I AM NOT AFFILIATED WITH HERINTERACTIVE IN ANY WAY.
Overview: 3.5/5.0
We’ve all waited a long time for this game. The communication has been horribly mismanaged and the fan base has justifiably frustrated with the lack of transparency and the disrespect of long-time supporters of the series. At this point, it’s almost impossible for this game to meet the expectations built up over the years. However, we have done our best to evaluate this game independently of its development history. We know that this game hasn’t been in active development for 5 years. After playing this game with an open mind and fairly low expectations, we were… pleasantly surprised. No, it’s not the best Nancy Drew game. But it’s not the worst one either. And there seems to be a lot of exciting potential for the future of this series.
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Scroll to the end of this page for a survey to rank Midnight in Salem.
Mechanics
Since this game was developed in a different engine, there are a lot of new mechanics to explore. (Don’t worry, some favorite old mechanics are still in the game, like playing as the Hardy Boys!) The first scene of the game functions as a tutorial for players to learn the new controls and how they’ll be integrated throughout the rest of the game. Most of these changes are positive additions to the series, but the execution of them falls short of a smooth player experience. However, these new mechanics represent a first step towards a future of much more sophisticated Nancy Drew games.
This game took about 8.5 hours to complete the first time, on Master Sleuth, as an experienced player using no outside hints, clicking on absolutely everything, and exhausting every possible dialogue option. This is a little on the short side for a first-time playthrough, but there is some replay value with multiple ending variations.
Navigation
The first change in this series is the updated navigation controls. The new controls will require some getting used to for more casual players. (Options for inverted controls are also available.) It’s a halfway point between the old point-and-click and games that have a full range of motion. The player glides between points in the environment, but once there can look around freely. This allows us to see more of the environment, and introduces great mechanics for puzzles (discussed below). The navigation in Nancy Drew games has never been the best experience, and the updated controls definitely require some polish. It’s not always intuitive how to get to a specific part of the environment, and you often have to go what feels like just past an object to get to it. There are also points in the game where Deirdre follows Nancy around. This is great, until you try to turn around, and then bam there’s Deirdre, right in your way. (However, this may be nostalgic for players of the Sherlock Holmes series with a similarly pesky Watson.) Overall, navigation is probably the most frustrating aspect of the updated mechanics, but there is so much potential for this system to be fine-tuned in future games and actually be a vast improvement over the old means of navigation.
Inventory
The new UI is extremely minimal, which doesn’t have to be bad. Previous UIs have been more themed, but the change in UI doesn’t really interfere with the experience or affect it in a negative way. It’s fairly unobtrusive, though an option to show/hide the inventory would have been a significant improvement to allow players to be even more immersed in the game. Otherwise, Nancy is the same kleptomaniac we know and love, picking up random objects from people’s homes and storing them in her comically large bag. At one point we had an inventory full of johnny cakes, an entire pumpkin, someone else’s coat, and absolutely no regrets.
Once you use an item (such as a key), it disappears from the inventory, which may not make sense narratively, but it does prevent the player from having to try six different keys that all look the same. The new inventory system also adds two new features that work really well. Players can inspect objects, rotate them, and interact with them while in the inventory. This allows you to find hidden messages or objects. This game also introduces an option to view text, so players have the option to read books or handwritten notes as depicted, or in a larger size of easily readable font. Both of these features are commonly used in similar game franchises, but are new to Nancy Drew and definitely improve this aspect of gameplay as well as puzzle solving.
Dialogue
Generally, Nancy Drew games either focus on talking to suspects, or on puzzles. This game is definitely one that focuses on dialogue, and there is lots of it. This game has 7 suspects, not including Deirdre and the Hardy Boys. There are also several phone contacts. The amount and variety of dialogue is great. There are also a lot of group conversations, where in previous games almost all conversations were one-on-one. However, a lot of dialogue is delivered in cutscenes, where the player doesn’t have any agency in choosing responses. Even in active conversations, Nancy has a list of questions to ask, and the option to leave the conversation often doesn’t appear until you’ve exhausted all of them. This makes the game feel much more like an interactive movie than a game. A majority of the player’s time can be spent with hands off the mouse and keyboard. The pause button also wasn’t accessible during conversations, which is probably the most useful time to be able to pause the game!
