While Mystery of the Seven Keys is not without its flaws, it is such a clear step up from Midnight in Salem that I have plenty of hope about what’s to come in the “modern era” of Nancy Drew games! KEY is an enjoyable game I gladly recommend to current and future fans of the series, and I think HeR will continue to improve on areas of weakness.
Navigation
I love that players can choose between point-and-click or free roam. Having played the game entirely in both modes, I do think it lends itself far more to free roam. Certain hotspots in point-and-click didn’t seem intuitive, and it felt like more work to right click and swing the camera around at each point to see what’s around me. If there’s a way to improve the hotspots in future games, that would help immensely. Free roam was smooth overall, added to the immersion, and was quite fun (because SPRINTING).
Graphics
My laptop could handle high graphics, so I was quite impressed at the level of detail for both environments and characters and the cinematic quality of the cutscenes. It seems like such a big undertaking to portray Prague because of the city’s intricate art and architecture, but I think KEY succeeded. I also appreciate the attention to detail with minute elements (such as condensation at night on a glass door). The character graphics also vastly improved from MID, especially in animations.
Story
I was excited about this story going into it based on the game synopsis (heist storylines are some of my absolute favorites), and I finished the game feeling satisfied! The story’s different threads could have left the game feeling jumbled and incohesive, but I think overall it successfully wove the threads together and offered a satisfying conclusion. It was enjoyable on replay to catch all the foreshadowing and hints at the truth. Way to lay those breadcrumbs!
Characters
Overall I enjoyed the characters (though sadly some of my favorites got the least screentime). I do want more “just because” worldbuilding conversations (especially with the phone characters) and dialogue trees. It felt like we talked to characters because we had to, not because we wanted to, and almost all the dialogue options can be exhausted in one playthrough, whereas in older games you have to replay multiple times before you can say you’ve heard every conversation possibility. I also think the voice directing needs work. Some voice work was fantastic (especially Radek’s, Leo’s, and Marek’s), but other voice work (Nancy’s voice in particular since she has the most lines) did not come across as a natural, realistic way of talking to people.
Music
I liked KEY’s music, but I did not love it. Sadly the soundtrack can become tedious both because of the music itself and how it’s used in game. While I’m encouraged that most of KEY’s tracks had more melodic development than MID’s, I would love more musical complexity and less looping and repetition of certain measures, motifs, etc. I also think rather than having one track for each environment that loops constantly, each environment should have multiple tracks and even moments of silence in between. The looping of a single track was far too overstimulating in certain environments, especially ones where you had to be there awhile to solve a difficult puzzle.
Puzzles
The puzzles more than anything else made me think I was playing a game for adults rather than kids. I actually appreciated the heightened sense of difficulty and lack of handholding with these puzzles. I also felt like when I got stuck, the fault was more mine for not observing or remembering things in the game rather than the puzzle logic falling short. However, in light of fans’ common struggles with puzzles in this game, I do think more direction could be useful (e.g., Nancy making a comment about what to do or puzzle directions being included on the screen). KEY also has one definitively problematic puzzle whose logic rules lead to multiple solutions, but the game only accepts one as correct. Logic puzzles shouldn’t be left to trial and error!
Miscellaneous
Thankfully none of the glitches I encountered significantly affected my gameplay, but I know others were not so fortunate. Hopefully some or all these glitches can be corrected for future purchases, and Game 35 is better tested for such issues.
As a professional copy editor, I was disappointed in the number of errors that made it past proofreading. One or two is excusable because it happens even to the best of us sometimes, but the amount in KEY is unprofessional in my opinion.
The UI is so much more beautiful and elegant than MID’s (especially the watercolor style loading screen!), and I love the new tasklist with subtasks included. Finding and inspecting items in inventory is better than in MID but still clunky because you can’t scroll through the inventory easily.
*I received a free copy of this game from HeR. This review is my honest assessment.*
