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A Veteran's Review of DOG
Allow me to preface this review by saying that I have been playing the ND games for almost thirteen years. Over those years, I have probably played each game over twenty times--the older ones probably over fifty--and I do at least one full marathon of all 33 games (i.e., all 32 and SCK Remastered) annually. As I have gotten older, I have found myself ranking the games, characters, music, etc. in my spare time during marathons, and this year I thought I would write--and subsequently post--reviews of each game while I go through my 2018 marathon (I'm starting a month early). I have lost access to/forgotten about my previous accounts on here, including my very first one, so I made a new one solely for this purpose. That being said, I hope you enjoy my review.
Plot: I have mixed feelings about the plot of this game. The beginning is incredibly strong and sets this game up to be in the "scary" lineage. Nancy shows up at her friend Sally McDonald's home on Moon Lake and finds that Sally has "flown the coop" in fear. We get a phone call from her while she is driving to Philadelphia, in which she pleads with Nancy to leave Moon Lake as soon as possible because of, as her conveniently spotty signal tries to mask, Mickey Malone's dogs. Nancy hears some ghostly sounds outside following the conversation and finds Red Knott outside trying (and failing) to imitate a bird call. Soon afterward, a pack of dogs start howling menacingly and Nancy runs inside, only to find dogs with glowing eyes jumping at the doors and windows. It's pretty terrifying, especially the first time. It's a terrifying start to the game, but, unfortunately, the fear tactics go downhill quickly from there. I admit that during my first playthrough I was incredibly anxious walking in the woods, snooping through the tunnels, and investigating the cemetery because I expected to be attacked or have a scary moment. The prolonged absence of a threat is an incredibly good tactic in horror genres, but when the threat never appears...it's a huge letdown. Nonetheless, what this game lacks in horror, it makes up for with the mystery of Mickey Malone. Since this is a kids' game, I understand that they couldn't delve too deeply into the life and activities of a 1920s gangster or push too hard on The Prohibition, but I thought that aspect of the game was handled reasonably well and remains to be incredibly interesting.
Setting: This game is the first that offers an expansive outdoor setting. I am not crazy about the woods or Sally's yard in terms of aesthetics. There are a few dead leaves scattered on the ground, but the paths are quite clear of any leaves, shrubs, twigs, or anything else that should be on the forest floor when not managed or heavily traveled. Anyone who has taken a walk in the woods can say with certainty that there was a lot missing in those woods that would have made them prettier and more realistic: fungi, moss, lichen, grass, vines, ivy, shrubs, wildflowers (i.e., something besides only ferns), and maybe a creek or stream. Naturally, the woods are going to have a simple but beautiful color palette with lots of rich browns and bright greens, but there is a distinct lack of texture variation, which largely comes from the lack of any plant life besides white oak trees (yes, every leaf I examined was from a quercus alba) and ferns. This is not to say that ferns and white oak trees aren't beautiful because they are extremely beautiful, but I do wish there was some slight variation, especially since Nancy spends so much time walking in the woods. At least the cemetery is spooky and beautiful though. What we get to see of Moon Lake itself is lovely, but there is so little of it visible, it isn't worth saying much about, sadly.
The indoor locations are either visually stunning or boring. Em's Emporium is okay. It certainly adds to the rural flavor of the area with the lovely antiques--though I'm not sure any of them scream art deco or 1920s to me in retrospect--and the fishing "Wall of Fame" on display among old fashioned signs. I think just about any Cracker Barrel restaurant is probably more attractive than Em's Emporium--admit it, they are going for the same rustic style--but she does have those gorgeous stained glass windows. The Ranger Station is, again, okay. I think it would have benefited from looking more rustic--I love when I find an actual log cabin outfitted as a ranger station--but it has the informative displays and pictures that suit any ranger station.