There was one moment in the game where you needed to remember something said by another character in order to gain Mei’s trust. This was a great moment. This type of “dialogue puzzle” was sadly underutilized in the rest of the game. The previous games had been making gradual improvements in branching dialogue choices, and this game seemed to take a step backwards with this feature.
In previous games, there was a skip dialogue option. In this game, you can skip ahead in conversation by clicking anywhere on the screen. Since sometimes Nancy is being followed around by other characters, there are a few exchanges of dialogue while the player is walking around. It was frustrating to accidentally skip dialogue by clicking quickly to walk around. It would be much better to have a dedicated button for this, rather than skipping by clicking anywhere. Especially if in the future more complete conversations could occur while walking around and looking at clues.
The content of the dialogue was unnatural in a few places (“I was quite surprised” or “that was long ago”), but ultimately brought the same quality of charm to the game. Conversations set the tone of the game as light, fun, and wholesome. (“I doubt they give a fig”). With the new voice actress, the Hardy Boys really saved the games in terms of making it feel like a continuation of the old series. The dynamic between Frank and Joe was familiar and well-executed.
Unfortunately, the conversations with Ned were a low point in the game. They did continue plotlines from the previous game, but they also continued excessive tension between Nancy and Ned. While we appreciate the representation of a more realistic relationship between the two, it’s frustrating not to have any agency in treating Ned better. To be fair, though, this was a frustration in previous games and is not unique to Midnight in Salem. More than the awkward tension though, the player can never initiate a conversation with Ned to discuss the details of the case. The only calls with Ned are initiated by Ned, and seem to only be about the relationship. The case-related dialogue from previous games made Ned seem like a more involved and active partner to Nancy, and that aspect of their relationship was missing from this game.
Of course, as one would expect of our favorite sleuth, Nancy does still use cheesy dialogue to comment on objects in the environment, including the infamous “It’s locked.” At one point, she even reuses everyone’s favorite joke from Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake.
Phone
Nancy’s phone has the usual features - phone calls, text messages, checklist, and camera (which doesn’t seem to have any purpose in this particular game). When making phone calls, the player no longer has to stare at the phone friend’s avatar for the entire conversation. Instead, an icon appears to show who is on the phone, and the player sees a slightly out of focus environment. This gives the player the opportunity to appreciate the background movement, but is also a gentle taunt that you’re still stuck in one place. Nancy has also lost all pretense of “I shouldn’t use my phone here” and the player can initiate phone calls right next to a suspect. Suspects will also text Nancy throughout the game. Text messages themselves aren’t new to the franchise, but now Nancy responds to them and the player watches a text conversation play out in real time, which is a fun addition to the game!
Nancy’s to-do list is now on the phone, but it’s a dynamic list that updates automatically. There’s a notification bubble when an item is added or completed (which I’d prefer to turn off, actually). The player can’t interact to check things off, which was a ridiculously satisfying feature of previous games. Nancy also no longer comments as things are done, or can’t be checked off. We miss the goofy commentary of “Check” and “Can’t check that off yet!”
Fatal Errors
Just like previous games, the player can choose between two levels of difficulty, but unlike previous games, the difficulty can be changed mid-game, which is great for new players who might not know what to expect. However, this game is much too forgiving with cases for “You have made a fatal error.” There is a stove in this game. You had better believe we deliberately sat in front of a pan of Johnny cakes waiting for them to catch fire. This is a game about arson. We should be able to burn down the house. This was insanely frustrating for someone that seeks out the ridiculous death sequences in this game.
