The graphics are a mixed bag, a combination of real photos and CGI. It works for the most part, giving the game a sort of retro low-budget charm. I would have appreciated seeing more real photos of Paris, instead of the bland CGI backgrounds. Additionally, there are a total of seven 3D-rendered animated characters you can meet and speak with, as well as a few others only available via telephone. The dialogue is well-written, and the voice acting is surprisingly good overall.



My major gripe is with Nancy Drew herself, as she tends to sound wooden and/or bored. There are also some wonderful moments, such as the first three-way phone conversation with George and Bess, which at times had me actually laughing out loud. What I found solely lacking, though, was the ability to skip dialogue. This is a standard feature of nearly all graphic adventures, so its omission really stood out.

The gamplay is standard ‘click on objects to interact’, with keyboard input required on rare occasions. Nancy moves through the world in a series of still images, à la Myst; in some locations the view can be rotated 360°. The magnifying glass cursor turns red over items that can be examined/interacted with, and automatically becomes a hand when the object can be picked up and placed into Nancy’s toolbox, which greatly simplifies things.



To my absolute joy there wasn’t a single instance of pixel-hunting to be found, so often the bane of adventure gamers. The puzzles themselves are fairly varied. There’s the standard find-combine-use, some deciphering of overly complicated instructions, and even some time-limited action puzzles. Something you’ll be doing a lot of is haggling over prices with the three vendors in the central park, and completing paint-by-numbers pictures to earn extra cash. It’s fun at first but gets tiresome after a while, especially the painting.