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Some improvements over the last few disappointing ND games

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 26 / 26
Date: October 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've played all of Her Interactive's Nancy Drew games, and the last several games were a disappointment to me (Nancy Drew: Danger by Design and Nancy Drew: The Creature of Kapu Cave in particular). Danger by Design at least had a fascinating backstory, but the weak, ridiculous ending ruined any good feelings I might have had. Kapu Cave was just...bland. Boring from beginning to end, there was NO compelling story and the "puzzles" were mind-numbing (sorting of bug poop and making endless shell necklaces to earn more money), with nothing "spooky" about the "mystery."

White Wolf of Icicle Creek is more engaging than the last few Nancy Drew games. This time, Nancy's in the Great White North at a skiing lodge owned by Chantal Moique. Mysterious goings-on like food poisoning, guest injuries, and explosions have been scaring off Chantal's guests. To add to the mystery, a white wolf has been seen (and heard) at the time of many incidents.

The cast of suspects includes Ollie, the lodge's handyman, Lou, a college art student from California, Yanni, a champion skier from the Eastern European nation of Freedonia, Bill, a Canadian construction worker who's here to ice fish, and Guadalupe, a mysterious birdwatcher with a secret. As the game progresses, you'll discover hidden secrets and motives about each one through snooping through their personal belongings; after all, Nancy's taken on the job of maid and cook, so you're responsible for housekeeping every day.

Which brings me to the first major flaw. Ever since Secret of Shadow Ranch, ND games have featured the annoying (and time-filling) element of "chores." Generally, these seem like things that adults thought would be fun for kids. Generally, these are a nuisance rather than being fun, and White Wolf is no exception. In fact, White Wolf forces you to clean rooms once a day and cook three times a day for the entire game. This is tedious and cuts down on available time to explore, as does a feature from one of the first ND games, Nancy Drew Treasure In The Royal Tower: the frostbite factor. Every time Nancy goes outside, you have to closely monitor the "frostbite" bar at the top of the screen. If Nancy gets too cold, she freezes to death. This also means that she can only be outdoors until around 5 pm every day, forcing you to advance the game to the next day unless you enjoy wandering for hours inside the lodge. Like several earlier games, you use the alarm clock in Nancy's room to advance the game.

Since this is the sixteenth ND game, I suppose it's natural that several puzzles feel recycled. Many are easily solvable and intuitive for the most part, except for the most frustrating puzzle I've ever played: Fox and Geese. A board game similar to checkers, you are forced to beat it not once, but three times. Even with a walkthrough, it literally took me several frustrating days. I was so frustrated that I nearly walked away from the game for good.

You do get to interact with the white wolf, who helps you to solve several puzzles. This is a definite improvement over befriending the killer whale in Nancy Drew: Danger on Deception Island, as you can actually give the wolf commands and have her help you solve the mystery. The wolf graphics were generally quite realistic, and game graphics were good overall, especially the outdoors scenes when you're walking through the snowy mountains.

I didn't see the villain coming from the clues throughout the game, so Her Interactive did a good job with the "a-ha" factor. I felt like there were limited exploration opportunities, which made the game feel claustrophobic at times, particularly since you are trapped indoors at night due to the cold. But there are definite improvements in storytelling and puzzle execution since Kapu Cave, and the next game,Nancy Drew: The Legend of the Crystal Skull, looks to be one of the best ND games yet.

An "Icy" Surprise!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 25 / 27
Date: June 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Nancy Drew: The White Wolf Of Icicle Creek (16)

-Before I Begin...
My review will be spilt up into sections and have a in-depth look at that topic. If you hate reading medium/long reviews or just don't have the patience I would not continue reading, but if you want to learn the most about the product before you buy it you'll continue.

-Interface
The interface of this game has changed quite a bit compared to the last ones. The Book Menu has disappeared and starting the game only needs one click, which is nice but if you want to load your saved game you have to click the icon instead of a menu. And that can be difficult when Nancy Drew is showing you her room and introducing herself. I like how easy it was to start a new game with almost no clicking. The text when talking to people pops out into a semi-transparent window, which means less scrolling up & down through text. The Inventory, Checklist, & Notebook are now viewable in semi-transparent boxes as well, and can be viewed while moving around, solving puzzles, talking to people, dialing numbers on the phone (very helpful), and anything else you can think of. The Notebook is organized so you don't have to read paragraph after paragraph to find what your looking for. On the top of your screen is a view of the clothes you are wearing, a in-game clock, and when your outside a hypothermia meter is present. Overall the interface has improved quite a bit but maybe a small menu (like "Please select: Load Game or New Game") should be present before we head up to Nancy's bedroom.
*****