Environment
The graphics in Nancy Drew games have never exactly been a selling point, but the character graphics in this game are pretty bad. It’s a difficult adjustment from the characters in Sea of Darkness. They are much less polished, not well-proportioned, and wildly inconsistent. (Some of the models are much better than others.) The environments are also inconsistent. In some ways, the environments are more detailed. The Parry home feels warm and cozy. The woods are dense and spooky. However, they’re also less styled and can feel generic compared to the previous games. The courthouse in particular tends to be very flat and without much attention to detail.
However, this game feels much more “alive” than a lot of previous games. There’s a significant amount of movement, both in characters and in the environments. In conversations, the characters adjust their position, gesture, blink, interact with objects, and even shift attention to whichever character is speaking. These movements are a bit clunky, but the presence of so much movement is new to these games. Nancy’s sight gently shifts during cutscenes. There are even background characters to make the town feel populated. All of this is supplemented by a lovely soundtrack that really completes the atmosphere of the game, and fortunately the graphics aren’t as important in this type of game as the plot and the puzzles. (Besides, if the graphic were better, you’d need an even more powerful computer to run it!)
Narrative
The plot of this game was probably rewritten a dozen times during the hiatus. However, the end result is mostly satisfying. The level of complexity is fairly consistent with previous games, there are multiple storylines to resolve, and the player has just the right amount of opportunities to yell at the characters for doing something dumb. For example:
Sure, Nancy, just leave that priceless artifact unattended. It will be FINE.
Why are you giving tablets to tourists for this tour? This is how you lose tablets.
Hey! Don’t drink tea from a stranger in the cemetery. Should I need to say that?
There are candles EVERYWHERE. No wonder this town has a fire problem.
Fortunately, Midnight in Salem does reference some of the inconsistencies within this game as well as from patterns of previous games. Nancy references that she’s probably calling a phone friend in the middle of the night due to the time difference. And when the player switches to the Hardy Boys but keeps one vitally important inventory item, Joe says he “borrowed” it from Nancy.
The game also rightfully acknowledges the similarities with the plot of Alibi in Ashes. For example, the characters discuss how Mei’s parents are off in some other country while she’s being accused of arson, likely in reference to Carson’s absence during Nancy’s similar experience. With the Hardy Boys present, the game continues the “secret project” plot from Labyrinth of Lies. These references and continuations of plots from previous game help bridge the gap from the rest of the series despite the new look and feel of the game.
While the narrative content of the game was well developed, it was also much too linear. There were never any moments where it was unclear what to do next. There was no wandering around, talking to everyone only to find out there were no dialogue options left, etc. Even replaying the game a second time and trying to skip dialogue or subplots, the game prevented me from “missing” clues or conversations. The game has one culprit, but there are multiple ways that the plot can be resolved. (Similar to Shadow at the Water’s Edge or The Ghost of Thornton Hall). The choices that determine these variations were not clear during the first playthrough, likely because the dialogue options were too long to display completely, and it was not obvious that the different dialogue options represented different actions that were available. It will probably take a few more playthroughs to appreciate the various endings of this game. Regardless of the variations in the ending, the confrontation scene in this game involves Nancy arguing like a lawyer, and it’s extremely interesting to see Nancy in this context. After all, her father is a lawyer, but the games haven’t spent much time exploring this aspect of her personality.
Performance
Midnight in Salem requires a more sophisticated computer to run than previous games. Even with a 2015 Macbook that meets all the minimum system requirements, and all of the graphics settings set to the lowest possible settings, the game struggles to run. However, on a computer built for playing games, there were no technical performance issues - no lagging, no article clipping, no long loading times, and no issues rendering various textures. Unfortunately, a large majority of the audience for this game probably doesn’t have a computer that will run it. The series has attracted a lot of casual players without sophisticated gaming systems, and this change in system requirements could alienate devoted players of the original series.
Please see below for footage of the first few minutes of Midnight in Salem on a Macbook vs a Gaming PC.
Intro on Macbook
Intro on Gaming PC
Fortunately, there were no game-breaking crashes, and the bugs encountered throughout the game were fairly minor. However, they were also extremely obvious, and it’s difficult to imagine that a thorough tester would not report them. Here are some of the minor bugs:
The phone menu for text conversations was missing all the avatars and names for the conversations, so the player doesn’t know what they’re clicking on.
