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> Results: Nancy Drew: Danger by Design
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ESRB Content Descriptors Say:
The ESRB has no descriptors for the game, and GamerDad has found no additional issues to be concerned with beyond the story's mild theme of mystery and suspense. While industry insiders moan about the lack of quality titles for the young girl market, Her Interactive has been consistently churning out a long line of adventure games based off the Nancy Drew license. They consistently produce engaging games of high quality that should be welcome in nearly any girl or boy's game library. Nancy Drew: Danger by Design is the 14th game in the series. Set in the fashion industry in Paris, Nancy must run errands for a demanding fashion designer while trying to figure out whether the designer is coming unglued. As Nancy Drew, the player must run errands for the designer while covertly trying to figure out the various mysterious events that occur around her.  Players move around in a point-and-click interface, clicking on the edges of the screen to move around. Items of interest and of importance to the game highlight whenever the mouse is moved over them. Depending on the difficulty level, a journal keeps track of important details that Nancy comes across. Conversations are all prerecorded and Nancy can respond with anywhere from one to four different phrases. As the game proceeds, the player is frequently presented with small mini-games that present logic puzzles, memory tests, and even a paint-by-number activity. The games are targeted squarely at the younger (10+) set, so players in their mid-teens may find them repetitive or too simple. Successful completion of a minigame moves the plot forward, but several of them can also be accessed later. The game starts slowly at first, to allow players to become accustomed to the interface, but then speeds up and opens up more freedom for investigation. If needed, help is provided in-game via calling Nancy's friends back in the states. Her Interactive once again shows its colors with Nancy Drew: Danger by Design. It is an engaging adventure, just right for that young teen or tween. There aren't many games in age category. This is one, and it is a pleasure to see it is a good one. 
As might be expected from the Nancy Drew in the title, this game is squarely targetted towards young female teens or tweens. Even the minigames reflect this with themes appearing such as cooking, fashion design, and shopping. After all, the game is set within the fashion industry of Paris. If they are able to get past the double-whammy of playing a female protagonist in the fashion industry, the game should prove entertaining for boys as well. There are two difficulty settings within the game, and plenty of in-game help available by calling "friends" back in the States. With this in mind, the game is quite appropriate for kids even younger than 10, but they may occasionally need a bit of help to solve some of the logic puzzles. The story is a bit spooky due to the cast of slightly oddball characters, but it is very mild and tends to add to the suspense of the mystery and doesn't reach the level of disturbing. Despite the mystery setting, Nancy Drew tries to avoid the use of force, so violence isn't an issue either. There is a significant amount of conversation in the game but it is almost all repeated audibly. Poor readers will do OK with a good memory, but may have problems dealing with the recorded notes in their journal if past conversations are forgotten.
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