→ εxpεяιεηcιηg α мud bατн - - slσαηε’s яεd яενιεω ☆

[Adventureous]

→ εxpεяιεηcιηg α мud bατн - - slσαηε’s яεd яενιεω ☆

Wow! It’s kinda late... haha, but I just finished the second dossier game,
Resorting to Danger and realllyyy wanted to make a review for it so I guess
I am :) This is now my... fifth review (reviewed CRE, ICE, RAN, LCC) so I
hope you guys like it! I’ll try my best to be as honest with myself about each
topic as I can! Thanks for reading!

Characters
Unlike the past dossier game, LCC (#1), I felt that these characters were
spectacular compared to HeR’s last dossier game. I felt that LCC’s in the
end were a bit bland, and each character in RED really had their own,
neat personality, which I always find really refreshing from the ones that
just order you around.
Nick Bleski - the manager of the Redondo (the spa’s name), I found his
character to be very business-like, crisp, cunning, and very, very bossy.
Since he is the manager of the spa, he does have to “be frank”, but he
really did order Nancy around with “folding the towels” ;) He did have a
good personality, but sometimes lost my interest. I give him an 8/10.
Cassidy Jones - Monotone? I think so. Although his character could
be a bit rude, and secretive, he was a very intesting character. He really
reminded me of Henry Bolet Jr. from CRY, but with no make-up etc... I
found him to be quite boring sometimes, but everyone has their secret...
I give Cassidy an 8/10.
Mrs. Montague - So when you travel to a northern California luxury spa you
are certain to find one guest that considers herself the queen and you, his
/her servant, correct? That is exactly what Mrs. Montague is. And her dog...
Mr. Mingles. Mrs. Montague was a very rude, snobby woman with a lot of
attitude, however, I thought HeR made her personality wonderful. So many
characteristics of her built up into a splendid character. I give her a 10/10!
Helfdan Helgason - Very creative! Helfdan is the biochemist who makes the
Redondo’s hair and skin products to treat their patients. You don’t really see
a lot of him, which disappoints me, but when he was around, he was a very
fun character to talk to! A bit crazy, and “silly” but HeR hasn’t really made a
character like this and I love a change so great job! I give him a 9/10.
Jasmine Ivy - :P Probably my least favorite in the dossier series so far, Jasmine
has the same “Hollywood Actress” thing going on as some of the characters
from past games.... however, this makes her personality build up throughout the
game and soon enough you get into some great conversations with Jasmine.
However, I think HeR went over-the-top with “nasty” characters this time. The
only one that I can think of as “nice” is Helfdan. I give Jasmine an 8/10.
Joanna Brown - the janitor of the Redondo, she was the most interesting character
out of the whole game! She was a bit creepy indeed, but boy did she have stories
and spectacular personality traits about her! I loved talking to her every time, and I
thought her “back” story was the greatest! Amazing job HeR! I give her a 10/10!

The characters have definitely boosted up from LCC, which, like I said, were
a bit “blah” and RED’s range of personalites and professions in RED really
made up a great cast of characters. Probably up in the top five best cast
that HeR has made in any of their games (adventure included). The only
downpoint of the characters were 4/6 I felt were sometimes very snobbish,
and I would mostly prefer 4/6 that are nice, not mean. But, the characters
had a superb contrast, which is why I am giving the characters a great 9/10!

Plot
You, As Nancy Drew are invited to go undercover at an assistant at an
exclusive luxury spa in Northern California to stop “bombs” going off all
over the spa. When I first saw this plot, I wasn’t too thrilled. At all. I’m a
boy. A spa?! Huh? Noo... was what I had thought. And let me tell you, when
I saw the cover of game I was like, will my parents even let me buy this
game? However, this is why I’d had ordered it on amazon and gotten it
at my moms... ;) I loved the plot through the game, since it didn’t really
focus on the “girly spa” part of it. The only flaw of the game was even if
most of the game wasn’t girly, I thought some of it really was. Games involved
facials which I was not thrilled with at all. But besides that fact, I felt that
plot lasted strong throughout the game. I give the plot an 7/10.

Setting
To tell you the truth, I’d rather be at an exclusive luxury spa than at a Hollywood
movie set. I feel like “film” and actors are used a bit too much now in Nancy Drew
games and seeing that Nancy has never been undercover at a spa before... it
is all good! One part I really liked about the game was the map of the spa. Unlike
LCC, Nancy just didn’t go to the room/spot, you had to pick which room you had
to go to based on your task, and if you got the room right it provided you with more
points. I felt like there was a lot of exploration in the game. I think there was 12 or
a bit more total rooms you got to explore in, which, for a dossier game, is brilliant!
Every room had its own uniqueness to it. Especially the jungle room, but sadly,
we didn’t get to go in there that much :/ I give the setting an 8/10.

Graphics
Usually I would be giving a rating for the graphics, however, since the graphics
in the Dossier games are not meant to be top-of-the-list high-speed, unbelieveable
ones, I have decided to have the graphics section be unrated for the Dossier
reviews I will be doing in the future. To start off with though, the character graphics were
great! When you were exploring a room with a character in it, they moved like in the
Adventure games, which I thought was great! You couldn’t talk to them by clicking on
them, but you could see them, which added a lot to the game! Sometimes they moved
in the little boxes, which was awesome too, and their facial expressions sometimes
were very real! The room graphics were great as well, I’d say just like LCC.
Way to go, HeR!

