When I purchased all my new Steam games, I knew I wanted to play the Nancy Drew games first. One of my long-term goals is to play every single Nancy Drew PC game and I’m on my way there. Out of the five Nancy Drew games I purchased, I decided to play Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy first. Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy had an intriguing plot, and while I didn’t like this game as much as the others I played previously, this might be a good game for those who are new to the Nancy Drew PC games.

In Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy, this game focuses on Nancy’s back story and what happened to her mom. Nancy receives a letter regarding her mother’s car accident. It’s made clear to Nancy that her mom was a government agent and she was investigating a potential terrorist attack in Scotland. The terrorist group responsible went dark and Nancy’s mother died shortly after that. Nancy flies to Scotland to finally figure out what happened to her mother all those years ago.

Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy has one of the best stories out of all the games. It’s hard to beat a game that goes back into Nancy’s personal history. I liked the setting of this game. Set in Scotland, Nancy finds herself in and out of a train station, jetting off to various locations including a safe house with access to spy gear. From a story perspective, I think that was easily the best part about this game in particular.

That said, I think Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy was a bit underwhelming. The main reveal of who was responsible wasn’t exciting. This is a big deal, this is finding out who was involved in Nancy’s mom’s death, but I felt like I didn’t get any real answers. Why was this person involved in terrorist activity? What did Nancy’s mom know that made her a liability? These may have been revealed and I wasn’t paying attention, but I felt there was more that could have been done to make this more satisfying.

Another thing with this game, I felt the puzzles were convoluted. There was one puzzle that involved unlocking the phone of a suspect that Nancy was looking into. It involved finding a flag of a particular region. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out the clue and after getting some help from a walkthrough, I realized that the book I needed was at another suspect’s house which I missed. If that wasn’t enough, this puzzle was timed since Nancy was breaking into the hotel room. I don’t like timed puzzles to begin with as I prefer to take my time figuring out the solution. It feels more satisfying when I can figure it out myself than trying to race against time before Nancy is caught.

Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy is essential to play since it covers Nancy’s backstory. I wish that this game was more satisfying, I think it ended up being a bit of a letdown. That said, I already have the next Nancy Drew game installed on my computer and can’t wait to play it. I would rate Nancy Drew: The Silent Spy three stars. It was fun and I liked the game, but it wasn’t my favorite.