-Plot
This time someone has been causing quite a ruckus at Icicle Creek Lodge, from food poisoning, slashing tires, breaking windows, exploding bunkhouses, gas leaks, deadly icy stairs and a howling wolf that arrives at the scene of each "accident". Chantal, the owner of the fine lodge, wants you as Nancy Drew to find out who is causing all these strange events, by stepping in as the new maid and cook. This has been one of the most exciting plots that Her Interactive has made, every secret unveiled twists into another one. They certainly kept you on the edge of your seat a lot. Then there was a sub plot that centers around Trapper Dan, the builder of the lodge and a nearby monument. Trapper Dan created the hunting lodge which may have been smuggling goods, hence there are some secret passageways in the game. The main plot is very exciting and it connected fairly well with the Trapper Dan story without leading you off track on the case.
*****

-Characters
Finally our character interaction has improved! The last two games CRE (15) and DAN (14) have been a disappointment in character interaction, but this game has proved to be a step forward. There was a good variety of characters in this game. They all had interesting backgrounds and there is a bit of incriminating evidence toward each and every one of them. There is Yanni, a foreign skier; Bill, the ice fisher; Guadalupe, a bird watcher; Ollie, the handyman; and Lou, the college student. There is also a little girl named Freddie (who is Ollie's daughter) that only spends her time in a snow fort at the lodge. The guests actually move around, not a lot but they do move around, in fact two of the guests check out of lodge later. You will enjoy learning secrets and talking to these characters for sure.
*****

-Setting & Graphics
The graphics keep getting better and better! And more detailed! The snow is so realistic and the lodge is so cozy, the passageways are eerie (not to mention very green). Her Interactive has outdone themselves again. I loved how they included much more animated scenes. You definitely felt like you were in Canada! Personally, I love the hotel/B&B industry, and I thought that working as a maid and cook was fascinating as well as the lodge atmosphere. The snow would crunch under your feet and the lodge was beautifully decorated in a nature theme. You'll actually feel like your there, until you see lime green lines that is... Yes I hate to say it but there are annoying green lines that outline everything that you are supposed to touch, manipulate, or look at. It will annoy you at first but I got over it, hopefully CRY (17) won't have this problem.
****

-Puzzles/Activities
Another thing to look forward to is the puzzles in this game! They are very original and fun. Some puzzles include commanding a wolf through vaults, jumping from ice floe to ice floe, deciphering a journal, a Chinese checkers like game, driving a snowmobile, filling out a survey for Tino (Yes I mean Tino Balducci from TRN [13]), and ice fishing. However every day in the game you have to clean the guest rooms and cook three meals a day. You won't get tired of them because you get to snoop in the rooms and overhear a conversation. The maid duties are really easy and at a certain point in the game Ollie will do all of the cooking for you. Some peole get over dramatic about these chores and say that you have to abruptly drop whatever you are doing to complete your daily duties. I disagree, when you have the chores it makes the game more realistic and add to the overall setting. You do not have a super tight schedule with the cooking, you have plenty of time between meals to do other things outside the lodge.
*****

-Ending
Very interesting ending, after finding the room under "Trapper Dan's Needle" you run into two of the suspects and find belongings of another one (no this does not mean there is more than one villain). You'll still be guessing who the culprit is until the very end. This time the ending was not as abrupt as the last two games. Catching the culprit is almost exactly the same as CLK (12), you have to chase the culprit down and the culprit looses control of what they are driving. I thought that they could have been something more creative. Catching the culprit actually took a long time and you can find yourself careening out of control into trees and snow, but it was not impossible. The wrap up after confronting the culprit was thorough but there were a couple loose ends about the other characters.
****

-Overall
This game was very good. I thought that it was way better than the last two games and Her Interactive is definitely back on track with their games. The game was neither too long nor too short, it was about the length of The Secret Of Shadow Ranch. The game was very exciting and there were a lot of red herrings(false evidence) which kept you guessing to the very end. I would definitely buy this at the $20 it asks for. It is so worth the money. I think that ICE has been a redemption for Her Interactive's past two games (which were good but were definitely lacking compared to the much earlier games). However, I'm sure long time Nancy fans will be heartbroken because of the edited interface, but Her Interactive was right to keep up with new technology. If people miss the old game interfaces so much they need to play the old games over and over again, all things change sooner or later. You need to buy this game, whether you are an avid Nancy Drew fan or not!

