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User Submitted Nancy Drew: Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon Reviews (cont...)Date: 2006-10-13 A Train Bound For Adventure... Nancy Drew: Last Train To Blue Moon Canyon (13) -Before I Begin... My review will be spilt up into sections and have a in-depth look at that topic. If you hate reading medium/long reviews or just don't have the patience I would not continue reading, but if you want to learn the most about the product before you buy it you'll continue. -Gameplay & Interface This is a point-and-click mystery, the arrows and hands are simple and easy to use. They also have made and improvement in the arrows since the last game. The hands manipulate items or add them to your Inventory(Toolbox). When playing the game you also have a panel at the bottom of the screen including a: Inventory(Depicted as a toolbox, which I think should be a backpack instead) a Camera Cell phone and a Journal, Help and a Menu Button (Other games have a Coin Purse when money is used in the game). The Main Menu is pretty simple. However, the loading and saving a game is a little clunky and you can't delete saved games. It also prompts you about your decision; it makes saving/rewriting games take more than one click. For this type of game the interface is perfect, but I'll knock off a star for the irritating save/load page. **** -Plot A fairly used plot in this series, finding treasure. But Her Interactive made this treasure finding story a little more interesting. Jake Hurly, a miner and owner of a custom-built train, falls in love with a young French woman named Camille on the way to finding gold. Camille later dies, Jake possibly finds treasure but he is nowhere to be found and his now "haunted" train is found out in out in the Nevada desert with the engineer dead. Many years later, Lori Girard (Daddy's little fame seeking, rich girl) finds the train and puts it back into shape for a trip to Copper Gorge, Colorado. She invites infamous guests along on the train to find out what happened to Jake Hurley and where his mine is using the clues Jake left on the train. A pretty simple treasure story (This series often uses that story but in different ways) now turned into a intriguing mystery, good work Her Interactive. The game also has some side mysteries like Lori getting kidnapped and someone throwing an emergency brake(Both happen to be publicity stunts). But you find who did those things only minutes after each event happened. What I didn't like was there was not really a culprit because there was no crime committed. The very end is when a crime is attempted after you find out who the culprit is. The Jake Hurley part of the plot was fantastic but the sub-plot(s) weren't very exciting. **** -Characters I loved the characters, but you couldn't really interact with them as much. Lori Girard was one of my favorite characters, I loved watching that dumb blonde trying to get publicity and how she always kept forgetting Nancy's name. Since Lori is the hostess she was probably the main character. Tino Baldcucci is a great character as well. He is a Private Investigator but all he really did to get such fame was being at the right place at the right time. He is as conceited as Lori, you'll probably interact with him a lot more than John Grey. John Grey is the first black male to be in this series, he is the host of Ghost Hunters, a cable show on the verge of cancellation about ghosts. He's a pretty good character but not a leading role unfortunately. Then there is Charleena Purcell a romance novelist introduced in Nancy Drew: Secret Of Shadow Ranch (10), who is nice and very smart. She is in the process of making her book that's on a deadline, who you'll find out used one of Lori's story ideas in her latest book without permission. I like her better now then when she was in ND 10, to bad she has no memory of that game. And finally there is Frank & Joe Hardy. These teenage brothers work for American Teens Against Crime (ATAC) and who were invited because their dad was friends with Lori's dad. The boys were nice enough to invite Nancy along as well. I personally liked this addition to the game because you get to play as Frank as a short-order cook. They really don't have much to do with the case, they are just a good source of info. I am looking forward to playing as them more in Nancy Drew: Creature Of Kapu Cave (15). I really didn't like how there was not a lot of character interaction in this game. But when you did interact at times it was really fun. That's something to add to ND 16 and beyond. **** -Setting & Graphics I love being on a train, the feel was so exciting. Seeing the scenery pass by in the windows were great. The cars were so detailed and beautiful. I think my favorite place in the train was the Projection Car. Later you stop at Copper Gorge, a little town in Colorado. There was the mysterious crypt and a Museum/Taffy Shop that was cheesy but enjoyable. The crypt was small and there wasn't much to do, but I mean in real life all you do in crypts is mourn. The graphics were great. Very realistic. Its amazing how much the graphics in this series keeps getting better and better. This was probably the most unique setting in the series. I personally love trains, boats and planes so this made me really happy. ***** -Puzzles/Activities The puzzles were fairly easy. I liked how a lot of the puzzles were combined into one to find where Jake's mine is. What was disappointing was the repetition of the puzzles. There were about four or five pipe sets you had to connect which got a little annoying. You also had to retrieve a lot of items like gemstones, tools, duct tape, a pen and other stuff. I don't understand how they made finding the gemstones easier than playing an almost impossible game with Tino to get a simple pen. Some of the puzzles were unique, like Camille's doll sorting puzzle and her favorite dance step, playing "Camptown Races" on the piano, and using metal slugs in a mathematical way to open doors on a scale. But some of these activities needed no skill at all like combinations, a word search, and a two memory games. This game had variety but also repeated some puzzles as well which brought down its score. *** -Ending Once you find out where Jake's Mine your sent off there to get a head start for a "treasure". You'd think that after all the puzzles you went through you would think finding the treasure in the mine would be somewhat harder than everything else. You open the entrance, memorize a couple things, follow some lizards and then use the info you memorized. Not that difficult if you are smart. Then you find the "treasure" and your so called "culprit". You wouldn't know this person is the culprit when he/she finds you in the mine and talks to you, but then he/she loses trust in you and you get caved in. Then you get out(I thought this was fun to do, felt like a roller coaster) to stop the "culprit". I liked the ending and what the treasure was but getting through and out of the mine was relatively easy. Although the culprit was kind of obvious, I liked what the culprit's plan or goal was. Overall it was good ending yet a little easier than I thought it should have been. **** -Overall This was one of the better Nancy Drew games out there. Definitely one to add to your shelf. The flaws in this game don't affect the game that much as they could have if the setting was different. The plot was pretty good and most of the puzzles fit into it. I enjoyed this game a lot after I played it more than two times. I think any game needs to be played more than two times to get the full experience. Some parts of the game are really exciting compared to other parts. The repetition of some of the puzzles isn't too bad. This game is outstanding but there is never going to be the best Nancy Drew game. It really depends on your opinion. Add all these up and divide by 6... 