Customer Rating:  
Summary: Castle Malloy
Comment: This is a point and click adventure. Number 19 in the Nancy Drew series by Her Interactive. It's target audience is primarily young females. There is no violence and no cussing in the game. It is clean.
The controls worked well, it's all mouse-driven.
The story is the weakest part of the game. Nancy flies over to Ireland, drives a hire car to the Castle then proceeds to solve the mystery on the same night! There are other improbables, but it's impossible to mention them without giving away spoilers.
The puzzles were not all well integrated into the story. Mostly doable, some were difficult at least at the senior level. I liked the sheep (fun) and the flying (unusual). Mini games (to earn money) are doll positioning, dart playing, spot the difference, drumming and bartending. The latter is a bit iffy with the target audience in mind. Some of the puzzles were merely tedious.
Graphics are well done, but dark and gloomy throughout. The available ventures were sparse. Castle consists of library, nursery (covered in dust and cobwebs), great hall (with end wall blown out), enterance gate and later a tower. The Screaming Banshee Inn is one room, mini games, and behind the bar. The grounds have roughly half a dozen points of interest. In previous ND games there were interesting rooms to explore to relieve the pressure of puzzling out the problems. In this game there was little relief.
Sounds were well done, I liked the background music which was cheerful in contrast to the gloomy graphics.
Characters within the game were sparse too. Bride, Groom, would-be best man, castle servant. Meaningful conversations were few and far between. The Irish get a bad press.
Overall verdict. Only an average game. Not near the best in the ND series. Fans of the series will buy, but casual players are best advised to choose the previous game.
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