Mickey Malone's house is one of the better locations in the game. I love the muted blue floral wallpaper and faded olive green curtains. The ornate antique stove, clock, fireplace, and other furniture pieces really add to the charm and age of the house. The outside looks so cozy and charming, too. However, the best area in the game--and one of my all-time favorites, visually--is the speakeasy. Wow! The colors are so rich and vibrant in this area with varying shades of gold, green, red, brown, orange, ecru, blue, and purple. So beautiful! The parquet floor with that gorgeous centerpiece and one of my favorite design elements, but the inclusion of the stage outfitted with a harp, upright piano, and guitar and the pool and roulette tables are the best touches; I can imagine big band, jazz, and swing music being played while men play games of chance and women in drop-waist dresses order fancy drinks. The portraits of Malone's dogs and the recurring dog-themed art in the speakeasy are excellent touches as well.
Characters: Unfortunately, I think this game suffers from a distinct lack of well-developed characters, as the only truly likeable or interesting ones are phone characters or dead. My favorite non-phone character is probably Jeff Akers. The poor guy is demonized by Nancy and everyone else throughout the entire game--a fact which has always bothered me, but is even more upsetting because he is the only POC and first black male in the games--for doing his job, owning a dog (that looks nothing like a rottweiler, mind you), and having a criminal relative. Sure, he might be a little "enthusiastic" about giving out tickets for things that feel unfair at times--giving Nancy the ticket relating to fire safety is a bit of a slap to the face, but he only did it because he assumed she had been careless and not been attacked by someone sadistic--but park rangers do have to be pretty strict with the public to protect the wildlife and environment. Nancy's suspicion of him because of his grandfather and desire to acquire more land for the park--which, let's be real, would make his life a lot easier and job more rewarding to him in more ways than one-- is incredibly rude, especially since she never questions the other two characters and their motives, despite them both (and one in particular) having stronger motives than him. Literally, he seems like the most morally upstanding person in the game to the point that he gives out tickets and warnings without bias, despite the backlash he gets from locals and tourists, and yet Nancy only gives him the third-degree. This writing truly upsets me.
The other characters, Emily Griffin and Red Knott, are equally under-developed, but they, at the very least, are spared from Nancy's rudeness. Red Knott is one of my least favorite characters in any Nancy Drew game. He's so consistently rude to Nancy and such a misogynistic character, and even in his softer, nicer moments, all he cares about are birds and that Nancy doesn't get in the way of his birdwatching. If he would at least share some of his bird knowledge with Nancy--maybe show her some pictures or let her see his favorite bird(s) through his binoculars--he would be slightly more likeable, but instead he acts like Nancy knowing anything about spark plugs is astounding because she's "a pretty young lady." Ugh. I can't stand him. Emily is much nicer than him, though she also insults Nancy about being a "city slicker" and intentionally uses colloquial language native to rural areas, fully knowing that Nancy will probably not understand her. There really isn't much to her either, except that she hates Ranger Akers' policing because it prevents her from dragging the lake for valuable artifacts.
It's unfortunate that Sally McDonald only gets to be a phone character--I barely call phone characters in replays--when Nancy came out to Moon Lake to see her. It is natural that Vivian Whitmore would no longer live in the Moon Lake area--though her relocation to Las Vegas is hilarious and ironic--but I wish she could had have a larger role in the game. I find her to be the most interesting character that's still alive in the game.
Music: This game has one of the few soundtracks in the series that I'm not crazy about. The majority of the tracks are spooky and unsettling, which is ironic because the game definitely isn't spooky or unsettling the majority of the time (except during the first playthrough). Two of the songs I find outright irritating (e.g., the tracks titled "Day" and "Forest"), three of them are creepy but not very pretty or enjoyable (e.g., the tracks titled "Danger," "Ghosts," and "Tunnel"), two of them are creepy but also strangely pleasant (e.g., the tracks titled "Spooky" and "Night"), and the three remaining songs are enjoyable but not stellar (e.g., the tracks titled "Malone," "Moon," and "Nostalgia"). "Malone" is probably the only song that feels appropriate to the atmosphere of game because it is jazzy and fun with a slightly unsettling tone, which reflects gangster Mickey Malone perfectly. "Nostalgia" and "Moon" are the other two that stand out to me, probably because they both feature what sounds like a harp. They are both so pleasant, especially with the rest of the creepy or irritating tracks on the soundtrack, and make me think of the moon shimmering over a lake at night, which is appropriate for Moon Lake. I just wish the soundtrack better reflected the game and that the tracks were more varied in terms of instrumentation and tone.
