

Unfortunately, you cannot switch between friends without first becoming Nancy Drew.Īs with all other Nancy Drew games from Her Interactive, this mystery is full of puzzles and brainteasers that are mixed into the sleuthing. Nancy will call one of her friends and ask them to "take over," at which point the player becomes the friend and investigates from their first person perspective. The phone also acts as the way the player can switch between characters. Since Nancy stays in charge of the investigation, she uses her cell phone to communicate with her friends and her dad. Since you can only be one character at a time, this play-mechanic means that you will have to constantly switch between being Nancy and her friends. This allows Nancy access to a variety of useful forensic machines so that when her friends find evidence, they can drop it off and Nancy can analyze it using the police machines. Since Nancy is a good friend of the River Heights police chief, he lets her out of her jail cell but keeps her confined to inside the police station. Most of this game is spent investigating the four other suspects that were near Town Hall when the fire erupted.Īs the detective in this point-and-click game, you will need to find forensic evidence including fingerprints of all of the suspects and what accelerant was used to start the fire. For example, one of the female suspects has a crush on Nancy's boyfriend Ned and will answer his questions but won't cooperate with Nancy's girlfriends.


Since Nancy is the prime suspect and has been placed in jail on arson charges, players must switch between being Nancy and one of her friends to do interviews and snooping and depending on who you are may affect the response you get from potential suspects. The mystery-solving relates to finding out who set the fire in Town Hall and why. While starting with this adrenaline-inducing scene sets high expectations that this is going to be a great mystery game, the reality is that the rest of the game never quiet lives up to the beginning hype. In other words, you can die in the first 5 minutes of the game, but can replay the scene again until you get it right. If you don't act immediately to find a way out of the burning room and smoke-filled hallways, you will experience one of the games clever design features: a second chance. As Nancy Drew, players hear the explosion and witness firsthand the smoke filling up the room around Nancy. The public building erupts in flames while Nancy is inside. "Nancy Drew: Alibi in Ashes" starts with Nancy Drew following a mysterious note that leads her into the Town Hall of her home town River Heights.
