Nancy Drew Ransom of the Seven Ships Review

Well, I thought it was better late than never.  Though Her interactive decided to stop selling the game, I thought it would be a good idea to finally take the time to write my review for the game.  Her Interactive discontinued the sale of Ransom of the Seven Ships (RAN) as of June 5th, 2020, however this quiet change was not noticed until August 7th, 2020.  However, there is still some good news as you can still buy RAN which I have linked down below.  Ransom of the Seven Ships was released on July 14, 2009 by Her Interactive.  So let's get started!

*Warning*

"This may contain spoilers for the villain of RAN"

Ransom of the Seven Ships: Kidnappers Note

Game Description

Dive into Danger to Rescue Bess from Kidnappers! Your friend Bess Marvin is kidnapped and the only chance you have to save her is by solving a 300-year-old Bahamian mystery! Dangerous waters keep treasure hunters from exploring the reefs around Dread Isle, but this remote island might hide the riches of El Toro’s lost fleet! Can you, as Nancy Drew, track down the treasure before time runs out?

Ransom of the Seven Ships: Shark Diving Ecotourism Resort

Storyline

The game starts fairly simple.  Bess was kidnapped on the beach while George was at the abandoned resort with the owners no where to be found.  The only other characters on the island is a talking parrot named Coucou, who is Loulou's cousin from Curse of Blackmoor Manor (CUR) and a beach bum named Johnny Rolle who is obvious not who he says he is.  I will admit that this game lacked the real option of who could be the culprit since you normally have a suspect list of at least 5 other people who could behind the crime but in this game it seemed to lack that aspect of the game.

Personally, this storyline was fairly odd from the beginning since there is almost no one who could be the villain except for one other person, which we all know its not Coucou.  But the idea of trying to discover who this mysterious beach bum is seemed a little thrown together.  It seems that his character reveal was done more for shock affect than based on logic of the storyline.

Ransom of the Seven Ships: Monkey Coconut Mini Game

Puzzles

Out of all the games that I've played before, I don't think I have ever been so frustrated with trying to solve the puzzles in this game.  I felt like this game was more arcade puzzle based than anything and after a while it got tiring having to try and battle the monkeys to get items that we're either fun keepsakes or items you need to get to progress in the game.  For the most part I found myself losing to the monkeys more often than winning which was frustrating.  But then I found patterns that they followed and almost won every single round afterwards.  I think the worst puzzle of them all was the sand dials puzzle towards the end of the game which you must have the sand in every dial end at the exact same time which for me was a nightmare in a half and that puzzle alone is the reason why I don't play this game.  I will admit, I have beaten the game it's just takes like 20 or more hours to actually solve this stupid puzzle.

Ransom of the Seven Ships: Sangre Beach

World/Graphics

Even though the storyline and puzzle have a few things here and there that I personally did not care for, the island that Nancy travels to it so beautiful.  I love the pretty pink and golden sand on the beach and the blue waters.  I just love exploring the island, especially the beaches and a little bit of the jungle.  I also love playing with the monkey, they are so cute an adorable even if they frustrate me when I lose.

Thank you everyone for reading.  Sadly as of August 24th, 2021 you can no longer purchase the game from either Big Fish or though Her Interactive Digital River webpage (This is the page where the game would have been found).  You could still attempt to find the game on Amazon or Ebay, or you can to the not so legal and look for a pirated copy if you would like to play it.

Until next time,

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