Puzzles: This game feels quite puzzle heavy to me compared to most of the earlier games. It certainly steps up the number of puzzles from the previous games, and I find them to be reasonably difficult as well, largely because the solutions are not obvious and require a good bit of memorization of certain information about Mickey Malone and his dogs. I can't say I am fond of any of the puzzles in this game, but there are some pretty creative ones, such as the spigots. A lot of the puzzles feel tedious to me though (e.g., collecting bugs, making the soda display, sorting the folders, and taking pictures of the birds). Though perhaps not a puzzle, one of the most irritating puzzles for anyone is probably navigating the forest. During my first playthrough, I got lost so many times that I learned the forest maze perfectly. I actually can navigate the entire forest at lightning speed to any point, especially the cemetery, with no errors. However, that design choice will never make sense to me given how many times Nancy has to go into the forest; it'd be like having to cross the bog using the puzzle every time in The Haunting of Castle Malloy, and I actually really enjoy that puzzle!
Graphics: The graphics in this game are about on par with the previous game. Each character looks incredibly distinct from the other in both their bodies and facial features. Unfortunately, they still suffer from unusual shoulders and arms, but less so than their predecessors. The environmental graphics are lovely as usual.
Ending: Funny story, the first time I played the game I was so terrified when Nancy said "That doesn't sound good," in the tunnels. The music instantly changed to one of the creepier themes, so I went bolting to the well and never looked back until I realized I needed a key. So, I went down to the culprit's hideout and found the key I needed as quickly as possible, but I didn't even see the tell-tale notebook on the table and I am almost certain I didn't see the dogs in their cage!
I'm pretty sure I assumed it was empty because no noise was coming from the cage. *facepalm* Anyway, when the culprit reveal happened, I was more surprised than I would have been, but still not surprised given that the culprit is pretty obvious, especially once Nancy's focus shifts to Malone's gold in the second half of the game. The escape puzzle is pretty funny--it took me a couple tries the first time because I wasn't being observant enough--and the culprit's weapon of choice is hysterical and slightly terrifying. All in all, it isn't a bad ending, but it doesn't stand out in my mind and searching for Malone's gold was never as thrilling to me as some of other treasure hunts in ND games.
Other points of interest: The voice-acting in this game is solid, but not noteworthy. I wish more information was relayed via dialogue instead of reading or phone conversations, especially since there are so few necessary character interactions anyway, except to get items needed to progress in the game. I literally forgot to talk to Red Knott after the fire in this most recent playthrough because there is no reason to talk to any of the characters to progress through the puzzles in the tunnels or speakeasy. Also, let me just say that traveling by boat is so annoying and takes up an unnecessary amount of time.
The Takeaway: It's worth noting that the first time I played this game was on Christmas Day in 2013, at which point I had played games 1-5, 8, 10-14, 17-31, and SCK Remastered. I had been unsuccessful at finding physical copies of some Nancy Drew games (specifically games 6-9, 15, and 16) for years, but I finally got the last few games I was missing from my collection between 2012 and 2014. Thus, I had played the majority of the Nancy Drew games--and all the stellar ones, in my opinion--hundreds of times before I got to these games, meaning that the nostalgia factor was missing and I had learned how to distinguish between a good and not-so-good Nancy Drew game. The first time I played it, I was overwhelmingly excited to finally be playing one of the few ND games I had been hunting for so long, and I was thrilled that I was actually being stumped by the game like I had been stumped by the early games as a child. However, I was disappointed that this game, which I thought was supposed to be terrifying, lacked any genuine scare moments after the grand opening scene in Sally's house. The ghost dogs, which should have a stronger presence in the game given they are the game's namesake, are such a small part by the end, whereas Malone's "dogs" in the puzzles he created are much more lively and present. I think my expectations and the overall story would be better if the ghost dogs had been featured more in the game, or if they had been downplayed and some other threat added tension and drive to the story. If I were to rate this game on a ten-star basis, I would give it four stars, largely because of the poorly developed characters, unsatisfying dominance of chore puzzles, and so-so plot (i.e., the erroneous categorization and improper tone of the game as "scary," which even comes through the music, and the overall focus on the ghost dogs, which play a small role in the game.)
