Nancy Drew: Curse of Blackmoor Manor

Nancy Drew: Curse of Blackmoor Manor
Developer(s)	Her Interactive
Publisher(s)	DreamCatcher
Platform(s)	DVD player, Windows
Release date(s)	NA: October 5, 2004 (Win) NA: June 2006 (DVD)
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single player

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, 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 Fourteenth 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?

Development

Characters

• Nancy Drew - Nancy is an eighteen-year-old amateur detective from the fictional town of River Heights in the United States. She is the only playable character in the game, which means the player must solve the mystery from her perspective.
• Linda Penvellyn - Linda married Hugh Penvellyn and recently moved from the United States to England. She currently resides in Blackmoor Manor and refuses to let anyone see her face — even Nancy. She believes that she is cursed and fears that Nancy will be cursed as well. What is she hiding besides her face?
• Jane Penvellyn - Jane is Linda's 12-year-old, attention-deprived stepdaughter. She is unhappy with her move to Blackmoor Manor because she enjoyed being raised in the U.S. Very curious and smart, she is knowledgeable about the manor's secrets — does she know more about Linda than she's saying?
• Mrs. Drake - Mrs. Drake is Jane's great-aunt. She spends her days tending plants in the manor's conservatory. She puts up a no-nonsense attitude and is truly confounded and frustrated by the recent spate of events. Outwardly she scoffs at the issue of curses and witches, but she is superstitious herself.
• Nigel Mookerjee - Nigel is a historian currently researching and cataloguing the Blackmoor Manor library. Nigel is interested in writing a history of the Penvellyn family. Could he be the one who can help find the key to unlocking the past? But what's really behind his keen interest in the manor and its quirky inhabitants?
• Ethel Bosinny - Ethel is Jane's tutor and comes from a long line of tutors to the Penvellyn Clan. She is very mysterious; her oh-so-charming demeanor has an edge that hints at something deeper. Is there something painful in her past, or is she hiding a secret?
• Loulou - Loulou is an intelligent 80-year-old parrot who gives hints and loves "yummy cakes." He is a reference to the parrot in Gustave Flaubert's 1877 story Un coeur simple.

Cast

• Nancy Drew / Loulou – Lani Minella
• Mrs. Drake – Amy Broomhall
• Jane Penvellyn – Conni Ellern
• Linda Penvellyn – Jenn Ruzumna
• Ethel Bosinny – Sarah Papineau
• Nigel Mookerjee – Stephen Hando
• Mrs. Petrov – Dora Lanier
• Ned Nickerson – Scott Carty
• Hugh Penvellyn / Tommy Tucker / Alan Penvellyn – Jonah von Spreecken
• Paliki Vadas – Alyssa Keene
• Max Holechek – 1930s Radio Announcer (Secret of the Old Clock trailer) ^[3]

Reception

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".^[5]

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".^[6]

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".^[7]

References