cracker24's Full Review: Nancy Drew: The Final Scene for Windows
The Final Scene is the fifth 3-D adventure game in the Nancy Drew Interactive series. The series is based on the book about a young female detective who spins the majority of her time solving mysteries and avoiding death at every turn.
In the game, the player is transported into Nancy's world through her eyes and all actions and thoughts are that of Nancy. Initially, players are given the option to take a brief tutorial to learn about how the gaming interface work. Once the player elects whether or not to do that,then they are given the option to determine the complexity of the game they are about to play. Junior Detective is the easier version and the version that I usually play. At 33 I don't have the same hand-eye coordination that I used to and many of the puzzle require good reflexes. The Senior detective is more difficult and does not offer much in the way of hints and the puzzles themselves tend to have more pieces to assemble etc.
Plot-
Nancy Drew arrives at a vaudeville theatre to meet her friend Maya, a journalist who had an interview scheduled with the show's leading man. Almost immediately upon arriving, Nancy's friend Maya is kidnapped and a ransom is called in. Do the kidnappers want money? Nope. The kidnappers give Nancy 3 days to stop the demolition of the theatre or her friend Maya will be killed.
Unlike prior Nancy Drew games, this one had a linear progression in that there were 3 days to solve the mystery, whereas the earlier ones had unlimited time to solve it. There are certain things that need to be done to progress to the next step as well as progress to the next day.
Throughout the game, the kidnapper tries various ways to convince Nancy to stop looking for the girl and concentrate on getting the demolition itself stopped. One such way was sending an elaborate wreath with dead flowers on it warning her Maya's time was numbered.
In Final Scene Nancy encounters a variety of colorful suspects and gets help from the strangest people. The first suspect is the star of the show Brady Armstrong who doesn't seem to really have any personality and basically acts like a robot with his agent pulling all the strings. Next, we have the agent who is "surprisingly" all about turning this catastrophe into a publicity stunt to promote her rising star Brady. Neither of whom really take the kidnapping seriously and believe its merely a stunt and that Maya will be returned when it doesn't work. Third- We have the typical restoration society person who wants to save the theatre because he feels it has historical significance etc. He has been trying to get the theatre declared a National Landmark and keeps getting stalled in the process. Finally, the last suspect is the caretaker of the old theatre who loves his job and doesn't want the theatre torn down either.
Throughout the game we are faced with many different puzzles and interesting facts about such noted legends as Houdini and yes we do learn how to do some of those famous special effects in the game. Nancy herself has to become a mini-magician to a certain degree to solve the case.
Places
Unfortunately in this case, Nancy doesn't really visit any other locales. The only other location in this one is the hotel and you don't really spend much time at all there. Inside the theatre are several different rooms to investigate as well as several secret passageways throughout the game.
In every good mystery, danger is around every turn and that is definately true in Final Scene. Nancy almost gets killed in a wide variety of ways including being stuck in the building when it get demolished, having things fall on her to even being electrocuted.
Hints-
It is a good idea when stuck to call George or Bess, Ned or any of the other available numbers on your phone.Danger lurks at every corner so make sure to save often. Personally, I like to save after I solve each puzzle or add a new inventory item this way I don't have to redo that particular segment of the game .However, Nancy Drew Final Scene has a bult in second chance option so if you die or do something you shouldn't, you can restart where you made the fatal error.
Graphics were very realistic and the attention to detail was precise. There was change on the floor in the theater itself as well as boxes of half-eaten popcorn and drinks and gum on the back of the seat. There were photographs of family members as well as marquis from various acts that had performed in the theater before including Houdini. Music changed depending on the scenario from creepy and sinister to eerie and even calming at times it fit. Sound effects were also realistic from the tape recording of phone calls, to phone ringing and passages creaking open. I found the characters to be much more lifelike. and these characters seemed to be a bit more mobile in that they were often in more than one room of the theatre.
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