Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Ships

Rating:

I have played all of the Nancy Drew games that have come out so far, although I will admit there are a couple I have not yet finished. This game might go down as the one Nancy Drew PC game I never finish, though. I started it, played for a few hours, and then lost all desire to play.

As other reviewers have said, this game is extrememly puzzle-driven. You can take "driven" as an intented pun there, since you have to drive a little golf cart around the island to get to said puzzles. The routes are rough, the cart is slow, and it takes forever to get anywhere. Once you progress a bit further in the game, you can start sailing around the island, too. Of course, that's not much better than the cart, and you can only dock the boat at the pier. So after a while, I found that most of the game was sailing or driving around the island playing through one difficult puzzle after another that seemingly have nothing to do with the plot. (Seriously. You're playing these games with the monkeys that live on the island.) With only two characters to speak to that I found (a frantic and unhelpful George, and an unfriendly guy out on the island), and no real clues to go on, I started to wonder why this was even a Nancy Drew mystery.

I think this one is worse than the other island-located game, "Creature of Kapu Cave," which was also very puzzle-driven and dull. I still have no desire to finish this game, and have moved on to the other titles in the series.

Rating:

Having played all the Nancy Drew games so far I would say that this is an enjoyable game, but not the best one that they have out. I did not like having to go under the water and fear running out of air as it seemed time consumming. Still, I believe that Nancy Drew games are great not only for girls, but the whole family!

Rating:

I am fourteen years old and I have enjoyed nearly all of the Nancy Drew games since I was about eight. However, this game was a huge disappointment! I will divide my review into sections to take a more detailed approach at the game:

Game-play (***): Because this game was made with more advanced technology than former games, it makes sense for the player to expect a higher quality game. This is unfortunately not the case. This game has the worst game-play out of all the Nancy Drew games, even including the earliest games. In this game, Nancy gets around on a golf-cart by land, and a sail boat by sea. There was nothing technically wrong with this, until about half-way through the game when the player becomes bored. It was extremely boring, and while sailing around the ocean, the player may tend to get lost. There is no way to know what direction you are sailing in, and no way to tell how far or close you are to your destination. Also, while sailing, Nancy must wait for the wind to push her in the right direction. On golf-cart, it is a bit easier to get around; however, sometimes the golf-cart would get stuck randomly on the sand, dirt or even the "paved" road. What bothered me most about the game-play was the fact that about half of the game is played in third person. I give game-play (***) because HER did try some new ideas, but I personally wasn't impressed.

Graphics\Setting (****): If you are a returning Nancy Drew player, you know that HER always has outstanding graphics in their games. Ransom of the Seven Ships is no exception. I was impressed (as always) by how realistic and detailed everything was. But, my good feelings were crushed almost instantly. The setting is on a remote island. There are beaches, lagoons, palm tree alcoves, and rugged caves to explore. Also, there is a vacation resort lobby; yes a lobby...nothing else. (I found this very odd.) The whole island had a paved road winding in and out of different locations: about ten in all. However, these locations were very lacking in things to pick up or look at. In all, I was pretty satisfied with the graphics but not at all satisfied with the setting, so I gave Graphics\Setting (****).

Music and Audio (****): I liked the beachy\summer music. It was catchy and had many exotic instruments in the score, making colorful background music. However, that was the only song played over and over throughout the game! The voice acting (like always) was fantastic; however, I felt George and Nancy both could have sounded a little more worried about Bess. I give Music\Audio (****).

Plot (***): It revolves around the kidnapping of Bess. Bess, Nancy, and George all win an online sweepstakes. They get to stay on a private island in an all exclusive resort. When Nancy arrives at this lonely island, a day late, she finds that Bess has been kidnapped! The kidnappers left a note saying that if they ever want to see her again, they must find the legendary treasure of El Toro. This task falls on Nancy, you. George spends the whole game tinkering with her cell phone trying to get it to work, so she can call for help. Nancy spends the game wandering aimlessly around the island trying to muster up some evidence to where Bess is hidden and also looking for the treasure. This plot sounds promising, but it turned out being very dull and drawn out. I give Plot (***).

Characters (**): The Characters were the Achilles heel of the game. There were some monkeys on the island, (which hardly count for characters) and a lonely beach bum named Johnny Rolle. Then George, with whom Nancy only has about three conversations. Bess is a character too, but Nancy doesn't see until the very end. Shockingly, that's it. Only one suspect!! I give Characters a slap and (**).

Overall (***): I was very disappointed with this game overall. If you are a true Nancy Drew fan, fight through this one. But if you have never played Nancy Drew before, DO NOT START WITH THIS ONE! Start with my personal favorite: Treasure in the Royal Tower or Warnings at Waverly Academy.

Rating:

I have every ND game and this is the worst of the bunch. In fact, it's the only ND game that I never finished playing. Way too much driving and not enough sleuthing. I got bored with it very quickly. The underwater games were almost impossible without online cheats, and that was junior mode. If this were the only ND game I had ever been exposed to, I would never play another ND game again. There are many other ND games out there that are definitely worth playing, such as Deception Island, or Shadow Ranch. This one just happened to be in the same boat as Castle Malloy...boring. Hopefully HI was just hitting a slump and they're on the rebound.

Rating:

This game is definitely packed to the brim with some difficult puzzles but that's what makes it so much fun. As far as the underwater puzzles go: a cell phone with a camera, a notebook, a box of matchsticks, and some well placed game saves are all that are needed to solve them with 1/4 - 1/2 Oxygen still left in your scuba tank provided you do understand the objective of each puzzle.
There were, however, some really annoying puzzles to contend with in this game (Camel, Hourglass, Order of the animal disks). While portions of these puzzles were easy enough to solve, other parts were just too obtuse. For example, in the Camel puzzle, you have to realize that it's 2 fold. The first part is completely disorienting while the second half was basic. The same thing with figuring out the order of the Animal disks ( I would never have known where the solution was) though "dialing" them in was pretty straightforward. As for the Hourglass puzzle: the order can be found readily enough but I could never get the timing down pat without looking it up. Still, I thought it was the coolest puzzle of the game.
The final puzzle (Door) seemed to contradict its own logic. I was able to solve it although it seemed like it was just by blind chance.
Aside from those 4 puzzles + having to go on a time- wasting scavenger hunt for a parrot perch, I really enjoyed this game. Loved the graphics, setting, and soundtrack. I really didn't mind the monkeys either. Plus you get to see George & Bess. And the scuba diving was great! I'd recommend it