Alex Hill: Whispers at White Oak Inn Steam Charts & Stats

As a long-time fan of Herinteractive's Nancy Drew games, I was delighted to try this game produced by a fellow fan. Overall, the experience was enjoyable and it made for a cozy playing experience with a friend. It was interesting to have a slightly more grim storyline, with several plotlines left up to personal interpretation rather than in-game resolution (which, I hasten to add, we enjoyed!) and we really look forward to the next game! Of course, we enjoyed the various ND Easter Eggs, and Alex Hill was a complex detective whose personality was just enough like ND to be fun while being a distinct, interesting character. I do have three comments: 1. Frequently, my friend and I were unable to see the details in a scene because it was rendered too dark (e.g., exploring parts of the hotel's shed and having to distinguish items against shadowed boxes, and several other, more spoilery situations), which made exploring and finding things a little tricky. Exploring outside at night, however, was always bright enough. 2. More puzzles would be great, and a little more balance between difficulty levels would be great - we thought it was a little like ramping up to a boss fight, with the first puzzles very easy and the final group of puzzles requiring a walkthrough (though, as ND vets, we appreciated that we didn't have the added pressure of a timer!) 3. Gameplay itself was largely intuitive, but not always - there were times when we needed to wander around in order to trigger the next step, which was occasionally frustrating but in line with the earliest ND games. However, none of these critiques detracted from what was otherwise a fun and impressive first game!

What an absolute gift this is! It is pure Nancy Drew nostalgia, packed full of references everywhere to the best parts of the Her Interactive games. I feel so honored to be able to play this game and have the upcoming second one on my wishlist. A couple of things I'd like to see in the future: professional voice actress for Alex and an upgraded soundtrack. Thank you so much to the developer for this absolute gem!

An excellent point-and-click mystery that is perfect for fans of Her Interactive's Nancy Drew series! I loved all the little references to Nancy Drew, too. This game felt like a love letter to that series in the best way!

Brilliant game! Awesome story, graphic and control. Can't wait for the next one.

Great game. Feels like an OG Nancy Drew. Legitimately difficult at times which I really appreciate.

Not bad! It's definitely got the original Nancy Drew vibes (the older games, not the newer ones). The game was a little short, but not too bad for the first one in the series. The puzzles were a decent level of challenge (not too easy, not too difficult - except for the end puzzle!!). I hope that the developer can continue to make new games for the series and improve on each one, just like the Nancy Drew games did!

Really enjoyed this! This is the direction HerInteractive should have gone with their Nancy Drew games. The characters are fun and unique and the puzzles are a good challenge. The only thing I wish we had was a checklist and a hint system. I am so excited to see what hannahontrek brings next!

