Nancy Drew: Danger By Design

 PC
Metascore
70

Mixed or average reviews - based on 11 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 11
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 11
  3. Negative: 0 out of 11
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  1. The New York Times
    69
    Perhaps the hard puzzles are meant to counterbalance the soft-headed story. The game itself is decent over all, though hardly the best in the series, but the ending is anticlimactic. In a game that requires the player to be so smart, it’s surprising that the designers expect their audience to accept a finale so dumb.
  2. Just Adventure
    83
    It’s not quite the best Nancy Drew game out there (I think that honor goes to "Curse of Blackmoor Manor"), but Danger by Design is just as fascinating as Minette, and far less frustrating. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes Nancy Drew, and many who like adventure games.
  3. PC Gameworld
    72
    A short but pleasureable romp through France in the shoes of the best girl detective in the world.
  5. GameZone
    70
    A decent adventure game for families and teens, but it’s not as good as other games in the series.
  6. Adventure Gamers
    60
    Still a solid game, but the venerable series is starting to show its age by recycling many elements.
  7. Game Chronicles
    80
    Even with its limitations, Nancy Drew: Danger by Design is a decently entertaining, albeit short, mystery adventure game with a diverse assortment of easy to moderately challenging puzzles.
  8. Quandary
    70
    Though it's not the best of the Nancy Drew titles, there's a lot to like here for Nancy Drew fans. Nancy will surely entertain on this adventure and keep her fans coming back for more.
  9. Digital Entertainment News
    50
    It looks nice, and the plot is well developed, but they seem to forget games have to be fun to play.
  10. Four Fat Chicks
    60
    Though it pains me to do it, the best rating I can give this, the 14th entry in the Nancy Drew series, is "average." It's a good-looking game with some enjoyable challenges, but the two stories it tells have nothing to do with each other, effectively denying players one of the basic satisfactions of mystery fiction.
  11. PC Gamer
    78
    A smart and sassy point 'n' click adventure that treats its youthful audience with respect. [Holiday 2006, p.114]
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  12. PALGN
    50
    Adventure gamers - young and old - deserve much better than this.

Awards & Rankings

100
#100 Most Shared PC Game of 2006

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
6.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 16 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 16
  3. Negative: 4 out of 16
  1. gold
    Jul 15, 2020
    7
    Слабая часть из 2-го поколения. Невзрачно.
    Итог: 7.666/10
  2. zodiac6573
    Oct 1, 2010
    0
    I am a huge fan of the Nancy Drew games. This was an exception. For the first time ever, I actually gave up out of sheer boredom beforeI am a huge fan of the Nancy Drew games. This was an exception. For the first time ever, I actually gave up out of sheer boredom before solving this mystery. The colours are garish, the characters are dull, the storyline uninteresting, and tasks and puzzles are mundane. Fortunately Herinteractive didn't let this affect their other games. The only mystery here is why they lowered the bar so much.… Full Review »
  3. RachelB
    Mar 28, 2008
    0
    Just awful! I love my puzzler type games but this is the first time in probably most of my life that I ever wanted my money back. Not evenJust awful! I love my puzzler type games but this is the first time in probably most of my life that I ever wanted my money back. Not even giving any comparison to the other Nancy Drew games, it's just BAD. Most of the characters are really unlikeable (you totally hate Minette and Mr. Traquenad from the start.), the mini-games are too repetitive, and the puzzles had no nice mid-ground: they were a laughable insult to your intelligence, or were major stinkers like the ones at the end.

    But most of all-- there were two different stories going on; neither of which anything to do with each other. The ending was so...huh? It made no sense; not like the plausible story interweaving in "Secret of the Old Clock". Did the storyboard writers fart it out like 2 hours before the deadline was due or something???

    I used to write game reviews years ago and this is the worst one I ever doled out. Do not waste your BigFish/Casual Games game credit on this piece of crap.    … Full Review »
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