Sherlock's Review of MED

[SherlockSleuth9]

After reading countless negative reviews of MED, I felt that I needed to voice my opinion.
In short, I think that MED is a good adventure/puzzle game, but not a good Nancy Drew game. I personally enjoyed competing and completing tasks. To some, it may feel like busy work, but it is fun for me to get assigned to do something, do it and then move on to the next challenge.

So, let's start with the positives:
Setting: I adored the graphics as well as the numerous locations. This is the first game in a while where I felt like I was in a truly open landscape. Nancy had so many places to go to and each was distinct with its own purpose.
Puzzles: I overall liked the puzzles. Yes, this game is one of the easier ones, but I thought there was nice variety in the puzzles.
Lots of Characters: I love games like WAC where there are more than the usual 4 characters and this game had 6!

Negatives:
Character Interaction/Dialogue: In recent games, I have noticed the dialogue to feel unnatural and forced. In this game, Nancy would ask something or say something and the response from the character would typically not fit at all. I think the writer is trying too hard to be funny or clever, but it's not working. I would much prefer straightforward dialogue. In this game, I felt like I got no information from the characters whatsoever.
Plot: Like I said, this was a good adventure game, but not a good Nancy Drew game. I know LJ posted about different kinds of ND games (educational, scary, adventure), but this was, in my opinion, the only ND game with NO mystery. I don't understand why there was even a villain. No matter what the genre, I think every ND game needs to revolve around a mystery.
Sonny Joon: I didn't mind having him there and he was an interesting character, but this game could have been done without him. I wish that he had just remained an elusive figure. Her has been revealing a lot of characters from the past like

Samantha Quick and Kate Drew (SPY)

and I wish that they would rely more on plot than on gimmicks.

While my three negatives are pretty big ones, I still did enjoy the game and plan to replay it. I loved the setting and completing tasks and challenges is something that I really enjoy. It makes me sad to see people react so harshly and so negatively to MED. I understand it wasn't the best game in the series, but Her obviously put a lot of work into it and I cannot openly berate their work.

Here's looking to the next game!

[KCsleuth]

Thanks for the honest review. I am one of the other negative review givers, but I did add positives as well, like you did, and I won't give up on HER or ND games because I love them too much. It is disappointing, though. You'd think a company like HER would keep improving and listening to its fans. I kind of wish someone from the company would explain their motives or what they are trying to do. But maybe we don't want to know...

[James the Snoop]

While my three negatives are pretty big ones, I still did enjoy the game and plan to replay it. I loved the setting and completing tasks and challenges is something that I really enjoy.

I agree with you! I thought that MED was really weighed down by its negative aspects, but I still had an enjoyable time playing the game and plan to replay it in the future. It is one of those lighter games that I feel can be played more frequently and in a shorter amount of time.

I also appreciate you differentiating MED as an adventure/puzzle game but not a Nancy Drew mystery. I agree 100%, and I think that is the overarching fault of the game.

[Cammie96952]

Great review! I definitely agree with you on that MED was a solid, well-made game, but not up to par with the other games in the series. I thought that this was especially apparent coming after DED, GTH and SPY, which are some of my favourites.

[Tedbear2]

After reading countless negative reviews of MED, I felt that I needed to voice my opinion.
In short, I think that MED is a good adventure/puzzle game, but not a good Nancy Drew game. I still did enjoy the game and plan to replay it. I loved the setting and completing tasks and challenges is something that I really enjoy. It makes me sad to see people react so harshly and so negatively to MED. I understand it wasn't the best game in the series, but Her obviously put a lot of work into it and I cannot openly berate their work.

Here's looking to the next game!

I agree with all of the above. I can also remember some folks complaining that a game like The Deadly Device felt too confined, and players were wishing they had a more open area to explore. Her Interactive gave us that in this game, and it was appreciated.

I would also like to put in a good word for the word search puzzle. I used to buy entire books of these when I was a kid and enjoyed solving them (this was long before computers). Sure, they are pretty easy, but for me that didn't make the word search puzzle any less fun. I always enjoy word puzzles in ND games and would love to see more of them.

Even though I wish this game had felt more like a traditional Nancy Drew game, I still enjoyed it and will replay it. The ND series still entertain me more and better than almost any other adventure game out there, and I will continue to look forward to each new offering as eagerly as before.