So the final question is obviously whether I think you should play this game. Again, it depends. If you are a dedicated fan who wants to play all of the games, even the really bad ones, then you should go for it; it's not the worst game in the series. If you've got a good many games under your belt and you're looking for another game to play or if you're new to the ND games, I'd advise you to give this one a hard pass and go for one of the classic titles or fan favorites. Of the classics, I would recommend Treasure in the Royal Tower and The Final Scene (both in my top ten), and I would recommend the legendary fan favorites (also in my top ten): Curse of Blackmoor Manor, Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon, and Secret of Shadow Ranch. If a new(er) game is more your speed, and especially if you have already played the aforementioned titles, then I highly recommend Shadow at the Water's Edge, The Deadly Device, Ghost of Thornton Hall, and The Silent Spy (again, all in my top ten).
Thank you for reading my review! I hope that my perspectives and ramblings inspire someone to play this game, replay this game, look at it through fresh eyes, or try it for the first time. I should be posting a review of The Haunted Carousel sometime over the next week or so, and I will continue to post them as I complete my 2018 Nancy Drew Marathon...I hope you aren't haunted by my reviews.
Previous review: Secret of the Scarlet Hand
Next review: The Haunted Carousel
Other reviews: SCK STFD MHM TRT FIN DDI SHA CUR CLK TRN DAN CRE ICE CRY VEN HAU RAN WAC TOT SCK2 SAW CAP ASH TMB DEDGTH
Plot: I have mixed feelings about the plot of this game. The beginning is incredibly strong and sets this game up to be in the "scary" lineage. Nancy shows up at her friend Sally McDonald's home on Moon Lake and finds that Sally has "flown the coop" in fear. We get a phone call from her while she is driving to Philadelphia, in which she pleads with Nancy to leave Moon Lake as soon as possible because of, as her conveniently spotty signal tries to mask, Mickey Malone's dogs. Nancy hears some ghostly sounds outside following the conversation and finds Red Knott outside trying (and failing) to imitate a bird call. Soon afterward, a pack of dogs start howling menacingly and Nancy runs inside, only to find dogs with glowing eyes jumping at the doors and windows. It's pretty terrifying, especially the first time. It's a terrifying start to the game, but, unfortunately, the fear tactics go downhill quickly from there. I admit that during my first playthrough I was incredibly anxious walking in the woods, snooping through the tunnels, and investigating the cemetery because I expected to be attacked or have a scary moment. The prolonged absence of a threat is an incredibly good tactic in horror genres, but when the threat never appears...it's a huge letdown. Nonetheless, what this game lacks in horror, it makes up for with the mystery of Mickey Malone. Since this is a kids' game, I understand that they couldn't delve too deeply into the life and activities of a 1920s gangster or push too hard on The Prohibition, but I thought that aspect of the game was handled reasonably well and remains to be incredibly interesting.
Setting: This game is the first that offers an expansive outdoor setting. I am not crazy about the woods or Sally's yard in terms of aesthetics. There are a few dead leaves scattered on the ground, but the paths are quite clear of any leaves, shrubs, twigs, or anything else that should be on the forest floor when not managed or heavily traveled. Anyone who has taken a walk in the woods can say with certainty that there was a lot missing in those woods that would have made them prettier and more realistic: fungi, moss, lichen, grass, vines, ivy, shrubs, wildflowers (i.e., something besides only ferns), and maybe a creek or stream. Naturally, the woods are going to have a simple but beautiful color palette with lots of rich browns and bright greens, but there is a distinct lack of texture variation, which largely comes from the lack of any plant life besides white oak trees (yes, every leaf I examined was from a quercus alba) and ferns. This is not to say that ferns and white oak trees aren't beautiful because they are extremely beautiful, but I do wish there was some slight variation, especially since Nancy spends so much time walking in the woods. At least the cemetery is spooky and beautiful though. What we get to see of Moon Lake itself is lovely, but there is so little of it visible, it isn't worth saying much about, sadly.
