Nancy Drew®: Midnight in Salem

I got motion sickness from this new camera movement.

This newer Nancy Drew game is underrated. While obviously not the best from the series, as a life long Nancy Drew player, I don't think this one is as bad as everyone makes it seem.

I love Nancy Drew. Is this my favorite game in this series??? No, but I think its still worth a play. The hardy boys, Deirdre, and Lauren are great characters and its fun for Halloween.

So, first Nancy Drew I have ever played. I picked it because I went to Salem State and also read some of the reviews, Some of the complaints, such as not enough puzzles was okay by me. Not really into puzzles. Also being forewarned about performance issues meant I knew to set the settings low. But also had to turn off the music to hear the voice acting. And music has a lot to do with a game's mood. Many times the story had plot holes or made no sense. The characters were nice but figuring out who was the 'prep' was easy as many of the characters were either helping you or friends of Nancy. Liked the pancake game. But while using Salem as the setting they really didn't get much into the history or the town. A fail there. They should have made a open world game and put real buildings in there. Overall, if you love the older Nancy Drew games you will likely hate this. Even the Nancy Drew voice actress had been changed. And if you don't know any thing about the Nancy Drew games...try a different one.

I used to play ND since I was 7 (or 8). Now I'm almost 30. I'm not quite sure the reason I was satisfied by previous games nowadays, pretty sure it's nostalgia. ANYWAY! This game have almost nothing in common with the previous games. The puzzles are weak, the plot is discontinuous (full of strong and persecuted women, who need to stick together for something indefinite). As I'm working as a product designer, so I've some knowledge about the UX. In this game there are a plenty harsh mistakes in the interface, which are absent even in the first ND games. I really want to see a good new ND game. I wish HeR best luck, hope they will find a way to rebuild the deteriorated universe of good and smart girl and clean it from Soros's agenda. ___ I've just played the next game, but I don't want to ruin its rating. The developers (or the publisher, or the sponsors) need to reach money to keep working. But I have to say it somewhere. I can't stand this 3D WASD-walking interacting. If you don't know (I certainly don't) how to do it without so much noise and 10 NPC models, please return to the previous navigation system. And stop trying to squeeze tears out of me at the same time you threaten me and give me laugh. One emotion per narrative arc please. Oh, and give Nancy a good smartphone pls (if it's not a sponsorship, of course). About good news. 1. There are more suspects. It's good! 2. The case info is more structured. It is also good.

Tried this game despite the bad reviews, but I ended up really disappointed :( I’ve played a lot of Nancy Drew games, and this one honestly feels unfinished. Overall, it comes across as unpolished—from the assets and story to the UI, which is especially rough. The new navigation system feels awkward, and the drag-to-look mechanic feels unnecessary. Visually, the assets don’t feel refined, and the LODs are very noticeable with how they pop in. There are also some frustrating moments, like how Dierdre constantly blocks my view when I try to look behind. I also miss the artistic art style of the older Nancy Drew games. It also feels much easier compared to previous Nancy Drew games. Tasks on the checklist are straightforward and can be completed quickly, whereas older games often required multiple steps or more thought before progressing. It’s honestly sad because I love Nancy Drew games and really want to support them, but this one just felt short. Hopefully, future Nancy Drew games will bring back the nostalgia they once had.

I bought this game I think when it first game out in 2019. I didn't have a gaming laptop at the time, so like most everyone else back then who played/tried to play it, it was terribly laggy. I ended up quitting very early on in the story, because the lag made gameplay too difficult and unpleasant. Well, I got a gaming laptop a year or so ago, and I recently decided to go ahead and give Midnight another shot. I played Mystery of the Seven Keys earlier this year, and found it to be a bit lackluster, so I wasn't sure how I would feel about Midnight. I might be an outlier, but I really liked this game. I have criticisms for the environments (namely how unnecessarily big and empty and unattractive some of the spaces in the game are), and the game could have had more puzzles, but once I got into the story, I was fully strapped in. I thought the puzzles were really good, the storyline and characters were enjoyable (I mean, who doesn't hate/love the amazing frenemy situation between Deirdre and Nancy, lol?), the smaller/more enclosed environments were pretty decent, the game actually runs pretty smoothly on a decent gaming laptop (there might have been a few moments of lag, but if so, I honestly don't remember them). I overall just really enjoyed myself, and I didn't really notice or think about the flaws as I played (except when I had to walk across the courtyard in town and be reminded by how long it feels like it takes and by how clunky moving around that area is). To me, this felt more like the Nancy Drew I love than Mystery of the Seven Keys. Something about the story of Mystery didn't land with me, and I have much stronger criticism for the environments (why are they so huuuuuge?), as well as a stronger desire for more puzzles while I was playing. (But seriously, it felt like a lifetime passed by every time I walked across both of the courtyards in the game.) I think a lot of the flack Midnight got/gets has more to do with the difficulty to get it to run well then with the storyline/puzzles and because of all the frustration around the decisions that were being made at HER at the time. Midnight has it's flaws, and it doesn't rival the older games for me, but I enjoyed my time playing and will definitely replay it plenty of times in the future.