Secrets Can Kill Remastered

Hey Fellow Snoopers,

I promised a review and here it is. I will attempt to catch up to where I am in the Marathon. Normally I will post Marathon updates at the end of my posts but on this one I will start by catching you all up. I am currently about to begin Nancy Drew case #5: The Final Scene. This review is of Nancy Drew's first interactive mystery Secrets Can Kill. Now I am writing this review solely on the Remastered 2010 version simply because its the one i recently played. I have not played Secrets Can Kill original in several years as it is only game i can't get to play on my Windows 7 computer. However I will make comparisons between the versions in this review.

The Basics:

Okay so for those of you who played the original 1998, the storyline you will remember. Nancy Drew is visiting her father's sister, her dear Aunt Eloise, in California. Paseo Del Mar to be specific. I am from Canada so do not know for sure, but I would assume this is a fictional town. As in the original, there are three locations to visit: Paseo Del Mar High, Maxine's Diner, and Aunt Eloise's House. 

In this aspect, although definitely brought into the twenty-first century with graphics, the two games are identical. Which brings me to the mystery. A student of Paseo Del Mar High, Jake Rogers, has been murdered and it is up to you as Nancy Drew to solve the case. Most of the characters and their locations in the game are identical to the original except for two very important aspects. First being that the remastered edition includes an extra character and also the newer graphics were able to turn the original characters into high quality 3D characters that we have come to expect from later games. Which is understandable as graphic design has changes drastically in the twelve years between games. Below is a comparison of the two versions.

The Characters:

Connie Watson:

Connie is one of the suspects and Hall Monitor so a little more annoying then the others in the game, though that being said setting off her vending machines does prove to be an entertaining pastime if you get stuck.

Hector "Hulk" Sanchez:

Hulk is a important football player at the school and can be helpful at times by revealing important information. However he gets a little annoyed if you keep pestering him, but do it anyway.

Daryl Gray

Daryl works at Maxine's Diner and incessantly flirts with you. If you positively rebuff these attempts, you may get the "Ned Defender" Award at the end of the game. Still not as annoying as his 1998 Doppleganger.

Hal Tanaka

Hal is a Japanese exchange student and even he has his secrets. The characters, although they enjoy talking and exaggerating about one another, are not too much help.

In addition to the original suspects as above, the remastered edition brings us a brand new character and spin on the case. In the original I believe it is the police who get Nancy to look into it for them but in this game she is chosen specifically by this new character Detective Beech to go undercover. 

Overall:

The game is well developed and graphics are good. The voice acting is believable and goes along with HerInteractive's newest games. The only point I would make can be taken one of two ways. The developers wanted to keep a lot of what fans loved about Secrets Can Kill, down to some identical dialogue. However being a game from 1998, the dialogue had not been to the standard of recent games such as Trail of the Twister, so the characters to me remained kind of flat in personality. Overall a good game and well worth the play whether you played the original or not.

I give this game 3/5.

Still not sure?

Watch the trailer below.

As Always, Rock and Roll,

Turtlesmind