Nancy Drew: Alibi in Ashes [Mac Download]

I really liked this game. Yes, it had it’s share of problems but I enjoyed it despite them.
There were some things that were annoying and some things that were amazing.

Good Qualities of the Game:
The graphics were really good! Her Interactive is getting better and better – and it is the first time I have ever seen Bess and George before! (I’ve played as them, but I’ve never actually seen them! Then again, I haven’t played very many Nancy Drew games)
There were lots of places to explore – some Nancy Drew games just give you a house and the yard/garden/cemetery/etc. nearby.
In this game, there was a Police Station, Nancy Drew’s House, an Antique Shop, a news reporter’s Van, an Ice Cream Shop, the Town Hall, and of course, a Secret room/tunnel/passageway/maze/dungeon/etc (I’m not going to give it away by telling you which!) like there is in practically every Nancy Drew game.
The voices were good too, not flat and boring or without any enthusiasm.
I enjoyed talking to the different characters as either Bess, George, Ned or Nancy and seeing how each character reacted to me differently depending on who I am playing as. It added a whole new aspect to the game.

Poor Qualities to the Game:
It was rather unrealistic – the real police wouldn’t automatically assume someone is the culprit and then not check out any other suspects, like they did with Nancy Drew. Even though she had helped them in so many other cases and some of the other suspects had shady backgrounds and alibis, they arrested her and didn’t give the other suspects a second thought.
Also, the switching from one character (Bess, George and Ned) to the other got awfully tedious.
Even though it took me several hours, it was short compared to the other Nancy Drew games and I’m glad I got a discount on it with Amazon Prime because the full price for it was so unrealistic,
There weren’t many puzzles either — which was fine by me, because I often can’t figure half the puzzles without a little help, but a few more couldn’t have hurt.
Another thing – you (the player) don’t really figure out who the culprit is.
Okay, let me rephrase that.
All the evidence points to several different people, and you don’t figure it out, the game just shows you.
It was just like watching a movie, there was no deductive reasoning and figuring out who the culprit is, no epic chase where you have to detain the culprit somehow (just a super annoying maze that made absolutely no sense that you had to get out of in ten minutes or else you lost).

But in the end, I enjoyed it! If you have amazon prime or it’s on sale or you have a discount or something, then it is a fun way to pass a couple hours.

This game looked like it would be one of the best, but the map of the town is misleading. You don’t get to go to many places highlighted at all, so I don’t know why they made us think we could. Going back and forth between players got very tiresome, but the game still moderately enjoyable. hardly any puzzles though, so another downer. Not the best by far.

Soooo yes. I’m an adult who loves playing the Nancy Drew games as I find they are the perfect way to unwind on the weekends, and they provide a good challenge. I’ve played almost all of them, and found Alibi in Ashes to almost be at the bottom of the list for fun. Nancy in this round, is arrested as she’s the prime suspect in the fire that burnt down the town hall. And it’s up to Nancy’s friends to help her get out of jail as well as figure out who the real culprit is. So basically Nancy is stuck in jail, and she has to call Bess, Ned, or George and get them to do something for her such as talk to all the suspects, get items, etc. And I actually liked the back and forth as you get to experience all the different characters. But the area I didn’t like was in order to change to another person, you had to call Nancy, become her, then call the person you need at the time to become them. You cannot simply call one of the friends to switch bodies. The plot was okay, nothing too fantastic, and the scenery wasn’t anything to write home about. And I really disliked the kiddie way of getting around. The little cars were annoying to me as you watched them move across the screen to the selected area. I also didn’t like that there were so many buildings, and you could only click on a few to go there. Some buildings were labeled, but, again, you could only see the car stop at the house or business and hear someone talking to you for a second, and that’s it. No fun there. As for the actual games, there were a few that were fun and challenging, but the majority were just too simple, and it didn’t seem that there were enough of them. Instead you basically talk and talk and talk some more to everyone to find out what they know. It was still fun to play, but definitely not the greatest ND game out there.