Nancy Drew Midnight In Salem has officially been released and it's like a dream come true! I still honestly can’t believe that the game was released but I was so excited to play the game. The game was officially released on December 3rd directly from Her Interactive and on Steam. As I have been saying for the last 5 years, I will be finally reviewing Nancy Drew Midnight In Salem! So let's get started!
Game Description
“Nancy Drew unexpectedly finds herself in Salem, Massachusetts investigating an arson on the Hathorne estate. The Hathorne House was originally constructed by Judge John Hathorne, inquisitor of the infamous Salem witch trials and the final home to 102-year-old Frances Tuttle, his last direct descendant. When Tuttle passed away, the estate became city property and while the mayor was seeking a manager to oversee the estate the home burst into flames. The ongoing investigation has turned up little evidence but concerned citizens have accused Mei Parry of arson and are pressuring the police to arrest the secretive teenager. As Nancy races to uncover the truth behind the arson, she discovers connections to the house’s past with the Salem trials and finds herself drawn into a struggle with supernatural events that she simply can’t explain. Nancy’s convictions are put to the test. Are the ghosts real? Has Salem’s dark history come to life, or is there someone else to blame? Time is short, and Nancy must find the answers before the clock strikes midnight.”
“Nancy Drew unexpectedly finds herself in Salem, Massachusetts investigating an arson on the Hathorne estate. The Hathorne House was originally constructed by Judge John Hathorne, inquisitor of the infamous Salem witch trials and the final home to 102-year-old Frances Tuttle, his last direct descendant. When Tuttle passed away, the estate became city property and while the mayor was seeking a manager to oversee the estate the home burst into flames. The ongoing investigation has turned up little evidence but concerned citizens have accused Mei Parry of arson and are pressuring the police to arrest the secretive teenager. As Nancy races to uncover the truth behind the arson, she discovers connections to the house’s past with the Salem trials and finds herself drawn into a struggle with supernatural events that she simply can’t explain. Nancy’s convictions are put to the test. Are the ghosts real? Has Salem’s dark history come to life, or is there someone else to blame? Time is short, and Nancy must find the answers before the clock strikes midnight.”
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| Midnight In Salem: The Museums Abigail's Statue |
Game Design/Mechanics
Over all the design of the game looks amazing. I love being able to explore so much more of the world and being able to see moving and changing scenery where as before in the older game, they were still shots in the game. In MID, you're able to see the trees rustling in the wind, the falling leaves as they float softly to the ground, and watch the rain as it falls. Though you were still using the point and click style to keep track on what you can and can't go, I still enjoy this part of the game play.
When it came to the mechanics of the game, I found them to be a great improvement than what they were originally in older games. Though we don't get free roam yet (As I still hope for 100% free roam in the game), I think this is one step in the right direction.
When it came to the mechanics of the game, I found them to be a great improvement than what they were originally in older games. Though we don't get free roam yet (As I still hope for 100% free roam in the game), I think this is one step in the right direction.
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| Midnight In Salem: Cellphone Glitch with Deirdre Shannon |
Glitches
Now to the fun part of the game… the glitches! Ok, honestly they aren’t all that fun, but I really enjoy finding them. Some of them are super funny, silly, and for the most part they don't affect gameplay. During my first play though, I ended up glitching through the mysterious desk at Moosham Castle. At first I was really scared I was going to have to start over, which is fine since we had just barely started the game, but I somehow managed to escape without starting over. The second glitch was when you call characters in game when you're standing next to them (Deirdre for example). You can actually see their mouth moving as if they were the ones speaking the recorded message. It's probably one of my favorite glitches. |
| Midnight In Salem: Breakfast with Mei, Frank & Joe, and Deirdre |
Character Design
When it comes to the character, I though that they were amazing as well. I'm not sure if its the fact that I got used to the characters in the game, but I will admit that all of them look really good. But there are a few things that, well, are a little meh…. When it comes to the mouth movements and the eyes, they're a little off. First, the characters eyes for some strange reason open really wide during conversations and would kind of make really strange facial expression. It's a little freaky. I honestly want to ask the characters, "Why are you staring at me like that?"
