Nancy Drew: Secret of the Scarlet Hand Review

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            Nancy Drew: Secret of the Scarlet Hand

Review by JenNovember 2002

Secret of the Scarlet Hand is the sixth in the series of Nancy Drew games and the third I have played—I thought I was done after two, in a “played one, you’ve played ’em all” sort of way. However, this one fell in my lap like manna from heaven, so I went ahead and loaded it up.

This time around, Nancy is invited to serve as assistant curator at the Beech Hill Museum in Washington, D.C. Joanna Riggs, the curator, is scrambling to put together and open an important Mayan artifact exhibit. The centerpiece of the show, a depiction of the Mayan King Pacal, is soon stolen, the thief leaving only a scarlet handprint in its place. Our intrepid girl detective starts detecting in between her museum duties.

In addition to Joanna, there are three other principals, Alejandro del Rio in the Mexican consulate, a handsome young man who is angry about his country losing its precious treasures, Taylor Sinclair, an oily dealer in artifacts, and Henrik van der Hune, a specialist in glyph translation with a checkered past. Is one of them the thief? Nancy sets off to find out.

In her quest for the truth, Nancy becomes steeped in Mayan lore, and—guess what?—there will be a test (or two). You as the player are forced to pay attention to the museum exhibits in order to pass these quizzes and progress in the game. I found the educational aspect a little heavy-handed this time around, but hey, I’m a grown woman. I already know all about Mayan culture—after all, I did play Timelapse for Pete’s sake!

The puzzles are your standard clue-finding-and-applying and inventory fare. All puzzles are fair, in that they all have clues and the clues aren’t too obscure—this game is made to be played by children as young as 10. However, there are some times when a woman player might put two and two together ahead of schedule, and then she cannot do anything with her knowledge because she’s not supposed to have that knowledge just yet. A couple of times, I had to go back and go through the motions of figuring something out for the first time, but at the correct time, in order to trigger the next action.

Much of the information you need will be gleaned through telephone conversations. The phone in Nancy’s hotel room becomes a very familiar sight indeed! Also located in Nancy’s room is the alarm clock, a device that has made an appearance in at least one other Nancy Drew game—if Nancy is doing something at the wrong time of day, she can set the alarm to whatever time she chooses to advance if, for example, it’s the middle of the night and she needs to see a hospital patient during visiting hours. However, she appears to have an unlimited number of days to solve the case, and she can visit the museum, the primary gameplay location, at any hour, so time is not really an issue in most cases.

When you begin, you may choose to play as a Junior Detective or a Senior Detective, the difference being, I assume, in either difficulty or quantity of puzzles. But since I never play as anything but a Senior Detective (I have a reputation, after all!), I guess I’ll never find out. The game was not a brain-buster, although I did scratch my head a couple of times. Most stucknesses can be overcome by going everywhere and looking at everything again.  No need to try every inventory item on every hotspot; you generally have a pretty good idea of what will work where.

Graphics, music, and voice acting are all passable but far from stellar. The actors rarely sound like they’re reading, but they are not ready for their Broadway debuts either. Graphics are clear and crisp; movement within a particular building is via a click-induced jump from one node to the next; there are a couple of nodes with horizontal panning in a complete circle, although it’s jerky.  Traveling between locations is done via a subway map that pops up when you leave the building you’re in. Cutscenes are few and far between.

On the whole, Secret of the Scarlet Hand really is another good, solid, well-put-together offering from Her Interactive.  It is certainly not the stuff of which classics are made, but neither is it a complete waste of time. I found it to be a nice weekend diversion … but I won’t be lining up for the next title in the series. That “played one, you’ve played ’em all” statement proved to be true. These games are all formulaic, much in the same way as the Nancy Drew books are formulaic. That never stopped me from reading them all when I was 9, but as an adult I like a little more variety in my entertainment and am not compelled to play ’em all. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Her Interactive Publisher: Her Interactive Release Date: August 2002

Available for: Windows

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System Requirements

Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP 200 MHz Pentium (300 MHZ PII recommended) 16 MB RAM (64 MB recommended) 160 MB free hard disk space (250 MB recommended) 16-bit video card (16-bit with 8 MB video RAM recommended) 8X CD-ROM drive (24X recommended) Mouse and speakers

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14 Responses to Fear Factor

  • Fear Factor | Tap-Repeatedly.com | Reality Topics Blog

    […] nobody@flickr.com (graftedno1) wrote a very interesting post today.   Here’s a quick excerpt:My greatest fear is to be trapped alone in a confined space with a blind human, in total darkness. They have a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and. […]

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Lewis, you made me think of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in gaming, and we’re very similar people.

