Nancy's on the case!
The Nancy Drew series of junior point-and-click adventures has racked up a huge amount of instalments, most of which are more than decent offerings for younger adventure fans. This one continues in that same vein and provides hours of mystery and puzzling fun, making it a great choice for those too young to play Myst. This one starts out with Nancy taking on a summer internship at a museum in Washington which specializes in Mayan history. However, it's not long before things start happening, with a number of mysterious thefts causing concern. The authorities dismiss the seriousness of the problem so it thus falls to Nancy to get to the bottom of things and of course, she discovers there's more than meets the eye going on. What follows is a classically styled point-and-click adventure where you'll explore the museum and other relevant areas while searching for clues to the mystery and solving numerous puzzles, most of which are inventory based but you'll also have to pay careful attention to your conversations with other characters. The Secret of the Scarlet Hand really is a cracking little romp that should even prove interesting for older gamers. As is usual with this series, the story is well told and compelling in that quaint, old-fashioned way, with lots of twists and turns along the way. The game is also absolutely chock-full of puzzles but they're all well integrated into the storyline and are quite varied and fun to solve. The visuals are nicely done also with lots of detail to enjoy, making this a first class romp.
