Review: Nancy Drew - Trail of the Twister & Secrets Can Kill for PC/Mac

As a member of the Family Review Network, Her Interactive provided me with two of the new Nancy Drew mystery PC games for review.  Her Interactive is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the famous Nancy Drew mystery series with two new PC game releases for their successful twenty-five game series. These two games are also the first two games of the series appropriate for play on the Macoperational system. Secrets Can Kill (Remastered Edition) and Nancy Drew: Trail of the Twister, like the other games in the series are family-friendly games aimed primarily towards tween and teen girls, but they areengaging and appropriate for male and adult members of the family as well.

A nice feature of both games in the series is the opportunity to choose to play as a Junior or Senior Detective. Both modes follow the same mystery story, but the Junior mode has simpler versions of the puzzles and you can call Nancy's friends, Bess, George, or Ned, for hints. If you are a new player, I would recommend that you at least begin a game as a Junior Detective to gain your footing in the games.  If Junior Detective is too easy, it is simple to begin a new game as a Senior Detective.

The games also feature easy to understand and use game controls. Your mouse clicks control directional arrows which maneuver the camera view and indicate the direction you wish Nancy to travel and a magnifying glass/hands which allow the character to interact with clues and puzzles. Secrets Can Kill (Remastered Edition) is a redesigned version of the debut game of the Nancy Drew series which features a new ending, improved graphics, redesigned characters, and new puzzles.

Primarily a click-and-explore mystery adventure where most of the game is spent figuring out the mystery, gamers are given only limited information about the mystery—that a student at the high school where Nancy's Aunt Eloise is the librarian has been killed and that Nancy has been asked to help investigate the mystery. There are quite a few puzzles, many of which involve collecting information to solve coded messages. Most of the activity in this game involves exploring the different areas and questioning characters in the game to gather information which helps Nancy solve the mystery.

Based on the 155th novel in the Nancy Drew mystery series, The Mystery in Tornado Alley, Trail of the Twister takes Nancy to a tornado research facility in Oklahoma to help a group of storm chasers. Trail of the Twister features more logic-based active puzzles while Secrets Can Kill (Remastered Edition) is more about exploratory puzzles.

Both game releases are engaging mysteries that will interest many gamers. While they may not challenge very advanced puzzlers, they are well situated for their intended audience of tween and teen girls,while providing fun, family-friendly fun for anyone interested inthese type of games. I personally prefer the action and logic-based puzzles of Trail of the Twister, but Secrets Can Kill! (RemasteredEdition) is also entertaining. Both games are intended for ESRB rating E for ages 10 to adult with Secrets Can Kill (Remastered Edition)
having an additional E10+ because of a drug reference (part of the plot involves the possibility of one of the student's involvement withperformance enhancing drugs).

Disclosure:  This post was written for Family Review Network & HERinteractive who provided the complimentary product in exchange for my honest review.  No additional compensation was provided.