Add all these up and divide by 6...
5 *'s (Interface)
5 *'s (Plot)
5 *'s (Characters)
4 *'s (Setting & Graphics)
5 *'s (Puzzles/Activites)
4 *'s (Ending)
= 28 Stars Divide By 6 (Categories) = 4.6 = Rounded to 5 Stars

-Recommended Games
The White Wolf Of Icicle Creek (This one!)
Danger On Deception Island
Last Train To Blue Moon Canyon
The Secret Of Shadow Ranch

Thanks for reading my review!

Enjoyable

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 23
Date: June 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've played all the Nancy Drew games, and was so disappointed with the last two (Danger by Design, and The Creature of Kapu Cave) that I thought about not buying this one at all. But I really haven't found anything else to compare to these addictive games, and I enjoyed this one much more than the last two. The resort setting was similar to Treasure in the Royal Tower, and I found the puzzles to be interesting and mildly challenging. There was no weird switching back and forth between Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys like in Kapu Cave (the Hardy Boys aren't in this one at all).

A common complaint with these games is that they're too short, but the basic formula works for me. And I've never had any trouble playing any of the games on my computer, a 3 year old laptop that's not suitable at all for high graphics games.

Not that great

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 18 / 24
Date: June 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I was really looking forward to this game. I played the demo version beforehand and liked the new layout. Though I don't understand why a new game just starts every time you run it, instead of giving you SOME kind of opening screen to load a game, start a new one, etc. No other game I've every played has done that. But, whatever, it's not a big deal. I also had no technical problems with the game, though it sounds like many others did.

However, this game was absolutely boring. And very tedious as another reviewer stated. Repeatedly having to stop what you are doing and cook meals 3 times a day was just too much. I resorted to saving my game immediately after the meals, and then if nothing was accomplished before the next meal, just reloading the saved game and starting from there. It saved me from having to cook quite as much. There is very little character interaction, very few puzzles, and the ones that are in there are either too easy or beyond frustrating. I mean, come on, you have to beat that horrid fox and geese game 3 times?! Is HI running out of ideas? The one puzzle I did like was the skating pond puzzle. It reminded me of playing Minesweeper. And I didn't even bother finishing it - I got so sick of the snowmobile chase at the end after repeated attempts and what seems like hours, I just gave up and quit.

On another note, I just finished playing Secret of Shadow Ranch again, which demonstrated to me how far downhill these games have gone. That game was so much better that any in recent memory. Come on, HI, get your act together!

Not as Good...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: June 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have played all the nacy drew games and have enjoyed them all but this one i am having a really hard time getting into. some of the puzzles have been illogical and the cooking in this game is severly repetitive and disruptive. you have to cook all three meals everyday of the game and in a certain time frame. you have to stop whatever you are doing to do this boring task before the meal is over and you cant make the food. Anyways if you have played all the nancy drew games i would get this one also but if its your first time at nancy drew i would recommend danger by design, creature of kapu cave, curse of blackmoore manor, train to bluemoon canyon, shadow ranch and ghost dogs. :)

Tedious, Tedious, Tedious!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 11 / 17
Date: June 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I have to be the the lone dissenter here. I really didn't like this one. I hated it almost as much as the Royal Tower. The tasks are redundant. As mentioned by another reviewer most of the things you need to do have to be done during daylight but you've also got to keep track of times to do your chores which eats up a lot of your daylight. You are constantly resetting the clock and sleeping. I also found a lot of the puzzles tedious and boring. The fishing portion was just tortuously long and boring and took more patience than it was worth. The end scene felt the same way. At one point I almost didn't finish the game because the end scene is so looooong that I lost interest. The end scene felt like it was written by a teenage boy who really loves video games. I typically enjoy the Nancy Drew series because you have to use your brain, not so much with this last scene. I'm not one for traditional video games so this just rubbed me the wrong way.
They should release a patch to shorten that last scene. Who wants to spend 30 minutes on an ending?? Possibly my game was just flawed because I don't see anyone else complaining that the ending took them 30 minutes from the time they left the last location. I tried restarting it a few times just to see if I could shorten it but to no avail. This is my least favorite of the series. I hope they go back to thought required endings again rather than mindless video game endings. I was really disappointed with this whole game.

A Small, Very Small, Step Up...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: November 19, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I own and have played all of the prior Nancy Drew games, but hated Creature of Kapu Cave to the extent that I almost didn't buy this game. I enjoyed this game, but found it to be lacking in some very important areas. If you are new to the Nancy games and are trying to decide which one to buy, I would not recommend you start with this one. Choose any of the games from #2-11 and you will understand the publics infatuation with these games. Anyway (now that I'm off of the bunny trail), here is what I think of The White Wolf of Icicle Creek.

