Nancy Drew®: The Shattered Medallion

Actually one of my favourites because it is so different from the typical adventure format and I love the inclusion of background lore with Sonny from nearly every game it seems. Loved the puzzles, loved the story, loved the scenery, just amazing and fun.

Join Nancy Drew, her insufferable friend Bess and somewhat tolerable George on a trip to New Zealand to participate in a reality game show a la Amazing Race. This game explores playing nice with others to get what you want, stealing people's personal belongings, flagrant disregard of competition rules and features characters with all the signs and symptoms of a personality disorder. You are supposed to be on a team with your sporty friend George who promptly gets taken out like the amateur she is. She THEN has the audacity to tell you to break the rules and visit her while she convalesces in a state of fluctuating consciousness, removed from the game. This deeply unfortunate accident forces you to team up with your friend Bess who's suffering from histrionic personality disorder and will rarely do as you ask, instead forcing you to determine Sonny's relationship status and is he into screaming blondes in pink tracksuits? Why HER Interactive does Bess so dirty in every game makes no sense to me. She does not have to be this obnoxious and dense. This leads us to our next character Sonny Joon, who has plagued previous games with his was-funny-the-first-few-times-then-became-exceptionally-annoying alien doodles and bizarre scribblings in books (uhm public defacement much) random scrap papers, you name it. Sonny is so completely delusional about his true purpose in life that he forces teenagers, the elderly and adults who have nothing better going on to risk their lives so he can ultimately determine if his grandpa was trolling him all those years ago or not. Cannot forget about Patrick who sits on a rock for the whole competition and uses approximately 3 brain cells to communicate with others. Whoever thought up this character and wrote his dialogue deserves to fired. I'm sorry for being harsh but ??? Setting of this game was not bad, the puzzles aren't overly difficult but halfway through it becomes fairly unhinged and the last puzzle made me want to throw my whole computer away. People really don't like this one and I can see why, but I think the difficulty of this one (aside from last puzzle, just save your sanity and use hints) is good for younger players or those new to ND games.

In my opinion, this game isn't quite worthy of the negative votes it has received, BUT it is also by-far my least favorite Nancy game. I recommend you play it...but not until you can get it on sale!

Ah, I just replayed this game with friends and it was so much fun!! My friends and I have a semi-bi-monthly game night where we play video games together. For my birthday meeting, I got priority pick, as we had just finished our latest venture (the entire Phoenix Wright trilogy). And when I realized I had never introduced them to my childhood obsession—the Nancy Drew games!!—I knew I had to rectify that. Now, I own all the games, so I had to make a choice here, and while I remember a lot of games fondly, if not all of them, one of my immediate contenders was The Shattered Medallion, and ultimately it was the one I went for. Why? Well, there are several reasons, but mostly… [b]the characters are so damn insane in this one[/b]. They are utterly hilarious. Patrick? [i]love of my life[/i]. Bess and George? Utter gems. The mythological Sonny Joon? Lives up to his hype. They’re all so kooky and funny that I knew that, at the very least, my friends would enjoy that aspect of it. The setting is also one of the more unique and fun the ND games have ever gone for – a reality TV show, with Nancy and her friends as contestants. And of course, the aliens. The setting also gives more credibility to the many puzzles in the game (after all, sometimes you do wonder why this ship, school building, house, ranch, etc, etc, have so many secret nooks and crannies with hidden compartments and puzzles to open them. My house sure doesn’t come with any of those!). Speaking of the puzzles – I really like them. Their level of difficulty varied, but they all felt solvable to me, in a way some Nancy puzzles do not. I’m not going to lie, I am the type of gamer who, if stuck too long on a puzzle, will go to look for spoilers. I didn’t really need to do that with this one – we had all the information, and each one of us got to solve at least one puzzle on their own, so bonus points for feeling good about ourselves, lol. While I feel like the mystery element takes secondary importance in this one, I genuinely had so much fun with the game that I am likely to replay it again sooner rather than later!

PROS: -Cool premise(s) -Interesting scenery and lots of places to go -Easy puzzles CONS: -Limited direction on gameplay/plot and "what next" moments -Dialogue with all characters completely stops early on in the game -Flat, boring characters (or insufferable, annoying characters; no in-between) -Unsatisfying ending -Poor execution, overall TLDR: I'm glad I waited for a sale; this game is easily skippable, in my opinion. Oh... What was this? I have been a player of Nancy Drew games since I was a child, when I mostly played for the stories. This remains true for me as an adult, but I have developed an equal appreciation for ND puzzles in recent years. Both of these elements were... strange in this one, to say the least. I have waited years to play Medallion; the concept was unique enough (by ND standards, in which Nancy finds herself in many out-of-pocket situations), but the execution was seriously lacking. The characters felt like an afterthought with limited conversation opportunities and zero motive. I learned NOTHING about any of them. Talking to Patrick, Sonny, and Bess was completely fruitless, confusing, and frankly, annoying. Bess contributed nothing to the storyline, besides serving as a distraction for Nancy quite literally one time. The other two characters provided no direction or valuable information. Even Nancy's own dialogue seemed strange and disconnected from her previously consistent personality. The multiple locations were cool, but limited in what could be explored. The puzzles felt repetitive and directionless at times. And worst of all? The plot. It genuinely felt like the game developers had multiple story ideas but couldn't come to a consensus on what to include, thus including...everything? I believe that the two (?) plot points could have been explored in separate games. I could have seen myself enjoying these stories separately, had they both been developed fully and given adequate attention. This game was not my cup of tea, but I can see how it could appeal to others.

nice

This game was different than the others, but still fun!