Music
This is probably one of my favorite parts about the game! WOW! The music director
really outdid him/herself on this one! Every time we went into a different room,
the music changed. Some of the most recognizable and memorable ones were
the tunes played when you were snooping through the lab, or when you were
in the basement section of the Redondo. WOW! Superb! I would buy the
soundtrack if it came out on CD. Surprisingly, CRY has my favorite music, but
RED just made the top five! Again, I’d love to mention (did this in LCC review
too) the beginning credit music! The best most mystery-like music I have heard
in a long time! Good job, HeR! I give the music a 10/10!

Hunt and Search Aspect (see LCC review) / Mini games
The mini-games in RED were great as well,
although I liked LCC’s mini-games a whole lot more. In RED, you got to do facials
(:P), Make Molecules, Combine letters to spell notes (this was SO fun) and
play diffusing bombs minigames. Ehh... to start with, the facials was TOO
girly to put in an ND game from my perspective. Nancy isn’t like Bess, she’s
almost the opposite. Now if this was a Bess Marvin Dossier game, I would
say it belongs there, yes. Making Molecules was just so.... boring and bleh! I
found myself getting very annoyed with this mini-game and won’t look forward
to it in the future. The letter combination game, on the other hand, was
fantastic! Combing to different squares to make one letter plus different
signs in each corner to make different things happen was so much fun! I
always looked forward to this, and it was the second most frequently played
mini-game I think anyways. Lastly, the diffusing bomb game was better.
I actually liked it, but it did get so repetitive. Maybe I would have liked it
better if HeR had included it less, but it did make you feel like someone
had it in for the Redondo. I give the mini-games an 8/10.


Ending
I really wasn’t impressed with the ending at all. Before the ending you actually
do a puzzle involving a lot of walking around in the garden, which got so tiring,
frusterating, and the whole time I was thinking “get on with it, HeR!”. I actually
had to come on here for the puzzle before the end of the game. It was actually
semi-difficult and I probably could’ve figured it out, but wasn’t in the exact mood
at the time. I feel like this puzzle could be considered an “easy-medium” one
in the adventure series. The ending itself wasn’t that great, however. Like LCC
I was expecting a new, fun mini-game, but no, it was the same ol’ same ol’ and
then it was done. Not that impressed. I felt it could’ve been much more suspenseful
and well done. Oh well though :/ I give the ending a 6/10.

Added features / other thoughts
(NOT scored, but do affect rating)
Character interaction - “This was really cool! You had about four options after each
question a suspect asked you. Nancy would say something like, "I saw a poster of
a dog running after a..." and you would fill in the correct answer, in this case,
pretend it is a squirrel. If you chose the correct answer first, you would get a 100
points, if you chose the wrong, your points would be deducted into half each
time. This was a marvelous addition.
Points - this was fun as well to add. It makes you want to keep replaying in order
to unlock the bonus ending or ease up your score ; ) If you do get over a certain
amount of points and earn certain awards, you do get to unlock an alternate ending.
The first time I played, I guess I had unlocked the alternate ending, and I hadn't
even realized it. So it pretty much is "fast fun for busy detectives". Haha! : )” (cited
from LCC review)

Other thoughts
(these do NOT affect the rating!)
Scariness - this wasn’t scary at all. Although Joanna could sometimes be
a bit creepy, there is nothing in this game that could in the slightest scare
someone. I give the scare factor a 2/10.
Length - it actually took me a long time today! It was definitely “fast fun for
busy detectives” but I thought this game was too long for a dossier game.
It was about another hour of game play from LCC, partially because I felt
HeR incorperated too many puzzles for dossier in the game when they could’ve
done more hint and match. It was good though anyway :)
Difficulty - Intending not to be a difficult game, I did need one spoiler at the
end when I was feeling lazy with the last puzzle (explained above). This game
is definitely very easy and HeR sometimes has “hints” that either show up
on the screen or you can click on to help find a missing item. I feel that RED
was actually too hard for a Dossier game, and that LCC was perfect. Only if
HeR minused some of the puzzles from the game it would be great :)

Overall
Although it sounded like this wasn’t my favorite game, I thought it wasn’t
as good as LCC, but defintely one I will replay in the near future! With its
awesome cast of characters and spectacular music what couldn’t lour me
back to the second installment in the dossier series? I really do enjoy the
dossier series however, so great job, HeR, once again! You are really showing
us what you can do with the sleuth, Nancy Drew : So based upon all of the above,
my final rating for RED is a good 8/10! Well done!

[BessMarvin021]

Wow, very detailed review, Sloane.
I think you did a great job, especially on the characters.
I found it very interesting. ;)
Five stars.
<3 QUiN!

P.S I would give you reps, but I've given out too much in the last 24 hours. I'll try again tomorrow. ;)

[plmqaz102938475]

Hi! Awesome review! I agree with everything, except [because
i have a girly personality] the facials. Some of the facials were
challenging, and i even re-played it in the mini-game spot! But
whatever, i gave reps and i would do 5 stars, but the rating
thingy wont let me rate anything.

luvs and hugs, Taloe