Nancy Drew: The Shattered Medallion

Poor Nancy. Is this what it's come to? The Shattered Medallion wastes the skills of the whip-smart sleuth by putting her on a ridiculous reality TV show. Despite the current popularity of such shows, the premise of putting Nancy Drew on one is inherently flawed, and the game repeatedly confirms this. It starts by putting its heroine in a ludicrously uncharacteristic setting, then fails miserably to pull off the locale. From the closed-room feeling of the announcer's voice-over to the complete lack of visible competition, The Shattered Medallion feels nothing like the competition reality shows we're all so familiar with. Beyond that, its characters and dialogue make it feel more like a David Lynch movie than something you'd see on network TV. Along with the incomprehensible character dialogue, it also fails in terms of graphics. With every new game, we hope developer Her Interactive will modernize its mundane graphics, and, with every new game, that hope is crushed.

In terms of gameplay, Her Interactive has been chucking in optional mini-games for some time now, but they're becoming a pointless distraction. For example, why would there be an arcade (and an auction house) plunked down in the middle of a reality show? Plus, the game's main puzzles often are problematic, and many are borderline unfathomable. These involve cross-referencing multiple pieces of evidence in ways that might never occur to younger players (and many older ones); and even the game's built-in hint system fails to lessen the chore-like aspect of the more arcane ones. Simply put, Nancy Drew: The Shattered Medallion is one of the worst-designed Nancy Drew games ever made. If this is an indicator of the direction the series is heading, things don't look good for our favorite teenage detective.