I started Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy several years ago. I never finished it and ended up uninstalling it because so much time had passed since I last played. When I finished Nancy Drew: The Haunting of Castle Malloy, I decided to install and revisit this game. Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy is one of my favorite Nancy Drew games I have played.

Nancy is sent undercover to the Waverly Academy for Girls, as some of the girls have been receiving threatening notes from “The Black Cat”. One of the students was hospitalized after someone had slipped something she was allergic to in her food. Her family is threatening to sue the school, so they need Nancy to figure out what’s going on. Who is threatening the students and why?

One of the reasons I liked this game was the number of suspects. At the core of all Nancy Drew games is a mystery. In some games, there are only two or three suspects, so it’s not at all mysterious when one of them is revealed to be responsible. In this game, there are several students that Nancy meets who all seem to have a motive for being The Black Cat. It kept the game intriguing for me because I wanted to find out who was actually behind it all.

Out of all the Nancy Drew games I played, I find Warnings at Waverly Academy to be one of the most straightforward games. There are times when, if you don’t talk to this NPC at this time, you can’t advance in the story. Instead, Nancy has her side quests, and each side quest would unlock the next thing Nancy needs to complete. There was never a time when I felt lost as to what I had to do next, and I have felt that in other Nancy Drew games. I’d add this to a list of Nancy Drew games that would be best for beginners.

I can’t talk about this game without talking about the mini-games. It’s Nancy’s turn at the snack counter, where she makes snacks for the other residents. One of the students wants Nancy to play a game of Air Hockey with her, along with darts. The games were a nice change of pace from the tougher puzzles of the other Nancy Drew games. There’s a memory game on a computer in the library where I ended up getting the high score on. This unlocked an achievement for me at the end of the game.

Speaking of, I like how the newer Nancy Drew games have achievements on Steam. It makes me more likely to replay this game in the future to collect them all. In my first play-through, I unlocked three out of fifteen, so there’s much more that I need to do to complete them all. It’s a nice touch and adds more replayability for me that the older Nancy Drew games don’t have.

Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy is a favorite of mine. This would be a game I’d recommend anyone new to the Nancy Drew games to play first. As far as what’s next, I have two games left on my Steam backlog. Once I finish those, I will buy more Nancy Drew games so I can hopefully get closer to saying I have played them all.