[00:00:01] Today, I’m doing something a little bit different. I’m reviewing a video game. It’s a mystery video game and it’s made by Her Interactive, and I have to tell you right up front to be honest that I’m being paid to talk about the product. So just so we’re clear on that. But this is an honest review of this mystery game: Nancy Drew: Labyrinth of Lies, which is pretty cool. So let me show you the features of this game. (See the video below.)
[00:00:33] Okay. Here’s where you start. I would suggest starting with Amateur Sleuth, because it can get pretty tricky. Here we have Frank and Joe Hardy.
The Hardy Boys conferring with Nancy on her assignment, and you will be playing Nancy. And here’s where you meet one of the first characters in this game. Her name is Xenia.
You’ll talk to her. After which you might hang around in the museum. Something that I did. Now you’ll notice there’s a woman in the background. At some point, she’ll start running. You’ll want to talk to her because she has clues.
Of course, you’ll want to talk to everybody, to a certain extent. And here’s a clue that she’s given you. It’s a book on Greek mythology. And somewhere in there, there’s probably an important clue. So you’ll want to hang onto that. And I’m just showing you around the museum just to give you a sense of the graphics, which are really nice. Here, also, is a note on the door which will give you a clue which I won’t go into because I don’t want to spoil anything. But know that to get into this office you will need this key, which I won’t tell you how to find. [Because … spoilers!].
[00:02:10] You’ll notice that the graphics here are very clear, crisp, nice looking, colorful. And you take a call from the head of the museum, Milena.
And you look around. And you see … aha! ,,, you need the password. Again, you’ll have to look for clues as to what that is. We’re just looking around the office, looking inside this cabinet. There’s all sorts of stuff that you can pick up. Take a closer look at. Yes, you can see that I’m gathering things there at the bottom. Now I’ve gone out in the hall. Now, here’s a part that combines puzzle with knowledge of Greek myths. You see, here you have to use those different settings up there to create a temple?
[00:03:47] There are things you’re going to want to pick up here. This is one of them. You can see there are notes there. Here’s a password protected thing. You need to find the password. Now let’s go downstairs. But, no, wait a second. Let me try to pick this up. Nope. Can’t do it without a key of some sort.
So downstairs we go into this creepy basement and … look! … there’s something you can pick up here.
Again, another thing you’re going to want to take with you as you try to figure out what’s going on. And we get closer. Notice the way the magnifying glass lights up when there’s something that you can view? This will require a code obviously. And again you have to look through your clues to find that code. Now we’re back out in the amphitheater and Xenia is there. But we don’t want to talk to her again. We want something else.
Yeah. Now she’s not there now. I can’t tell you how it is that she’s not there. You have to figure that out. But here are some other clues that you’ll want to pick up while you’re there. They’re all on her desk there.
[00:05:09] So part of the puzzle will be figuring out how you get access to this. Incidentally, here’s one of those puzzles. Yeah, puzzles are tricky sometimes. So if you can’t finish the puzzle right away, that’s fine. And right here we have an interesting gadget that I just have to show you. I can’t tell you how I got it. That would be telling.
[00:05:36] But watch this. Yeah. Down we go into the depths of what is apparently Hades, I believe.
And here’s the guy who’s in charge of Hades. Now, you can look for clues here. Here’s a clue. You don’t know what it means yet. I certainly don’t.
[00:06:03] Here’s some creepy stuff that’s down there. I’m getting out of here. Yeah, I took a look around, and I said, “You know. I think I’m going to go back up. Fast.”.
[00:06:18] I’d like to draw your attention to the tasks and notes in the lower right corner. It tells you what you need to do and you can check them off as you go. If you need a hint, click on that question mark. If you’re looking for more help. click on “Help” or check the strategy guide that comes with the game. Here are some more options in terms of display. You can save the game before you quit and to quit, just click on quit in the lower right hand corner.
[00:06:56] As you can see this is a game for people who 1) enjoy mysteries; 2) want to be sleuths, you know follow along and be the sleuth and find clues and solve puzzles; and 3) want to learn something in the process.
[00:07:20] So it’s got a lot going for it, and I give it high marks for that reason.
If you want to play, just click here!
