| Nancy Drew: Ghost
Dogs of Moon Lake
Review by Toger
December 2002
"Nancy Drew. The Snoopy One ..."
I worry about Nancy Drew.
She seems to be a rather intelligent young lady. Always has her
wits about her. Logical of mind. Fleet of foot. So why then does
she seem to attract all the weirdos? It would appear that every
single person she comes in contact with either disappears or has
something bad happen to him or her. Does she wear a sign that
says, "only those with problems need apply"? Or is Nancy
the cause of all that goes wrong in her acquaintances' lives?
Food for thought, eh?
In Her Interactive's seventh outing, our intrepid girl detective
is helping her friend, Sally MacDonald, figure out why ghostly
dogs are attacking Sally at her newly purchased cabin on Moon
Lake. After inviting Nancy out to the cabin, Sally runs off in
fear prior to Nancy's arrival; thus leaving Nancy on her own to
poke around. (If I were Nancy, I'd reconsider the friendship.)
"Things to Do, Places to Go, People to Pester ..."
Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake begins with Nancy
recounting, via letter, Sally's leaving her high and dry at Moon
Lake to her longtime boyfriend, Ned. (Snail mail? Where is Ned
that he can't take a phone call?) It's definitely another mystery.
Ghost dogs have attacked Sally's house every night since she moved
into the place. Why? That's where you, amateur detective, enter
the story.
You'll play Ghost Dogs as Nancy Drew, in a first-person,
traditional point-and-click format. All actions are accomplished
by the use of the left mouse button. Gameplay is offered at two
difficulty settings, Junior or Senior Detective. If you get stuck,
you can phone Bess and George or the Hardy boys for a push in
the right direction.
Ghost Dogs is pretty linear, which isn't a bad thing!
Certain things won't be allowed, like turning over rocks, until
you've triggered the appropriate event. The game does allow you
to advance the clock by going upstairs to sleep and setting the
alarm for AM or PM. The majority of your actions will take place
during the day.
Speaking of turning over rocks, there is a maze. In the forest.
Actually, the entire forest is a maze. You will spend an inordinate
amount of time in this forest. Get to know and love this forest.
Embrace it! On the upside, there is a map for the forest that
updates itself with various landmarks that you find along the
trails. I thought that was a pretty cool feature.
The majority of the puzzles in Ghost Dogs are inventory-based.
You'll also find FedEx (fetching things for other people), fun
with Roman numerals and how-does-this-clue-relate-to-that-clue
puzzles, among others. I found most of the puzzles pretty fair,
with the exception of opening the entrance to the speakeasy. You'll
need to enter the speakeasy from this particular entrance twice
and both times you're forced to rework the puzzle. It's not an
especially difficult puzzle, but it was time-consuming. Needless
to say, I hated that puzzle!
"Are You Not Dead Yet?"
Should I mention that there are two timed sequences in this game;
one of which is part of the end game? No? Okay, then forget I
said anything.
How about knowing that you could die in this game? There are
a number of ways in which you can die in this game: fire, falls
and boating accidents; however, you'll get unlimited second chances
to try again. Or since you can save anywhere, you can reload from
a previous save. By the way, just because you can save anywhere,
don't get carried away—there are only about eight save slots.
Solving the mystery will involve chatting up the locals, who
of course are your suspects. The voice work was pretty good. I
found it hilarious when Nancy would end a phone conversation with
one particular character by saying, "Nice talking to you!"
and the character would reply, "I know." Subtitles are
provided for all speech and sounds.
Speaking of sounds—the sounds in Ghost Dogs were
very well done. When the dogs attacked there was howling, yipping
and snarling. Forest sounds were abundant and lifelike, while
the wooden doors and dock creaked appropriately.
Visually, Ghost Dogs is gorgeous! The screens are static,
3D with some 360-degree rotation. When talking to the suspects,
not only is the lip-synching superb, but they also blink and move
their hands as they speak. The only thing the characters don't
do is change their facial expressions. The overlay of an actual
photograph, of a view from a lake, on top of the graphic of Nancy
motoring across the lake was very pretty.
I had one issue with the visuals: inventory items you find aren't
identified as you pick them up. I imagine it's because most of
the items are easily identified by sight. However, I picked up
one item and for the life of me couldn't figure out what it was,
until it was automatically paired with another item I picked up
later. It'd be nice if Nancy could tell me what it is she's seeing
and picking up.
"Ever Yours, Nancy"
Ghost Dogs isn't a bad little game and deserves the FFC
thumb up! It's the perfect game for a beginner just starting out
or an experienced adventurer looking for a mystery that isn't
too tough on those "little grey cells."
For me, Ghost Dogs was reminiscent of reading one of the
novels, only with lots of pretty pictures. I was a voracious reader
of Nancy Drew books as a kid. From those books I grew to love
Christie, Chandler, and Grafton, to name just a few. I think of
the Nancy Drew games in the same vein—a springboard to bigger
and better games.
So, grab your magnifying glass and PDA and come on out to Moon
Lake for a spell. Just don't let the dogs catch you wandering
about after dark! 
—Please visit our
forum to discuss this game—
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