The indoor locations are either visually stunning or boring. Em's Emporium is okay. It certainly adds to the rural flavor of the area with the lovely antiques--though I'm not sure any of them scream art deco or 1920s to me in retrospect--and the fishing "Wall of Fame" on display among old fashioned signs. I think just about any Cracker Barrel restaurant is probably more attractive than Em's Emporium--admit it, they are going for the same rustic style--but she does have those gorgeous stained glass windows. The Ranger Station is, again, okay. I think it would have benefited from looking more rustic--I love when I find an actual log cabin outfitted as a ranger station--but it has the informative displays and pictures that suit any ranger station.
Mickey Malone's house is one of the better locations in the game. I love the muted blue floral wallpaper and faded olive green curtains. The ornate antique stove, clock, fireplace, and other furniture pieces really add to the charm and age of the house. The outside looks so cozy and charming, too. However, the best area in the game--and one of my all-time favorites, visually--is the speakeasy. Wow! The colors are so rich and vibrant in this area with varying shades of gold, green, red, brown, orange, ecru, blue, and purple. So beautiful! The parquet floor with that gorgeous centerpiece and one of my favorite design elements, but the inclusion of the stage outfitted with a harp, upright piano, and guitar and the pool and roulette tables are the best touches; I can imagine big band, jazz, and swing music being played while men play games of chance and women in drop-waist dresses order fancy drinks. The portraits of Malone's dogs and the recurring dog-themed art in the speakeasy are excellent touches as well.
Characters: Unfortunately, I think this game suffers from a distinct lack of well-developed characters, as the only truly likeable or interesting ones are phone characters or dead. My favorite non-phone character is probably Jeff Akers. The poor guy is demonized by Nancy and everyone else throughout the entire game--a fact which has always bothered me, but is even more upsetting because he is the only POC and first black male in the games--for doing his job, owning a dog (that looks nothing like a rottweiler, mind you), and having a criminal relative. Sure, he might be a little "enthusiastic" about giving out tickets for things that feel unfair at times--giving Nancy the ticket relating to fire safety is a bit of a slap to the face, but he only did it because he assumed she had been careless and not been attacked by someone sadistic--but park rangers do have to be pretty strict with the public to protect the wildlife and environment. Nancy's suspicion of him because of his grandfather and desire to acquire more land for the park--which, let's be real, would make his life a lot easier and job more rewarding to him in more ways than one-- is incredibly rude, especially since she never questions the other two characters and their motives, despite them both (and one in particular) having stronger motives than him. Literally, he seems like the most morally upstanding person in the game to the point that he gives out tickets and warnings without bias, despite the backlash he gets from locals and tourists, and yet Nancy only gives him the third-degree. This writing truly upsets me.
The other characters, Emily Griffin and Red Knott, are equally under-developed, but they, at the very least, are spared from Nancy's rudeness. Red Knott is one of my least favorite characters in any Nancy Drew game. He's so consistently rude to Nancy and such a misogynistic character, and even in his softer, nicer moments, all he cares about are birds and that Nancy doesn't get in the way of his birdwatching. If he would at least share some of his bird knowledge with Nancy--maybe show her some pictures or let her see his favorite bird(s) through his binoculars--he would be slightly more likeable, but instead he acts like Nancy knowing anything about spark plugs is astounding because she's "a pretty young lady." Ugh. I can't stand him. Emily is much nicer than him, though she also insults Nancy about being a "city slicker" and intentionally uses colloquial language native to rural areas, fully knowing that Nancy will probably not understand her. There really isn't much to her either, except that she hates Ranger Akers' policing because it prevents her from dragging the lake for valuable artifacts.
