2004 video game
Curse of Blackmoor Manor is the 11th game in the Nancy Drew point-and-click adventure game series by Her Interactive. The game is available for play on Microsoft Windows platforms as well as on DVD, Steam, and GOG.com released a digital version on their site. It has an ESRB rating of E for moments of mild violence and peril. Players take on the first-person view of fictional amateur sleuth Nancy Drew and must solve the mystery through interrogation of suspects, solving puzzles, and discovering clues. There are two levels of gameplay, Junior and Senior detective modes, each offering a different difficulty level of puzzles and hints; however neither of these changes affect the actual plot of the game. The game is loosely based on a book entitled The Bluebeard Room (1985).[1][2]
Plot
Nancy Drew travels to England to visit Linda Penvellyn, her neighbor's daughter and newlywed wife of a British diplomat. Linda is currently living in Blackmoor Manor, a 14th-century mansion haunted by a tragic past. A mysterious malady keeps Linda hidden behind thick bed curtains. Is she hiding from something or someone, or is a more menacing threat stalking her? Nancy is tasked with solving this mystery by learning more about the family's history, exploring the mansion, and discovering the secrets of the family that have been hidden away for generations.
Reception
In the United States, Curse of Blackmoor Manor's computer version sold between 100,000 and 300,000 units by August 2006.[5] At that time, the combined sales of the Nancy Drew computer game series had reached 2.1 million sales in the United States alone. Remarking upon this success, Edge called Nancy Drew a "powerful franchise".[5] Curse of Blackmoor Manor also received "generally favorable reviews" from critics, according to review aggregation website Metacritic.[6] In 2011, Adventure Gamers named it the 99th-best adventure game ever released.[7]
In The New York Times, Charles Herold praised Blackmoor Manor's "intelligent game design", and considered its use of mini-games to be its only downside. He concluded that "clever puzzles and an interesting plot make it the best Nancy Drew game since The Final Scene".[8] Jinny Gudmundsen of USA Today gave the game a 4 ½ stars out of five, saying "best for teens 13 and up because it's a little scarier, its puzzles are harder, and its themes of witchcraft, lycanthropy, and alchemy make it more appropriate for an older audience".[4] Lonnie Brown of The Ledger also gave the game a positive review, saying "The graphics are well done, and the music and characters fit the mood" and called the "second chance" button a "very nice feature".[9]
Laura MacDonald of Adventure Gamers gave the game a mixed review (4 out of 5 stars), complimenting the graphics, cinematics and animation but felt the "non-linear gameplay can leave a player lost if they don’t play a sustained game; though the story is well done, could have been more developed". However, she called it an overall "solid addition to the series and likely the best Nancy Drew game of them all...this is a definite buy".[10]
Tally Ho of Just Adventure gave the game a positive review, calling the graphics "the best of the series" and enlarged playing are a "good thing". However, Ho thought "forcing the player to repeat a fairly difficult task again and again, even after beating it is really unfair".[11]
