Nancy Drew®: The Shattered Medallion

I've been a Nancy Drew fan for decades at this point, so I've seen many ups and downs. This is a big down and as far as I'm concerned, it's one of their worst. Negatives -Most puzzles lacked instruction and while I realize you have to suspend disbelief a lot for these types of games, this was ridiculous. -The story was a hot mess and entirely contrived. We're literally thrown into this without much introduction, creating a sense of urgency to rush through challenges but guess what, there's no time limit and it's all rigged! This could have been a fun mechanic or at least an option to turn on/off before starting. -The mystery was such a footnote, it was mostly just trying to "win" the rigged reality show instead of trying to figure out what happened to our friend and it quickly side-tracked to helping Sonny solve his ridiculous quest. -The villain has such a weak motive. -Idle animations are abysmal. Seriously, you expect me to believe Bess is just going to stare off this entire time? She could at least be in character and sit in the Puzzle Palace which presumably has a/c instead of standing in grass the entire time. Or have her sit near Sonny if she's that in love with him. Also, for someone as competitive as Kiri, why is she just standing around as well? Why can't you have her drinking water and checking her watch as if she's taking a break to make sure she's hydrated and such before running off? -Sonny Joon looks so much cooler in the cover art than in the game. I've loved his character from the beginning so I guess the "don't meet your heroes" saying is really appropriate here. He's more dorky than charismatic. His voice actor did a nice job though. -The alien subplot was rough. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. -Not enough Koko Kringles. -Navigation for this game was oddly terrible. I don't think I've ever been so annoyed trying to get around. Positives -Lots of Bess dialogue, although not nearly as clever as usual and her text messages made me scream since I was in the middle of a task. I wish her and George could have interacted a bit more since their banter is some of the best. -Most of the voice acting is great and some of the character's stories are fleshed out, making them a bit memorable. Hate the narrator, but I hate reality TV so maybe they're right on point. -Comics were fun for getting clues. -George looks great! She's been done dirty in the games in the past and she finally looks perfect. TL;DR - only get this on sale if you're a Nancy Drew game fan and you want to officially play them all, otherwise this is a big pass for the logic leaping puzzles, lackluster story, and a sleeper of a mystery.