Plot-B+ I am all FOR saving the wolves, and preserving them. That being said, this game sort of went to the extremes of trying to educate the public about them. Long, pointless phone conversations with different individuals just about the endangered species can get rather dull. I really do approve wholeheartedly with the message trying to be made, but being subtle about it would have been better.

Graphics- A+ I really love snow, and walking around in a whole lot of snow was really pleasant even if everything did look exactly alike. Indoors, the graphics were just as excellent as any of the other games. In fact, they looked almost real!

Puzzles- C+ The puzzles in this game were reminiscent of... chores? Yes, that is exactly what most of them were! Shoveling snow off of the ice skating rink (and you don't even get to skate!), making three, yes three, meals a day for the guests (not really a puzzle, just a time filler), making beds and cleaning rooms (again a time filler), solving a mind numbing and challenging (not in a good way) board game four times to get four tokens... the list goes on and on! There were a few genuine puzzles to solve, but they were unremarkable to say the least! I really like the chores that were in The Secret of the Scarlet Hand because most of them pertained to solving the case in some way or the other, but not in this case!

Ending- A- The ending was good in that I had no idea who the culprit was. The game kept me guessing right up until the end. The bad thing about the ending was the final challenge (I guess we can call it that). I don't want to spoil it for anyone, so I will say that it took a great deal of dexterity with your hands to be able to do it. And it was way to easy to die. I don't know how many times I died! Not bad, but the ending could have been better.

Content- A++ There is no objectionable content to even mention. It is a clean game for all ages (but don't get fooled into thinking that it is only for kids!). There are no scary things that would upset younger children, and I guess the only violent thing is that Nancy gets knocked out with an ice ball. (No blood, nothing. You see stars and wake up a minute later.)

Overall- B+ It was a good game, just don't try to compare it with the others, because it just doesn't compare!

Hope I was helpful...

A winner!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: July 28, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I am nearly 50 yrs. old and have played every ND game except for the first one (go figure). As a young girl I would spend my weekends with Nancy! I learned to LOVE to read and it all began with Nancy Drew. My very first boyfriend bought me a ND book for my birthday when I was around 13. I also had a large collection that was passed on to me. Needless to say, I am a HUGE Nancy fan. I discovered that HERinteractive was creating Nancy Drew games. What a riot! I loved every one. I play at the junior level and needed hints (I don't care for walkthru's), with some of the more difficult games. The hardest one for me was Curse of Blackmoor Manor. There is a site on the internet that just gives you hints to get you moving again. I went to this site a lot while playing Blackmoor Manor. I loved the game, it was just a tad hard for me. White Wolf was excellent.
My very favorite part was working with "Isis". I had worked for a vet for nearly 20 years (now retired). The graphics are stunning. The plot is interesting. Some of the puzzles were difficult for me, so I did need some help at the hint site. I loved the chores. In fact, I differ in opinion from most of the people who have posted here. My very favorite game is Secret of the Old Clock. I loved zippin' around running errands etc...
White Wolf did have chores and a whole lot more. A lovely fun game!

THANK YOU Her Interactive, this one was worth the time...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: July 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

My daughter and I own every Nancy Drew game: some are great, some are too short, some are too easy, this one was juuuust right. We had a blast and the puzzles were challenging for this Mom.

Can't wait for the next game. Keep 'em comin' !!!

Quit pickin' on Nancy

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: July 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

There has been a lot of negativity surrounding the last few Nancy Drew games especially towards the Creature of Kapu Cave. I do agree, having played all the Nancy Drew games, Kapu was the easiest and the ending didn't have the series' usual brand of difficulty, but then, I am 29yrs old. I've completed about 80% of Icicle Creek, and from what I've played, I'm not dissapointed. I take these games for what they're worth and I judge them on their own level. All these games have their own instructional value for all ages and Icicle Creek is no exception. There's plenty of puzzles, activities, areas to explore and of course, the trademark duties and responsibilities for Nancy to complete. What games will teach you or your child about GPS systems, morse code, proper care & feeding of animals, photography, diving, history, safety, or animal empathy? I've played other role-playing games such as Star Wars, Baldurs' Gate 1 & 2, the Sims and Lord of the Rings; and while Nancy Drew games are not nearly as detailed or advanced as those, those other games are not nearly as instructional as Nancy Drew. Remember, these games are for ages 10 & up. They're supposed to have quick challenges not 100+ hours of frustration.

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