Nancy Drew®: Secrets Can Kill REMASTERED

Secrets Can Kill: Remastered is a remake of the first Nancy Drew adventure game. In this game, Nancy goes undercover to investigate the murder of a high school student. The remastered version has different graphics from the original and a different plot. It also has some of the extra features added to later Nancy Drew games, like the cell phone and the in-game notebook.
To solve the mystery, Nancy has to explore the school, talk to other students, and decode the messages left behind by the victim. The mystery wasn't especially complex and the culprit seemed really obvious from about the halfway point. There are a couple of red herrings but they aren't explored in depth.
The gameplay involves mostly exploring and solving codes, with a couple of other puzzles mixed in. There aren't many inventory object puzzles. I enjoyed solving the coded messages. It was usually pretty easy to tell what the code was going for but there were a couple of less straightforward ones mixed in. The final puzzle in the game was the only one that didn't really make sense to me, and I ended up needing a lot of trial and error to figure it out.
There are a lot of Nancy Drew references throughout the game, both to the other games and the books. The bulletin boards in the school feature a lot of art from the Nancy Drew series, and most of the books in the library are references to other games.
There's a lot of stuff in this game that's just unnecessary. Some of that is just references, like the books in the library that you don't really need to read, but a lot of it is stuff that has to do with the setup of the case. The game has a lot of codes and a few different suspects to talk to, but only a limited number of them have to do with the true culprit. If it doesn't pertain to the main culprit, you can finish the game without fully investigating/solving it. In my playthrough, I ended up with some unanswered questions and unsolved puzzles because I didn't follow up on other clues in time, and it made the resolution less satisfying.
There were things I liked about Secrets Can Kill but overall it was just okay. The puzzles were mostly pretty enjoyable, the codes were tricky but fun, and I enjoyed the references to the books and other games. However, the plot is pretty weak and there is a lot of stuff in the game that goes nowhere and is unnecessary. 6/10

Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill is the first mystery of the HER Interactive Nancy Drew series. This particular edition is the remastered one. It's not one of my favorites, though the music is very nostalgic. The mystery is good, a little darker than the other games. A murdered high school student has left behind a series of clues that leads Nancy to his secrets... and his killer. This game is short, only a couple hours of gameplay.

Most of this game is character interaction and reading billboards. There are very few puzzles. Ned gives you helpful clues if you get stuck.

Overall, it's neat to see where this series started, this one feels a tad more realistic story-wise compared to the other more fantastical mysteries.

As someone who has played many Nancy Drew games throughout my life, I wanted to start from the beginning and experience them all. While Secrets Can Kill is more simple than later games in the series, I find it to be a good thing. For people wanting to play but not sure where to start, this is a great game to test the waters. It's not too hard and doesn't leave you frustrated looking up online walkthroughs. The graphics are not amazing, especially compared to more recent installations, but I was able to easily look past this. My only complaint is a glitch that happens during some cutscenes that cause the screen to flash rapidly. It's not too horrible--I could still make out what was happening and read the dialogue--but I'll still issue a fair warning to anyone with epilepsy or photosensitivity.

Overall, it was a good game! I really enjoyed it.

Amazing, beefy final puzzle. I just wish the 'first step' isn't locked behind dialogue progression that is quite easy to miss and cause player to go back and forth trying things out without results.

I played this game in 2002 with my 6 year old daughter. And then we played every single Nancy Drew through the last one in 2019 when she was 23 years old. Tonight the two of us continued the tradition by introducing it to my 8 year old grand daughter. It is a family legacy now.

Great for Nancy Drew beginners, or those wanting pure nostalgia vibes! Puzzles are overall easy and you don't get lost and confused about what to do in this one! A great starting point for those getting back into the Nancy Drew Universe!

This was fun to replay with some differences from the original. I wasn't a huge fan of this one when I first played it as a kid (on double discs mind you!) and I can't say I loved it this time around. However, I was impressed with the updated graphics! It felt more like a nice nostalgia play then anything really exciting or scary. The plot didn't stand out much and the character's weren't compelling to me. Overall game play 2/5 and scare factor 2/5.