Summary A terrifying myth comes alive in Germany! Many years ago a monster stalked the German forest surrounding Castle Finster. According to locals and storytellers, the monster disappeared when it claimed a victim. Now everyone is frightened by the sights and sounds of something large stumbling through the darkness. Can you solve the mystery b...  Rated E +10 for Everyone +10 Initial Release Date: Jun 28, 2011 Developer:
Publisher: Her Interactive In this adventure, Nancy visits Castle Finster following a series of monster sightings. The monster is believed by the locals to be the same legendary beast who terrorised the castle and its residents during numerous points in history, resulting in the disappearances – and even deaths – of various girls. It’s up to Nancy to find out what, or who, is behind the monsters’ sightings before the monster claims another victim. The first time I played this game, I found it to be extremely dull. Although the game’s concept is interesting, this game moves very slowly. There are long periods where almost nothing happens, with Nancy primarily going around the large and expansive castle, chatting with suspects and playing games with them. While Nancy does witness the monster on a few occasions, these sightings are primarily during the latter part of the game. Thus, for the first two-thirds of the game, the focus is principally on the suspects and puzzles which, for the most part, are a hit and miss. In regards to the suspects, there is so (very) much dialogue and character interaction with them; each character’s background is very thoroughly laid out and their motivations are clearly examined in adjoining plot threads. The main problem is though that these conversations are very long and, simply, are not very interesting. Most of it is background and becomes relevant later on in the game but, until the connection becomes obvious, there’s a lot of tiresome scrolling through chunks of ostensibly pointless text. Similarly, there are a lot of chores and puzzles/mini-games. For some, they are likely to be a pleasant pastime during the lulls in the story. While I didn’t enjoy a lot of the minigames, I did love Monster, a game where you can play as three wolves who need to ‘consume’ as many sheep in the paddock without detection. For others though (as it was for myself), these chores and minigames can feel like another distraction from the mystery at hand. Although many of my friends loved Raid, I hated it for the principle reason that a single round could take upwards of twenty minutes to complete; it’s one clear example where it feels like the game-makers are just trying to pass time until the story has been set up for the final part of the game. Patience is needed in this game. Until the story gets going, you’ll need to sit through long character dialogues and minigames. To give Her Interactive credit though, the story is the strength of the game and it comes full circle during the final third. As I mentioned before, there is a lot of information given on each of the suspects and their backstories do become an integral part of the plot later on. It was nice to see the mystery unfold with such coherency and depth, even if had followed hours of character dialogues and tiresome minigames. I will say now though that the story does have a lot of creepy and sinister undertones. Particularly, the story behind the beast and its former victims is uncanny, which I’ll delve into now for those who have played the game or who don’t mind spoilers. [SPOILER]: The backstory to the mystery is that numerous girls have disappeared in the past, seemingly taken and killed by a legendary monster. The game makes it clear that this legend – and monster – is just legend. But, we do learn about how two girls really did disappear – the Freiherr’s daughter and Renate’s sister. In the latter case, we learn that Renate’s sister disappeared into the forest and then was seemingly killed. If there was no monster though – as the game suggests – who did kill Renate’s sister? It’s never said but Renate, herself, says that there’s power in believing a monster – one who takes the form of a legendary beast that one would find in fairy tales, such as Frankenstein’s monster or an ogre or a wolf – to be responsible for the attacks, because it’s easier than believing that another human being could be capable of such a deed. I thought this was a pretty dark message for a Nancy Drew game, but a rather thought-provoking one. Rarely have I reflected on a Nancy Drew game as much as I did this one. I know it may frustrate a few players that the game never reveals who really kidnapped the Freiherr’s daughter and Renate’s sister, but I rather appreciated that the game showed that not all mysteries can be solved, even when their personal relevancy to us makes it so essential that we do so. Renate’s fruitless search for her lost sister was certainly tragic, but it was one of the uncannier resemblances of a Nancy Drew game to the reality of our own world. [END SPOILER]. Although some moments in the game are frightening, the scariest aspects of this game is in the story itself and its parallels to our own world. It was definitely a risk for the game writers to create a game which wasn’t overtly frightening (like Curse of Blackmoor Manor or Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake, where there’s a lot of deliberate, in-your-face scary moments) but with content was inherently very dark and scary. This game isn’t certainly for everyone. There’s a lot of puzzles and minigames and suspect backstories and unanswered questions by the end of the game. Nevertheless, it is one of the most intelligent entries in the Nancy Drew series and I think it demonstrates the capability of Her Interactive to create a complex and deep-layered mystery. |