    Bioshock had two moments – the dentist and the flooded room filled with mannequins.

    Thief had Return to the Cathedral, which was terrifying to me. Thief 3 had Shalebridge Cradle, which is so scary it ought to be fined.

    System Shock 2 kept me on the edge of my seat, but it was more lonely panic than true fear.

    Korsakovia was so scary that I uninstalled it.

    And STALKER. Oh, god, the haunted labs in STALKER. The latter two games don’t have scares like that. Few games do.

    It’s especially rare for a game to have more than mere “moments” – for a game to be scary from beginning to end, that’s a triumph.

    Wonderful article. As if Gregg’s review wasn’t enough to convince me that Penumbra is not something I have the courage to play!

  • DPenn

    I’m with you Lewis … I’m a bit of a puss. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of dread as entertainment.

    Still, I’m drawn to dark stories when they have something interesting to say, whether it’s a game like Thief or a film like, say, Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. So I’ll push through, sometimes peering through my fingers.

    The trouble with games, though, is that if you look through your fingers, you’re probably just going to have to play through the scenario again. :~)

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    I wanted to play this game. I downloaded the demo but the controls were just too wonky for me to get my head around. I liked the atmospheric vibe a lot. I think I’m a bit desensitized from an overdose of horror movies in my youth so I don’t so much get the dread thing from these games as a nice creepy vibration. If only the controls were better…

  • Lewis B

    @ Mike, what’s wrong with the controls bud? As someone who despises poor control schemes, Penumbra’s is just like any other FPS, except to examine things you right click on them.  To use things you left click.  I’m not sure that can be considered difficult 🙂

  • Gregg B

    @Steerpike: Yeah my greatest shit-scared moments were with those games too. A few spoilers below people, so beware.

    Bioshock – Haha, I remember the dentist. I didn’t really find the game that scary overall but the bit where you go into the wine cellar and notice a mannequin facing the wall and after upgrading your weapon it’s stood directly behind you motionless and quiet just for a moment before attacking you. I shat a brick. I also missed that bit originally until Lew told me about it.

    System Shock 2 – same as you really, more unremitting tension all the way through rather than specific terrifying moments. Oh actually, theres a bit where you call a lift and it breaks then you realise a service droid is coming to fix it… I do remember having sleep issues after my first encounter with the cyborg ninjas though.

    Thief: The Dark Project – The Sword and Return to the Cathedral and Down in the Bonehoard and well, loads of them. The Sword made me break out into goosebumps though because there was a bit where you could hear this creepy giggling which seemed like it was following me about then it suddenly changed to this horrible throaty noise. What made matters worse was that the EAX (bless you Creative) made my foot steps sound like somebody else was there with me. That level was incredible, a bit too incredible as it seems I missed great chunks of it because I was so eager to leave.

    Thief II: The Metal Age – Trail of Blood where you end up in that opening with those damn tree beasts. God the first time I saw one of those hurtling towards me I actually died shortly afterward. Do you remember that Mechanist child walking around on one of the levels? That was a little creepy.

    Then there’s Penumbra: Overture – quite a few bits but I’m not mentioning them here.

    Oh and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. – The brain scorcher lab just because it was so damn quiet. My imagination seriously got the better of me there. Those stuffed animals and heads I’d seen in various buildings led me to believe that those creatures were lurking somewhere in the Zone, specifically that lab.

    @Mike: My control setup was perfect after some tweaking (as well as the simple weapon swing fix). If you ever fancy giving it another go, give me a shout and I’ll let you know my setup.

  • Lewis B

    I’m not sure why guys, but one of my starting paragraphs had gone missing, even though I copied it straight from the original source, and It was fine earlier. 