It's unfortunate that Sally McDonald only gets to be a phone character--I barely call phone characters in replays--when Nancy came out to Moon Lake to see her. It is natural that Vivian Whitmore would no longer live in the Moon Lake area--though her relocation to Las Vegas is hilarious and ironic--but I wish she could had have a larger role in the game. I find her to be the most interesting character that's still alive in the game.
Music: This game has one of the few soundtracks in the series that I'm not crazy about. The majority of the tracks are spooky and unsettling, which is ironic because the game definitely isn't spooky or unsettling the majority of the time (except during the first playthrough). Two of the songs I find outright irritating (e.g., the tracks titled "Day" and "Forest"), three of them are creepy but not very pretty or enjoyable (e.g., the tracks titled "Danger," "Ghosts," and "Tunnel"), two of them are creepy but also strangely pleasant (e.g., the tracks titled "Spooky" and "Night"), and the three remaining songs are enjoyable but not stellar (e.g., the tracks titled "Malone," "Moon," and "Nostalgia"). "Malone" is probably the only song that feels appropriate to the atmosphere of game because it is jazzy and fun with a slightly unsettling tone, which reflects gangster Mickey Malone perfectly. "Nostalgia" and "Moon" are the other two that stand out to me, probably because they both feature what sounds like a harp. They are both so pleasant, especially with the rest of the creepy or irritating tracks on the soundtrack, and make me think of the moon shimmering over a lake at night, which is appropriate for Moon Lake. I just wish the soundtrack better reflected the game and that the tracks were more varied in terms of instrumentation and tone.
Puzzles: This game feels quite puzzle heavy to me compared to most of the earlier games. It certainly steps up the number of puzzles from the previous games, and I find them to be reasonably difficult as well, largely because the solutions are not obvious and require a good bit of memorization of certain information about Mickey Malone and his dogs. I can't say I am fond of any of the puzzles in this game, but there are some pretty creative ones, such as the spigots. A lot of the puzzles feel tedious to me though (e.g., collecting bugs, making the soda display, sorting the folders, and taking pictures of the birds). Though perhaps not a puzzle, one of the most irritating puzzles for anyone is probably navigating the forest. During my first playthrough, I got lost so many times that I learned the forest maze perfectly. I actually can navigate the entire forest at lightning speed to any point, especially the cemetery, with no errors. However, that design choice will never make sense to me given how many times Nancy has to go into the forest; it'd be like having to cross the bog using the puzzle every time in The Haunting of Castle Malloy, and I actually really enjoy that puzzle!
Graphics: The graphics in this game are about on par with the previous game. Each character looks incredibly distinct from the other in both their bodies and facial features. Unfortunately, they still suffer from unusual shoulders and arms, but less so than their predecessors. The environmental graphics are lovely as usual.
Ending: Funny story, the first time I played the game I was so terrified when Nancy said "That doesn't sound good," in the tunnels. The music instantly changed to one of the creepier themes, so I went bolting to the well and never looked back until I realized I needed a key. So, I went down to the culprit's hideout and found the key I needed as quickly as possible, but I didn't even see the tell-tale notebook on the table and I am almost certain I didn't see the dogs in their cage!
I'm pretty sure I assumed it was empty because no noise was coming from the cage. *facepalm* Anyway, when the culprit reveal happened, I was more surprised than I would have been, but still not surprised given that the culprit is pretty obvious, especially once Nancy's focus shifts to Malone's gold in the second half of the game. The escape puzzle is pretty funny--it took me a couple tries the first time because I wasn't being observant enough--and the culprit's weapon of choice is hysterical and slightly terrifying. All in all, it isn't a bad ending, but it doesn't stand out in my mind and searching for Malone's gold was never as thrilling to me as some of other treasure hunts in ND games.Other points of interest: The voice-acting in this game is solid, but not noteworthy. I wish more information was relayed via dialogue instead of reading or phone conversations, especially since there are so few necessary character interactions anyway, except to get items needed to progress in the game. I literally forgot to talk to Red Knott after the fire in this most recent playthrough because there is no reason to talk to any of the characters to progress through the puzzles in the tunnels or speakeasy. Also, let me just say that traveling by boat is so annoying and takes up an unnecessary amount of time.