The phone sections didn’t have a back button, so to get from text messages to the checklist, the player has to close the phone and reopen it.
Sometimes when rotating or trying to inspect an object located at the bottom of the screen, the game interprets this as trying to back away or turn around.
When playing as Frank Hardy, most of the phone features are blank or don’t work. (It’s as if they didn’t test using the phone as the other playable character.)
Right-clicking causes the cursor to jump a few inches across the screen.
There were three more significant technical issues that did impact the player experience:
The lip sync in this game is very poor, especially compared to Sea of Darkness.
The audio levels in this game were not at all balanced. Sound effects drowned out the dialogue and the levels had to be adjusted repeatedly throughout the game to be able to hear what the characters were saying.
The closed captions were not timed to the audio, almost always not keeping up with the character, or showing dialogue that hadn’t happened yet. This was distracting, and potentially game-breaking for someone with a hearing disability. We had to turn them off to be able to enjoy the game.
Puzzles
There are fantastic puzzles in this game. The problem is that there just aren’t very many of them. The new mechanics introduce such great potential for puzzles. The first puzzle in the game involves inspecting a desk from various angles to find hidden levers. It’s an environmental, object-oriented puzzle that is incredibly satisfying to solve. The game also includes the most realistic lock-picking puzzle yet, a cooking puzzle where the solution is based on real-world knowledge/common sense if you have any baking experience, and a puzzle where you assemble a timeline based on camera footage from a variety of angles. (This puzzle also has the camera equivalent of clippy, on a very 90s computer in a government building, and Nancy flips over the USB drive to get it in the port. It’s amazing.) These are all great puzzles for this type of game - they’re fun, they fit in the environment, and they’re not too challenging.
However, there are also a few really weak puzzles. The controls for the ghost hunting puzzle are frustrating, and one of the end game puzzles relies on navigation, which is by far the worst mechanic in the game. The appearance of a cipher puzzle was exciting, and the game made it incredibly easy to solve without a pen and paper handy, but it also didn’t give the player the option type the solution, so it wasn’t nearly as satisfying to solve it. At the end of this game, I had absolutely. no. notes. There was never a point where I got stuck or even felt challenged by the puzzles, despite choosing the more advanced level. So while the environmental puzzles were satisfying to solve, the game lacked any balance with the more complex puzzle types we’ve seen in nearly all of the previous games.
Summary
Clearly, we have a lot of thoughts about this game. It could be so much better. But it could also be so. much. worse. Overall, we’re really grateful to see the next step in the evolution of Nancy Drew, and we’re excited to see how these new mechanics will be implemented in future games. However, if this franchise is going to be successful, HerInteractive will need to make drastic changes in how it communicates with its players. This development of this game has alienated a lot of people and it will take significant work to gain back that trust. Hopefully, if HerInteractive shows an effort to improve the relationship with their fans, we can all move past the bitterness that seems to be prevalent in all the discussions about Midnight in Salem.
Still, we recommend that Nancy Drew fans with a gaming computer play this game. It took a few hours to grow on us, and it won’t ever be the same without the original voice actress, but it’s still an enjoyable game. (Even if it does feel more like a proof of concept than a polished release.) In any case, we’ll take this game over driving a golf cart around Dread Isle any day.
TELL US WHAT YOU THINK!
ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED FROM NANCY DREW: MIDNIGHT IN SALEM
Still Need More Nancy Drew?
As a part of our Study in Nancy Drew, we evaluated the series as a whole, complete with graphs and charts. We also created a quiz to help you find your next Nancy Drew games, which provides a unique answer using only 3-5 questions. If you don’t feel like taking a quiz, you can just browse the games by a number of categories - tier, plot, setting, subject, crime, and type of puzzles. You can also browse all games or view our recommendations for first-time players. We also posted a survey for you to vote on the best Nancy Drew games, and we will continue to publish the results as new responses are submitted. All of this content has been updated to include Midnight in Salem!