    Incase you missed it due to some technical issue you might want to re-read just after “Well no she wouldn’t in truth, but in Penumbra: Overture you don’t want to move anyway.” at the very start for those who’ve already read the article. Apologies 🙂

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Lewis, it was the weapon swing. It had this terrible, unresponsive feel to it, like trying to hit through molasses. I couldn’t stand using it. I tried the .ini fix as mentioned in the review but it didn’t seem to help. Of course this was the demo…but that shouldn’t have made any difference. I might try the second game instead as I guess they did away with the weapons thing.

    I’m see your first paragraph just fine. It’s the dialogue, right?

  • jdeuel

    I like the argument that weapons can remove fear, but even loaded to the teeth with ammo in AVP’99 the Marine missions were frightful because the enemy was anywhere at any time.

    As for Penumbra Overture, if the controls are anything like the original Penumbra they need to hack in some Wii-Remote 3d controls. I did not like using my mouse for 3d movements.

  • Gregg B

    @Mike: I’ve read that many people avoided conflict altogether in Overture which incidentally is something forced upon you in Black Plague. As somebody who has been renovating a house over the last 6 months with no DIY experience I can safely say that swinging a hammer is significantly easier in real life than it is in Overture without the fix. The fix balanced that for me.

    I’d highly recommend completing the first Penumbra because it’s one big build up to Black Plague which spoils the ending to Overture in the intro. And it’s a great ending too. Just so you know!

  • Lewis B

    @ Steerpike, those moments you mention are all my worst too!!  Do you remember the Robot labs in SS2? Absolutely terrifying, waiting for robots to burst out on you! 🙁 oh and have you ever player Condemned?

    @ Mike, The use of weapons in Penumbra is different to say HL2, where the player is physically holding the weapon, as in Penumbra it floats slightly infront of you.  However, if you change the control method to normal weapon swing, it’s no different!  Speak to Greggi and he’ll tell you what to do 🙂

    @ jdeuel, AVP the original and its sequal were scary however what type of fear do you think it is? I don’t think it’s anything more than sheer tension.  Having a Smart Gun makes you feel incredibly powerful.  I can honestly say in Penumbra the fear is sheer unrivalled terror, where you actually have to force yourself to play on.  It genuinly is that scary! 🙂

  • Jason Dobry

    It’s so true, an arsenal of weapons and ammo rapidly deflates any sense of horror or uneasiness in any game for reasons you already mentioned. Sakey, I thought Bioshock was more “lonely panic,” while I was pretty much always terrified in System Shock 2. I really, really, REALLY did not want to enter The Many’s nursery, and my weapons were so unreliable and ammo so scarce that I never felt safe.

    Silent Hill was terrifying for the same reasons. Ammo was rare and I frequently had to rely on my pipe for self-defense.  Even when I had ammo, the game mechanics prevented my character from being anything other than marginal with any firearm.

    Fear had one moment for me: I was climbing up a ladder, and as I reached the upper platform, my guy briefly looked down as he climbed off. As my perspective looked up again, that Ring-esque little girl was RIGHT THERE, reaching for me. I screamed and she was gone.

    What else…the original Aliens vs. Predator sent me into a locker room and I could only hear the facehuggers scurrying about somewhere within. I had to go in there. I advanced about three steps before the damn thing screamed and filled up my screen with its repulsive underside as it implanted me with its spawn. My roommate made fun of me for weeks for screaming like a girl child.

    Korsakovia–meh.  I was too annoyed and frustrated by the box rearrangement/jumping puzzles to be scared. I uninstalled it after an hour of play, I think. Maybe the scary parts were later, but I doubt it.

    As for Penumbra, I did play through about half of it before other games distracted me. I remember unease and creepiness, but no sweaty fear. I think I’m to blame here, or, more precisely, my daughter, who was still an infant at the time and generally allowed me only to play during the day for 45 minutes at a time. I was denied total immersion and the fear effect suffered. Maybe I should give it another go after I finish Call of Pripyat since she sleeps through the night now. With any luck, Penumbra will keep me from doing the same.

  • Gregg B

    I played the demo of F.E.A.R. but that ladder scare is the only bit I remember. Christ, that made me jump. I’m not too good with cat scares.

    Also I felt exactly the same about Korsakovia. It was creepy at first but then it began to irritate me far too much and it just soured the experience. I stopped playing as a result. Not to mention, when I realised I could bash those smoke-things with my crowbar they didn’t bother me nearly as much.

  • Online Up

    Great article. I look forward to reading more in the future.

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