Nancy Drew: The White Wolf of Icicle Creek
Ages: Everyone

In this new game, danger to Nancy seems to be more from nature and the environment, freezing to death, being buried by an avalanches, attacked by a wolf, but also man made explosions. Nancy Drew has been retooled to make the game easier to play. The lodge is smaller than the previous "grand" interiors, just a single staircase, only four occupied guest rooms, not counting Nancy's, a single corridor instead of two floors plus an attic. Names of the guest rooms are also accompanied by icons – a bird, a berry, a lynx, so you don't even have to remember names.

There is no kitchen or dining room, and after preparing dinner and listing to the jolly sounds of people, I was immediately switched back to the lobby. There was no one lurking in the basement, not even the handyman. The lodge seems devoid of life – only occasionally meeting a person. It's not so much an easier version as a sparser one.

Nancy is under cover to find out why there are some many accidents at Icicle Creek lodge. She is working as a housekeeper, cook, and has to maintain the ice pond. This is the first Nancy Drew where, if I were her, I would quit. In between cooking breakfast and dinner, picking up laundry and fixing beds, detecting feels like it takes second place in her busy schedule. She has to snoop around, and at the owner's request has to do a guest profile as a marketing tool, but it's weird stuff. Amazingly, all this still leaves time to search for hidden keys, solve puzzles, find notes, decipher codes, and discover the obligitory secret passage.

I have played all 16 of the Nancy Drew games, and this one is like an "economy" version. Even the lack of color -- the outside environment – all white, even the wolf, all white. The saves are more efficient, but I miss the stacks of books. I miss the book with the Second Choice option. The beginning of all the games opened with this great spooky music that prepared you for the mystery and danger ahead. Where is it now?

In the previous games, you always accompany Nancy in the game and she used to talk a lot, suggesting some action or commenting on a locked door – sort of thinking out loud. In this game she's unusually silent and after awhile, I felt that I was alone in the game.

If you think of Nancy Drew games as hard backed volumes of the stories, this one is like a paper back – the economy version. With the Nancy Drew movie opening, I can only hope that this one was rushed out to prepare for something much, much better.

Fun Factor: Enough fun to keep on playing in spite of all the cooking.
Female Factor: A consistently great girl character
Player Friendly: It may be friendlier – but I want the old design back.

Reviewed by: Editor - 07/07