4 *'s (Gameplay & Interface) 4 *'s (Plot) 4 *'s (Characters) 5 *'s (Setting & Graphics) 3 *'s (Puzzles) 4 *'s (Ending) = 24 Stars Divide By 6 (Categories) = 4 Stars Thanks for reading! Date: 2006-10-08 Nancy Drew, Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon- I love it! I give this game 5 stars without a doubt! Rich, pampered Lori Girard, with riches in mind, sets out to find an old mine rumored to have been found by Jake Hurley. She has his old, possibly haunted train restored to working condition. But Lori can't find the mine alone. So she seeks the help of John Grey, a TV ghost hunter, Charleena Purcell, a famous author, Tino Balducci, a famous police detective, as well as a few "amateur" detectives- that's you, Frank and Joe Hardy. I really like the story behind this game. It was very interesting, you could never pull yourself away. One thing I didn't like about this game is that you never find out what happened to Jake Hurley, his wife, and engineer. A turn of events keeps you from solving the actual mystery. But if you think hard enough, it's not difficult to guess exactly what happened. The game had a good mix of quests and puzzles. But the puzzles were quite hard. Figuring out how to solve a puzzle was much harder than the actual puzzle. For example, you have to find and put together a lot of information to solve the doll puzzle, and relate completely unrelated elements of the game. This annoyed me. But the difficulty of the puzzles kept it fun. I also was annoyed by how long it took to install. But the graphics were amazing and it was definitely worth it. It was only Nancy Drew game I've played so far, but I don't see how the other games could possibly be as good. It kept me, a twelve year old, up all night trying to solve this mystery. I would definitely reccomend it to an adult or teenager, especially one that likes lateral thinking puzzles. Date: 2006-09-07 Nancy Drew I have played several Nancy Drew games and this is by far the best one. I recommend this game to anyone. Date: 2006-08-22 One of the Best This Nancy Drew truly had you thinking hard. The puzzles kept me thinking about it for hours and they always lead you to another one. The idea of the train was a very good one. It kept you wondering whether you were really going to get off the train and actually find the mine. I enjoyed the idea of having the Hardy Boys in this case, though they weren't all that helpful. The characters in this game keep you off your feet because your always finding something truly suprising about them. It is not a really easy game because you can die and get into trouble. Moving from the different cars of the train is a little annoying . The true suspense and challenges of the game make one of the best. Date: 2006-08-18 Nancy's Train Ride was Short Lived This review is in reference to "Nancy Drew: Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon Game + Strategy Guide" edition. I've played 3 or 4 of the Drew games. This one played faster and was over before the time it took to install the game. Before I had installed 'Blue Moon Canyon', I had installed "Morrowind the Game of the Year Edition", which sold for five dollars less than 'Blue Moon Canyon'. Morrowind is a huge 4 disc game that has, at the bare minimum, 400 hours of gameplay, and possibly might literally be endless. The entire Morrowind set had been installed and up and running within 15-20 minutes. After I had installed and played 'Blue Moon Canyon' we installed and got up and running "Age of Mythology Gold" also within 20 minutes. This is another massive game, a Real Time Strategy game that included the expansion pack "The Titans". Both 'Mythology' games were completely installed. This is another game that can be played and explored for years. The two game set sold for five dollars more than 'Blue Moon Canyon', or the original full retail price of the strategy guide edition. "The Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon" took so long to download...we went out for dinner and let it download while we were gone. We have a P4 at 3.2Ghz, an 80GB HD, of which only 23GB were used, and 1.5 GB of RAM. There is no reason on earth why Nancy Drew games should take so long, over an hour, to download...unless their copy protection program conflicted with our Toshiba Super-Multi Drive drivers. The actual installation was not as painful as the download. What was painful was the gameplay. I had a lot of fun playing the 'Secret of the Old Clock'. Whereas most of the Amazon user reviews came across as lukewarm to the game, I liked playing the golf game, and the car chase, and the "bank shots" of reflective light beams to be aligned. I even felt proud when I finally got the sewing completed. I knew that the Drew games wouldn't deliver the value that the two games (mentioned above) did. But after the reading the reviews of 'Blue Moon' I expected to have more fun than I did with 'Secret', even though I knew it would be short lived. What a let down. The game was over in two or three hours. Most of the gameplay was a memory test of what order what button was pushed or stick was knocked over, or which way the track leaned to. The 'arcade' games in the General Store were just hit the button or in this case 'click the mouse'. You didn't even have to look. The most complicated task was getting a piece of paper to do a rubbing. It was very boring. Between the price, the concern over the length of the download, the most unimaginative gameplay set to walking back and forth on a train, I cannot recommend this game as being fun. It had a few moments with the Math/scale problems but it wasn't enough to carry the game or balance the huge amount of needless dialogue the player has to endure listening to. I realize I'm an adult, but the eight year-old little girl (I bought it for) lost interest after the first 15 minutes. She was wiser than I. Sorry Nance, this one is a waste of money, and might contribute to hardware damage with driver conflicts. marf
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