Nancy Drew: Trail of the Twister - Mac

This is a title that I skipped over for years. It just didn’t sound interesting to me and I knew that the reviews of it were mixed. It ended up being okay. It’s one that I would recommend only to established fans of the ND series. I'm going to split my review up into different sections so I can give the game a more accurate rating.PLOT - 3/5: Nancy is hired by PG Krolmeister to go undercover as an intern to investigate some suspicious happenings with the Canute College Tornado Chasing Team. PG is funding the team and providing their equipment for a competition in which college tornado chasing teams try to learn the most new information about storms. The winning team wins an insane amount of money ($100,000,000!!) so obviously a lot is at stake. PG believes that someone within the team is sabotaging his equipment to prevent them from winning the competition.I had three problems with this plot. 1 – It was boring and lacked a sense of danger or urgency. 2 – The sabotage was kind of lame (i.e. luring mice into the house, broken video camera, broken GPS) 3 – There was little depth to the story line. Probably because it lacked any sort of sub plot.What kind of redeemed the game for me were the little extra things HER put into the game. I loved the TV in the farmhouse that played goofy TV shows and had references to past games. I loved that you could give candy to the suspects (and feed Nancy candy until she throws up). I especially loved that you could drive Nancy’s car like a maniac and crash into things.CHARACTERS – 3.5/5: The characters had a lot of potential here. The suspects were everyone on the storm team - Scott, Debbie, Chase, and Frosty - and Pa who owns the general store in town (who was my favorite). The voice acting was excellent and the personalities of the characters seemed very realistic. Unfortunately pretty much the only reason you talk to the characters is to receive chores from them. I definitely would have liked to have better interaction with the characters, and also would have liked to see more developed relationships between them. Phone friends include PG Krolmeister, who was a lot of fun to listen to, and the Hardy Boys who unfortunately were pretty boring this time around.SETTING – 3.5/5: The setting was gorgeous but pathetically small. There were only two areas you could explore; the farmhouse and Pa’s store. There were no more areas unlocked throughout the plot. There were a couple more areas that Nancy could stop at in her car but they were only viewpoints for looking at clouds. But everything was so beautiful and lifelike. The rain looked awful however.PUZZLES – 2.5/5: So. Many. Chores. It was ridiculous. Every day in the game starts with Debbie giving Nancy a list of chores to do for that day, and then pretty much every time you talked to a character the conversation ended with them saying “Hey while you’re here, why don’t you do this for me?” I get that Nancy was undercover as an intern, but she was also an intern in Danger by Design and her chores in that game weren’t nearly so numerous or obnoxious. Her Interactive should have realized that a puzzle loses 99% of its entertainment value the minute it becomes a chore. So I really can’t say that I had fun with the puzzles in this game EXCEPT the mini game Land Rush at Pa’s store. I haven’t had that much fun with a mini game since playing scopa in The Phantom of Venice.IS IT CHALLENGING? – Kind of. The puzzles weren’t as difficult as the puzzles in the last game, Ransom of the Seven Ships. Some of them I could solve on my own and some of them I used a walkthrough for. I’d give it a 3.5 for challenge.ENDING -3.5/5: The ending was interesting. It was weird because Nancy pretty much discovers who the culprit is – she finds incriminating evidence against that person in the room where that character stays – but the game kept going for probably 45 minutes before Nancy actually realizes that that person is the culprit. And she accuses like two other characters of being the culprit in the meantime. It drove me crazy. Nancy has caught culprits with less evidence than that in the past so it was just weird why the game didn’t end there.But once Nancy finally realizes who the culprit is and confronts them the ending was better. Nancy had to chase the culprit while simultaneously running from a tornado which made it a lot more exciting. I also liked how Nancy finally catches the culprit and I liked how everything was wrapped up in the monologue.FINAL SCORE:Plot: 3Characters: 3.5Setting: 3.5Puzzles: 2.5Challenge: 3.5Ending: 3.5= 19.5 divided by 6 = 3.25 rounded to 3

I purchased Trail of the Twister without expecting too much from it compared to the rest of the Nancy Drew series, because the majority of reviews on Amazon and elsewhere are unfavorable. I just finished playing through, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover a great game that contradicts much of what I read online.This was the 20th game of the series that I have played, out of 28 that currently have been released. I love so many of the games and marvel at the high quality experience they offer. Trail of the Twister is no exception to this standard:-The setting is beautiful. The game includes great visuals of the landscape and weather events. In contrast to some of the games, this one is extremely realistic, which I thought was a positive characteristic.-The background music is charming and well-written.-The story is engaging and real, which is refreshingly different from some of the games that include fantastical treasure hunts and supernatural events.-Although we don't look too personally into the lives of the characters, each one is unique and interesting.-The puzzles were my favorite part of the game. There are many of them, none of which are too difficult, but many of them are challenging enough to cause some momentary head scratching, which I love.-In contrast to many reports, I did not think this game was particularly short. This may be due to the two mini games that are used to earn money. There are plenty of reasons to earn as much money as possible, so I spent a lot of time playing and enjoying these games.Besides the entertainment value of the game, there is a lot of great information to be learned about tornadoes. I happened to be playing the game yesterday as a powerful tornado ripped through Oklahoma, and I found that I have a much greater appreciation of that event because of the game. Not only does the game take place in Oklahoma and touches on the devastation that these storms can bring, it also teaches about proper procedures for safety in case of these storms, cloud formations that can foreshadow tornadoes, and scales used to measure the storms, all of which is integrated seamlessly into gameplay.A lot of the reviews for Trail of the Twister are negative, but my experience with this installment was just the opposite. You may not enjoy this game if you don't like a lot of puzzles, but in that case you might consider a different game series altogether. This may be one of my favorite games in the Nancy Drew series.

Her Interactive's 22nd installment of Trail of the Twister was an installment filled with twists and turns and, oh, almost forgot, tornadoes! In this mystery, your main goal is to figure out why all of the team's equipment has been repeatedly breaking down, and who is responsible for the damage(it's not a tornado:)). When you arrive in Oklahoma, you immediately find a tornado right in your own backyard!!! You run inside to find an immediate easy task or two for you to do. After you do each of the tasks, you get to meet all the characters after a bit. You also get to drive around town and explore, fix stuff, and hunt tornadoes. One thing I like about this game is that there are plenty of places to explore, characters to talk to, and puzzles to solve. It is always fun when you get to explore a lot of places instead of just staying at the same spot the whole mystery. One thing I didn't like about this mystery was that some graphs were hard to read or understand and the instructions weren't very clear. But then again, the instructions never seem to be all that clear... At the end of the mystery, you have to outwit your culprit by going on a car chase and help them take shelter from an upcoming tornado! I was very surprised at how the ending turned out, and thought it was very well played. Overall, this is one of the best editions to the Nancy Drew series! With plenty of action, adventure, and sabotage, you are sure to be thrilled! Thanks for reading my review of Trail of the Twister, Why do Trouble and Tornadoes always follow me around??? I hope you like this review and read my others! Thanks!

I have Windows 7 and this game was very difficult to load, taking 5 attempts. The story line is somewhat boring and some of the puzzles are difficult due to lack of explanation as to how to complete them. The game requires you to drive from place to place which is a bit of a pain. I have played several Nancy Drew games and this is not one of the better ones.

I had fun with this game. It's not a game I want to keep playing over and over though but it's good

Came super quick., Great Game!

got it in good time. the game is awesome. highly recommend nancy drew games. they are very challenging. love it

love it