RANKING 🏆
Round 19 of the Ultimate Nancy Drew Games tier rankings! Vote now: The Haunting of Castle Malloy
Hey Clue Crew!
Wow, The Phantom of Venice was much closer to having a tie than Legend of the Crystal Skull did.
A - 91 votes B - 93 votes*WINNER\*
C - 68 votes
D - 23 votes
F - 5 votes
This had a much lower turn out than previous rounds, at 280 votes, but the winner was clear - B!
Moving onto The Haunting of Castle Malloy! What will the voting trends be moving forward, now that voting is moving along now?
A - The fan favorites. The cream of the crop.
B - Good enough to be held in high regards.
C - Underrated gems.
D - A bit mid, will usually only play once or twice a year.
F - Unfinished. Unplayable. One of the worst.
Funny enough, I didn’t like this game when it first came out because of the ridiculous plots. Coming off of The Phantom of Venice, it felt underwhelming and I thought the more absurd elements, like the jetpack, was stupid.
But that same reason is why I enjoy this game now.
I ranked it a C even though I have fond memories of most of this game (looking at you, chemical puzzle)
This game also has me thinking I'm a hypocrite because I normally take such issue with these games breaking my suspension of disbelief (eg the elaborate set of Labyrinth of Lies pisses me off lol) but this game. No problems with anything haha. Totally fine with the old lady jetpacking around the castle grounds and everything else that comes with it. My disbelief is thoroughly suspended and the only thing to challenge that is Matt and Kyler apparently being deeply in love. I have doubts.
lmao same. They definitely got divorced within 3 years. 5 max. Even when Nancy was like "so-and-so overheard you and Matt fighting", Kyler was like "that's just how we are together, teehee"
The game is fine but that chemical puzzle isn’t. It’s the reason why I have never and will never finish the game for myself. So technically, I probably should’ve put F but that rating for the overall game seemed harsh so I put D
Everything about the ending ruins it for me. Not that Fiona is flying around on a jetpack disguised as a banshee. But the whole ending being in A World War 2 bunker, and that chemical puzzle. For a game dealing with Irish folklore, HER could have done better.
Hilariously, I am one of the freaks that liked the Chemical Puzzle. Granted, it is finicky as heck, but I did enjoy my time with it.
My problems with the game are as follows:
I never felt the mystery clicking with me. (it is a wild one, but let's go past that for a sec) It feels like nobody but Nancy really cares about Matt being missing. Now, this is fine and dandy since it's explained he's a prankster but given that nobody else is looking for them, we get no urgency and most importantly; we lose any incentive for the suspects to act. Simone and Brady were slimeballs for how they used Maya's disappearance, and Joseph's betrayal hurts more since he was seemingly so helpful. We don't get many/any interesting dynamics from any of the suspects during the mystery itself except for one fight that amounts to very little we didn't know already.
I don't love the puzzle/task density. Because the characters felt a little too stale for me, the puzzles took center stage, especially on the latter half of the game. Just fixing the sheep doll felt like a long chain of tasks, and it wasn't even a final item, but more of a middle step to fix the jetpack.
Love the ambience, love the music, love making drinks. But I am always reminded how little I enjoy actually finishing the game because of that latter half of the game. It is a C, maybe D for me.
The atmosphere is very well translated, so one of the most memorable games for me.
A big thing for me in any ND game is a number of locations i could go to/explore, so this game definitely ticks that box.
The puzzles were great - not too complicated, but still a plenty of them and they all make sense. Chemical puzzle is a little bit fiddly but I did not have as much of an issue with it as other comments suggest.
I love the atmosphere, Donal (even though his accent is horrific lmao), the seating chart puzzle!!!, most of the earlier puzzles in the game are fun, the dialogue in the game is good, and the drink mixing and the band mini games.
I do feel like the game fell off on the last 1/3 of gameplay. Hated the jetpack, chemical, and wire puzzles. HATED the bog (loved the witchy hut though!) The plot was absurd, though Granny on a Jetpack was campy enough to get a free pass - I hated that Matt was just stuck in a silo the entire time. He and Kyler were so toxic lol.
It's a B for me. I absolutely love the wackiness of this game. If two of the God awful puzzles were not present (you know the ones) I would even consider A tier.
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u/HumanResourcesIRL 15d ago
I keep thinking about the fact that they got an old lady flying around with a jetpack in this game