Okay, let me start with the short and the sweet for anyone out there who hasn't played a Nancy Drew game. This game is... a good start. Buy it on sale, and you'll kill a few hours with a genuinely good time. Plot isn't too deep, no jump-scares, puzzles are clear (though not enough for my personal taste), but they whole adventure is a bit... cookie-cutter. The characters are one-dimensional, it's pretty easy to figure out the culprit and the motives, and the graphics for the character models in particular leave much to be desired, but in my opinion the puzzles and the journey itself are well-worth it, as every time you figure something out, there's a new puzzle piece you need to deal with. For a game made mostly by one person, I'm honestly impressed and would love to give this creator some more money to see what they can put together. Solid recommend. Now, for all you Nancy Drew fans out there who want to know how this stacks up, here's the long and dirty details - no spoilers for ND or Alex Hill beyond what you're literally going to get in the opening case briefings for each game. Story: The closest game of the series to this is probably STFD - We're trying to find a culprit who is sending threatening letters to a client who *everybody* hates for some reason or another. If you've played the second game of the series, this should sound very familiar... and perhaps a touch boring. Much like STFD though, this game understands the weakness of that and ups the stakes in big and entertaining ways! It's definitely a delight to watch it all unfold, especially seeing as we can now have a ND-type mystery with a more "real-world" feel - more on that in the "characters" section. Graphics: The character models are REALLY rough probably even rougher than STFD, but the backgrounds are decent - I'd say somewhere between MID and TRT grade. Puzzles: The puzzles we get are very engaging and clear to solve once you have the right tools, probably about a DOG level of difficulty overall, but also like DOG, there aren't a whole lot of them and they don't last very long when they appear. Hint system: Gone and dearly missed. There is a task-list, but it's very... non-detailed. I'd say 99% of the time you feel "stuck" it's because there's a microscopic piece of dialogue or area you're supposed to click on with no indicator that it's important, and THEN you have to retrace your steps to do something you wanted to do before but the game wouldn't let you until you accomplished that microscopic detail. That said, this is a VERY easy game for accomplished ND sleuths. I solved it in less than 7 hours, and would've probably been even less if I didn't have to backtrack a thousand times trying to find the one little detail I needed to click on or the one piece of dialogue I needed to say. Detective: We all know ND can be a little... insensitive. Alex Hill can too, but she's usually a bit more gentle than our favorite lead... *unless she's angry.* Unlike ND, Alex has a temper, and I absolutely believe it when she says she's mad, as opposed to Nancy, who talks to her would-be-murderers about attempts on her life like it's just another Tuesday. She's also just as insensitive to the rules as Nancy - meaning they don't count unless she gets caught and 99% of the time when she does confess, there's no repercussions. What this game DOES do, which I think would've been awesome for the ND games as well, is introduce consequences for Alex's behavior. It's actually really refreshing to see Alex as a more "realistic" version of Nancy in a more realistic world. NPCs: Rather one dimensional, but decent enough and VERY believable. A minor gripe I've had with the ND games as I got older is that the villains and other characters are a bit... cartoonish sometimes. Oh! I'll abandon Nancy in this obvious trap and leave her to die! No... that's not something real world criminals would probably do. They're not going to take chances. To avoid spoilers, this is the sort of game where *if* Alex were to confront such a criminal, they'd actually act like a real criminal instead of leaving things to chance. Furthermore, they're willing to round characters off with more "realistic" traits. A character who has trouble controlling their anger isn't just going to come upon a zone they don't recognize and trash the place (no spoilers but iykyk), instead, they're going to occasionally drop a few, minor swears. This is still plenty safe for ages... say 12+ with no supervision, but maybe give it a play first if your kid's less than that and see what you think. Culprit: Obvious culprit is obvious and the supposed "open-ending" of the case feels pretty easy to conclude as well if I'm honest. That said, I personally want to smack Alex upside the head for letting a certain "accomplice" off the hook who - either willingly or incidentally based on how you want to interpret it - ABSOLUTELY contributed to the crime. The signs are everywhere, it's even addressed several times in the game, but Alex just... stays quiet in the end? Ugh, girl, you're smarter than this. Scare factor: Very low. There are some second-chance mechanics similar to ND where Alex can die/get injured, but no jump-scares, no blood/gore, just well-used tension. It's infinitely gentler than SCK in terms of perceived danger levels, and maybe, MAYBE as spooky overall as CLK? It's set in a small town with all its charms and the majority of the spooky vibes are going to be from sneaking around at night and trying not to get caught (although a particular statue did make me look twice...) Length: As I said before, I solved this game in < 7 hours, and I never needed to look at a walkthrough. It was pretty short and easy. I wouldn't pay full price for this, but snagging it on sale will give you a lot of nostalgic joy. If you got enough delight out of shorter games like CAR, you'll enjoy this. Overall, as an ND fan, I highly recommend, even if it's short and a bit rough. They're already planning a sequel, and, much like the ND games did in the past, I expect these to get better with time as long as we give the creator some support... uh... at least to a point. Maybe no-one talk too loud about MID, okay?

I played this game because I saw people in the ND community talking about it and I wanted to see for myself if someone had finally managed to fill the niche left by HerInteractive. I'm sorry to say this game did not do that for me. While it is certainly impressive that a single person wrote and developed this project, I thought the story lacked intrigue and the gameplay was unintuitive and downright tedious at times. I know it's unrealistic to expect the level of detail and resources that larger developers have from an indi game like this, but I also found the soundtrack and graphics to be sparse and not contribute much to any mysterious or spooky tone. I hope Hannah will keep developing her skills in game development because there is a demand for compelling point and click mystery games! I just didn't enjoy this one. Completed the game in under 5 hours and only nearly rage quite twice.

I'm torn on this one. It does tap into the Nancy Drew nostalgia, and there's a lot that's pretty impressive for a mostly 1 person made game. However there's a lot that is rough here. Not just the things you might expect, like some of the VA and models. The game desperately needs a hint system and I found myself relying on a walkthrough way more than I should have been. Often it was simply because I needed to do something arbitrary to trigger the move to the next time period, like look at a certain screen or open a certain door, or make a phone call. So overall it needs more indications of what to do (a more detailed checklist would help immensely.) And finally the puzzles ranged from trivially easy to super tricky, and the latter really need more cues on what to do so I'm not just again, reaching for a walkthrough. Finally there was a problem with pixel hunting as a couple of times there were objects I needed to find that were tiny and impossible to spot (eg the pen in gazebo and how to get out of room at the end.) These are all things that could be smoothed with playtesting and I'd encourage the dev to do more of it. All said though I hope this is just a rough first entry in a series that improves over time.