The Takeaway: It's worth noting that the first time I played this game was on Christmas Day in 2013, at which point I had played games 1-5, 8, 10-14, 17-31, and SCK Remastered. I had been unsuccessful at finding physical copies of some Nancy Drew games (specifically games 6-9, 15, and 16) for years, but I finally got the last few games I was missing from my collection between 2012 and 2014. Thus, I had played the majority of the Nancy Drew games--and all the stellar ones, in my opinion--hundreds of times before I got to these games, meaning that the nostalgia factor was missing and I had learned how to distinguish between a good and not-so-good Nancy Drew game. The first time I played it, I was overwhelmingly excited to finally be playing one of the few ND games I had been hunting for so long, and I was thrilled that I was actually being stumped by the game like I had been stumped by the early games as a child. However, I was disappointed that this game, which I thought was supposed to be terrifying, lacked any genuine scare moments after the grand opening scene in Sally's house. The ghost dogs, which should have a stronger presence in the game given they are the game's namesake, are such a small part by the end, whereas Malone's "dogs" in the puzzles he created are much more lively and present. I think my expectations and the overall story would be better if the ghost dogs had been featured more in the game, or if they had been downplayed and some other threat added tension and drive to the story. If I were to rate this game on a ten-star basis, I would give it four stars, largely because of the poorly developed characters, unsatisfying dominance of chore puzzles, and so-so plot (i.e., the erroneous categorization and improper tone of the game as "scary," which even comes through the music, and the overall focus on the ghost dogs, which play a small role in the game.)
So the final question is obviously whether I think you should play this game. Again, it depends. If you are a dedicated fan who wants to play all of the games, even the really bad ones, then you should go for it; it's not the worst game in the series. If you've got a good many games under your belt and you're looking for another game to play or if you're new to the ND games, I'd advise you to give this one a hard pass and go for one of the classic titles or fan favorites. Of the classics, I would recommend Treasure in the Royal Tower and The Final Scene (both in my top ten), and I would recommend the legendary fan favorites (also in my top ten): Curse of Blackmoor Manor, Last Train to Blue Moon Canyon, and Secret of Shadow Ranch. If a new(er) game is more your speed, and especially if you have already played the aforementioned titles, then I highly recommend Shadow at the Water's Edge, The Deadly Device, Ghost of Thornton Hall, and The Silent Spy (again, all in my top ten).
Thank you for reading my review! I hope that my perspectives and ramblings inspire someone to play this game, replay this game, look at it through fresh eyes, or try it for the first time. I should be posting a review of The Haunted Carousel sometime over the next week or so, and I will continue to post them as I complete my 2018 Nancy Drew Marathon...I hope you aren't haunted by my reviews.
Previous review: Secret of the Scarlet Hand
Next review: The Haunted Carousel
Other reviews: SCK STFD MHM TRT FIN DDI SHA CUR CLK TRN DAN CRE ICE CRY VEN HAU RAN WAC TOT SCK2 SAW CAP ASH TMB DEDGTH
. Our woods really are basically trees and ferns (thought I agree I would have loved to see a stream), and while I agree they could have added that bit of detail, I actually felt like it wouldn't have mattered because it all blends together anyway in real life. The only thing the woods in the game are missing in my opinion are an UNGODLY AMOUNT OF HILLS. There are no flat hiking trails in PA, they simply don't exist lol. I also wasn't a fan of the general "copy and paste" background in the woods. Being that this is a point and click game, they definitely could have done something to make the "distant woods" look a little more unique, or added MORE trees and ferns in the foreground so that you can't see so far (which would basically be like real life.)
Sorry if my comments were more controversial than usual, I just figured I'd try to focus on the stuff we disagree on or haven't discussed yet! But aside from what I mentioned, we basically have a similar opinion of this game and I think a four out of ten star rating is about right. 
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