedback. I know the characters were a bit clunky at times, but it is only the first game, and it didn't affect the gameplay at all. I'm sure that aspect will only improve as time goes on. Looking forward to The Body at Clearwater Bay!

I liked this game and it obviously scratches the Nancy Drew itch. However there were a couple things that threw me off. First, the voice acting definitely feels choppy in a lot of the dialogue. In terms of game sequencing, a lot of the things to progress the story didn't feel natural and I would have to look up what I would need to do to trigger the next event.

Had a lot of fun!

Good game, had several crushes though

Very promising start to what I hope will be a series of Alex Hill games.