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| Midnight In Salem: Parry's Hallway w/ Tegan and Deirdre |
The mouth movement when the characters talked was also a little off. During the first day of conversations, the mouth movements either didn't 100% match up to what the characters were saying or it looked like there mouth wasn't opening properly as it looked like their lips were still closed. I'm not really sure why that happened, but after I noticed it stopped happening after Day 1. I'm not sure if this was just a bug or what not but after that it seemed to fix itself.
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| Midnight In Salem: Johnny Cake's Puzzle |
Puzzles
When it comes to playing any new Nancy Drew game, I always start off by playing on Amateur, which is a little bit easier since I don’t know this game by heart just yet. I found a majority of the earlier puzzles fairly easy. They were simple and straight to the point. However as the game went on, I found that they actually started to get more difficult. When it comes to switching the game up the gameplay difficulty, there isn't really much of a difference. Many of the puzzles are the same in both Amateur and Master Detective, however I still enjoyed both difficulty levels. Now I'm not sure if this is a glitch as well but I seemed to have a checklist which when playing Master Detective. I thought it was strange because in previous games you're normally on your own when it comes to what Nancy needs to complete next, but maybe this is a change Her made in the game.
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| Midnight In Salem: Abigail's Ghost |
Storyline
The storyline in my opinion was fantastic. When playing you get to follow four different storylines. Without spoiling the ending or the game in full, the first part of the storyline is finding the Book of Apologies that was stolen. The second part was about Mei being accused of arson at the Hathorne estate. The third part is looking into Lauren Holt's case and how she needed to fide the Will to the Hathorne House. The fourth and final part of the story, which I’m not sure how many people noticed is focusing on friendships and family relationships of the characters in the game and I’m not just talking about the people living in Salem. You could says that this also focus on Nancy as well since I know everyone is wondering about Nancy and Ned's relationship. I felt that this last plot really helped pull the game ending in and helped players look at all these friendships from an outsider's perspective.
Overall, I highly recommend checking this game out for yourself if you haven't yet. I want to be completely honest with everyone. I don’t understand why this game is getting such a bad reviews other than people are just being negative. Unless people were expected something completely different with the game, which is the only thing I can think of. Though I will admit, there are a few bugs and glitches with the game that make it a little odd. I still love this game and it is one of my new favorite games.
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| Midnight In Salem: Salem Cemetery |
Overall, I highly recommend checking this game out for yourself if you haven't yet. I want to be completely honest with everyone. I don’t understand why this game is getting such a bad reviews other than people are just being negative. Unless people were expected something completely different with the game, which is the only thing I can think of. Though I will admit, there are a few bugs and glitches with the game that make it a little odd. I still love this game and it is one of my new favorite games.
This is Her Interactive’s first time creating a game with Unity engine and I’m amazed on how fast they were able to create this game in the Unity engine since creating things in Unity can take many years for some people, especially if you don't know how to use the program.
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| Midnight In Salem: Hathorne House |
Thank you everyone for reading. I've enjoyed playing this game so much and I am so happy that it's finally released! Sadly, it looks like we're going to have to wait a while before we get any news on Nancy Drew Game Number 34! I would love it if Her Interactive wanted to share it with me when the time comes to talk about the next game! If you want to see more of my Nancy Drew related posts, check out all my Nancy Drew posts! Also check out my other Midnight In Salem post, Nancy Drew Midnight In Salem Earning All the Achievements.
If you want to get a copy of the game for yourself then you can head over to Her Interactive Midnight In Salem to get either a digital or Physical copy (While physical copy supplies still last), or you can get a digital copy over at Steam Her Interactive. Well, what did you think of Midnight In Salem? I would love to know down in the comment below.
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