Nancy Drew®: Mystery of the Seven Keys™ Reviews

Firstly, let me just say that I really didn't [i] hate [/i] the game. I played it all the way through, and did somewhat enjoy myself UNTIL the last third, where the puzzles and writing got super weak. However, I have more cons than pros, so I can't bring myself to give it a thumbs up.Everyone says this one is better than MID, but honestly, I have to say that it's pretty much on the same score of a 4.5/10 for me, just for different reasons. There was some improvement on some things, but huge downgrades on others. [b] PROS: [/b] - I enjoyed Ned having a bigger role in mystery solving again - I enjoyed all the easter eggs to past games - I'm glad Frank & Joe were involved again, even if it was just a couple pretty small interactions - The game definitely had a good length, as I got about 6-7 hours of gameplay out of it - "Good News & Bad News" death scenes are back - Nancy's new voice actor has seriously improved since MID - Kitty! [b] CONS: [/b] - Lots of reused plot points from The Phantom of Venice... Nancy goes undercover in a historic European city, navigating a web of secrets, disguises, and deception to unravel a high-stakes criminal conspiracy involving stolen gems and elusive thieves? Déjà vu! - Too expensive for what it is. - Unintuitive puzzles. Seriously, the amount of times I just gave up and looked at a playthrough because I had NO idea what the hell I was doing was just insane. Remember how in past games Nancy used to give us some kind of a jumpstart to let us know what the basic objective of the puzzle was? Yeah, not here. - The puzzles didn't always make sense from a writing standpoint. All I'm saying is that my [spoiler] poison antidote definitely gave Nancy mercury poisoning [/spoiler] - Plot holes galore. The biggest one being how [spoiler] the entire POINT of the seven keys was that they had to be unlocked all at once to prevent a thief from stealing them... and then at the end we have a puzzle to literally just open the locks one by one?? Huh? [/spoiler] - Still no sign of life from Bess and George.... We haven't heard anything about them since Shattered Medallion lol, it's been 11 literal years. - No options to just call and chat with your friends & dad like you used to be able to. Nancy can only ever contacts them if she absolutely needs something to progress the story. - Dialogue was pretty clunky, especially with the villain reveal plot twist at the end. A lot of the dialogue left you very "wait, what?" - The new movement style is frankly a waste of time. I didn't hate it, but I really don't think it added anything to the gameplay experience, it just seemed to take dev focus away from more important elements like story and puzzle design - No more "sidekick" following you around, which is something I actually did enjoy from MID. - Huge areas with absolutely NOTHING in them - Coffee minigame is hard and serves absolutely no purpose. At least let us get paid so we can buy some dumb trinkets or something? Overall, it wasn't the worst, but it definitely wasn't anywhere near the best. I played through it, but I don't see myself ever playing it again. If you want to play it, just get it on sale. [b] TLDR, [/b] 4.5/10. Better than MID in some ways, worse in other ways. Still nowhere near the same feel of other games in the series. Get it on sale if you're going to play it. Now, to end this review, I have to go on a bit of a rant directed at HeR as a whole. I'm seriously disappointed in this new direction they are going, and I feel like they are really losing sight of what made the games so special to so many for so long. As someone who has played [i] every [/i] Nancy Drew game, there was a serious drop-off in all around game quality after The Silent Spy. The series was seriously just going banger after banger for SO long, and then just started a steady decline after TSS. What happened? I feel like now, HeR is more focused on implementing new tech like better graphics and the free movement shown in this game, instead of focusing on puzzle design and writing. Are those things cool? Sure; but nobody is playing this series for any of that. We care about the story, we care about the puzzles, and most importantly of all, we care about [i] Nancy [/i] and her relationships with her friends & family. Tech upgrades are great, but they shouldn't come at the expense of what made this series great. I feel like HeR has lost their passion, and that lack of care has been really, really apparent with Midnight in Salem and Mystery of the Seven Keys. I hope they manage to come back to their roots eventually. :/

This game wasn't my favorite in the series. I found it a bit challenging, and the story didn't quite appeal to me.

HER as a fan of the original series , and a person who plays modern games as well this would have a way better rating in general if it were done in the classic style

Loved this game, the best Nancy Drew game yet hands down! Love the new features and using arrows to walk. Really cool, works super well on Mac M2

This game does not work. I have windows 11 and a 64 bit processor and what a waste of money because it keeps crashing when it comes to the coffee art part. It is very disappointing as I did only get to play just the beginning of the game before running into this problem and it cost a lot of money. I have never ever had issues with any nancy drew games except for this one. I am hoping to get a refund.

Ive been playing this game since 1998 and im absolutely baffled about how the graphics are STILL so horrific. But, not gonna lie, I'm 34 and still using hints like a 2nd grader. Nancy is a top notch sleuth.. ill give her that.

Years ago I played a good amount of the older Nancy Drew games such as Treasure in the Royal Tower. I was excited to come back and try the newest one. If you loved the click and point style of the older Nancy Drew games this one is nothing like it. You are able to change the settings to have it be click and point, but its still difficult to move around and find what you should be looking at and the spaces are huge you waste a lot of time looking around at nothing. Also the graphics is very lazy, many of the background characters are just copy and pasted through out every scene, Its very clunky in my opinion. Not worth it at all considering the price. The story seems like it could be really good and intriguing, but I don't think I can get past the game play.

This game is bland and unexciting compared to earlier games in the series. I'm in the early game and bored. No puzzles and nothing so far pulling me into the game. I'm not experiencing any of the charm I remember from earlier games. It's mostly exploring a lot of empty space with little to do and listening to long dialogue from the characters. I feel ripped off as this game is no worth it's price. I wish I had listened to the negative reviews before purchasing as the negative reviews are correct. It's disappointing after waiting so long for this game to come out for it to be trash. Midnight At Salem wasn't great either but it was better than this. As people say, this doesn't have the classic Nancy Drew charm as earlier games. This game is an empty shell of a game.

I have loved HER Interactive for years. But the last two games have been such horrendous disappointments. I got stuck in glitchy loops for hours where I couldn't talk to any characters or do anything. This game also won't let you call the Hardy Boys whenever you want. Moving through the space is not intuitive. I have never wanted to throw my computer across a room more. The puzzles were lacking. I miss the old games.

Unfortunately, the essence of Nancy Drew is gone. I wanted to like this game so much because I've been a huge Her Interactive fan for 19 years. The characters lack charm, the puzzles aren't very good, and the game play/environment is deplorable. I played this wondering how games from the 2000s were more striking and charming. Of course, this is no comparison to the earlier games. All this being said, I might have given up on Her Interactive.