#nd key

A lot of the assets used in ND34 were reused from ND33. Like all of the ambient NPCs in KEY being models of Frank, Joe, Lauren, Mei, the Judge, etc. wearing different clothes. The visuals were... a minor improvement, but five years of improvement? I don't think so.

The controls weren't exactly smooth. The P&C System was extremely finicky, and the Freeroam mode was typical Unity gliding around bullshit. The puzzles, out the gate, gained a reputation in the community for being improperly balanced and extremely difficult.

This is what a small studio mystery game should be. The soundtrack is crisp. The visuals have a style to them, as opposed to having that unity stock asset-look. The game doesn't wait for you to notice small things, and Sophie's voice lines help keep the player on the right track. The puzzles feel challenging, but not overwhelming. Just, ugh!

For a moment, I was sitting there, listening to one of the background songs, and I just thought to myself, "this is what modern Nancy Drew could be... if only." This Bed We Made feels like it was a mystery game made from a place of passion and love, while Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Seven Keys feels like a corporate coddling piece where someone on top asked themselves "okay, just how little can we scrape by with in order to turn a profit?"

The puzzles gave me Ransom of the Seven Ships vibes. While there were certainly way more than in Midnight in Salem, they were way too hard, especially on Amateur Detective. I dread to think what this game is like on Master Detective mode. Maybe I'm a weenie and just way worse at these games than I thought, but this game, RAN, and The Deadly Device are the only three ND games that I've ever played where the puzzles got my so stressed I had to split my play time across multiple days because I kept getting headaches. I think I used the hint system or video walkthroughs to get answers more times than I solved the puzzles myself. Overall, not a rewarding experience, and I'm glad I didn't buy this game. This is the first Nancy Drew game I seriously considered not finishing.

The plot was fine. It would've been better with better graphics, a better environment, and better puzzles, but with those aspects missing, the plot was meh. I much prefer MID's over this game's, even though I really don't like scary games that much. It also felt like they were trying to win brownies points and distract longtime fans by including as many references as possible. I also feel like they realized what a botch job they did with Ned and Nancy's relationship last game, and they were trying to make up for it in this game. The problem, though, is that it felt... a bit forced and overdone. Like they were trying too hard to undo what they did last time.

Graphics were an improvement from MID, for sure, but still looked worse and more soulless than every past Nancy Drew game, even SCK and STFD. This game reminded me a lot of Supermarket Simulator... which is a solo-dev, Unity asset, early access Steam game...

The villain choice was interesting. Don't wanna get too spoiler-y, but but I just can't help but feel it was a shallow, surface-level, and rushed decision to chose who they chose to be the villain.

The navigation in this game sucks. I mean this wholeheartedly when I say I would've rather had MID's hybrid navigation system than either of these. The Modern Mode is soulless and makes the game a little harder. Part of the fun of point-and-click games is that they tend to only show you things that are relevant for the story and puzzles, allowing you to focus more on the puzzles and story as opposed to navigating this big open world looking for small items to click on. The Modern Mode in this game removes that and adds too much vagueness. Not to mention, the movement and gliding-ness of the movement gives "default Unity" vibes... which is fitting since the entire game sorta gives that energy. The Classic Mode isn't much better. This is the worst point-and-click system in any Nancy Drew game, ever. The click boxes are harder to find that SCK, but their more unpredictable in where they'll take you than MID. Truly an awful point-and-click system that only added to my stress playing the game. It was the clear that the new devs were totally fish out of water when it came to designing this system.

Overall, for the majority of this game, I was on the verge of stress tears, telling myself I just wanted it to be over. Nancy Drew: Mystery of the Seven Keys placed 32/35 on my ranking spreadsheet, just below Phantom of Venice and above Ransom of the Seven Ships. For reference of it's nearest games, age-wise, Midnight in Salem (2019) placed 15/35 and Sea of Darkness (2015) placed 7/35... so... I won't be replaying this game... ever... unless I absolutely have to.

That is to say, both games were shit, had exuberantly hard puzzles for Junior/Amateur Detective mode, and had a painfully obvious villains, all while trying to desperately do fan service and cram in as many references to old games as possible.