I started playing through the Nancy Drew games by Her Interactive during the height of the pandemic in 2020. My husband gets a kick out of watching me play because either there’s a jump scare or I’m stuck on a puzzle for a long time. While playing through Nancy Drew: Secret of the Old Clock, my husband peered over my shoulder and started offering suggestions for a word puzzle. He and I sat there for a bit until finally, we were able to solve it together. He asked me why I liked these types of games, and that’s exactly it. The Nancy Drew games are some of the most challenging PC games I have played, yet once I finish a game, I feel a sense of accomplishment. Nancy Drew: Secret of the Old Clock wasn’t my favorite Nancy Drew outing; however, this is the perfect game for beginners to the Nancy Drew PC games.

Nancy Drew is summoned to Lilac Inn by a mutual friend named Emily Crandall. Emily alerts Nancy to strange happenings at Lilac Inn and the fear of running the inn by herself. Emily’s mother passed away, and Emily was banking on receiving money from Emily’s mom’s friend, Josiah Crowley. However, in Josiah’s will, he leaves his money to Richard Topham instead. Nancy decides to investigate not only the occurrences at Lilac Inn but also the whereabouts of Josiah’s real will, if there is one.

The mystery in Nancy Drew: Secret of the Old Clock was okay. There were only two suspects who could be responsible, so it left little to the imagination of who could be causing all of this. Although the reveal wasn’t all that, I did like the finale. In each Nancy Drew game, there’s what I call a finale, where Nancy has to chase after the suspect in some way. In this game, Nancy has to hop in her car and chase the suspect to ensure they don’t escape. I can’t help but enjoy a little car chase every now and then.

One of the best things about playing Nancy Drew: Secret of the Old Clock is the mini-games. There’s a Shakespeare-themed mini-game requiring Nancy to slide various wooden blocks into their proper place. I found this mini-game to be fun. Another mini-game was found in an old clock where Nancy has to slide a bird through the clock, along with pushing blocks out of the way. It was basically a version of Rush Hour except with a bird and various obstacles. Finally, the last mini-game was a miniature golf course where Nancy had to hit par on each hole. This mini-game took me a bit because the last few courses were difficult. I think I played through this mini-game at least seven times before finally hitting par.

Another important aspect of the Nancy Drew games is the setting. In this outing, most of the in-game story takes place at Lilac Inn; however, Nancy often needs to drive around town to progress through the game. Another Nancy Drew game similar to this was Nancy Drew: Alibi in Ashes, which took place in Nancy’s hometown of River Heights. I liked this aspect of the game because it shakes up the story, and it shows how each location in the town serves a purpose to Nancy at some point in the game.

Out of all the Nancy Drew games I played, I would recommend Nancy Drew: Secret of the Old Clock as a great game to start with. It’s one of the less convoluted games in the franchise. Some of the Nancy Drew games have mazes, which I don’t like as much because I always get lost. Nancy Drew: Secret of the Old Clock features none of that, and it’s a straightforward game.

I’m all for a Steam sale! Steam had a Holiday sale from December 22nd through January 5th. This worked out perfectly for me because I’m planning my year, which includes determining what games I’m going to play in 2022. In addition to purchasing new games, I organized my Steam wishlist to ensure it was filled with games I wanted to play. Here’s what I purchased during the sale.

An Abundance of Nancy Drew Games

I purchased so many Nancy Drew PC games to play. The first one I played and finished this year was Nancy Drew: Secret of the Old Clock. I’m writing my review for this game, which should be posted sometime next week. I also purchased Nancy Drew: The Final Scene, Nancy Drew: Last Train to Blue Moon, Nancy Drew: Treasure in the Royal Tower, and Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy.

Blacksad

Blacksad is a video game adaptation of a best-selling comic series. Blacksad follows John Blacksad, a private detective who gets involved in some nefarious investigations. I have high hopes for this game as it seems like something I would like.

Calico

Calico is a simulation game where the player helps rebuild the town’s cat cafe. How cute does this game look?? As a cat lady, I was immediately intrigued.

Coffee Talk

Coffee Talk follows a barista who works at a coffee shop in a fantasy world where this shop is frequented by elves, orcs, and other fantasy creatures. This seems like a D&D-inspired coffee shop video game, and I’m here for it.

Pumpkin Jack

This was a game that I saw and purchased because I thought it was a cool concept. If you have followed BizarreBrunette for a while, you would know that I’m a big fan of anything spooky and Halloween. I’m excited to play this!

Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York

The final game I purchased was Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York. Last year, I played Vampire: The Masquerade Shadows of New York, and I liked it a lot. Coteries of New York was released before Shadows of New York, so I’m not sure if this serves as more of a prequel. Regardless, I’m looking forward to getting back into the darkness of a vampire-populated NYC.

Through the Steam sale, I ended up with ten new games to play in 2022. I’m looking forward to seeing what I can play throughout the year. As mentioned, I already played through Nancy Drew: Secret of the Old Clock, so I intend on posting my review in the next week or so. Did you pick up anything in the Steam sale? Let me know in the comments below.

Two weeks ago, I played in my first Adventurer’s League session for D&D 5e. Adventurer’s League is an ongoing campaign where you can play at any game store that runs an Adventurer’s League session. The benefit of playing in Adventurer’s League is not having to commit to a weekly game and being able to take your character to each session with the experiences from the previous sessions. I specifically created Zehiri, a level #2 (now a level #3) Tiefling Paladin, whom I intend to play anytime I play Adventurer’s League. In the session I had two weeks ago, the party almost died, and I wanted to relive this because it’s a funny story now, since my character ended up being healed.

My group was securing a payload of a statue and transporting it across the plane to a woman named Chandra. During our journey, we encountered two sets of enemies. The first set of enemies featured goblins and a wolf. Within the first round of combat, the Dungeon Master (DM) had his goblin attack me. The DM rolled a natural 20, which doubles the damage my character would take. This led to me taking 11 damage from a goblin who threw a rock at me. How rude. I eventually killed the goblin with a Divine Smite, which may have been overkill, but the goblin deserved it. Divine Smite is a spell specific to the Paladin class, which allows for extra damage to be dealt to a creature if that creature was hit by a melee attack. I ended up killing one more goblin before combat ended. It was the second round of combat where things were intense.

After surviving the round of goblins, our group was attacked by another wolf and two Bugbears. One of the Bugbears kicked a log at my group, and I rolled poorly to move out of the way. I was dealt 11 points of damage there. In all of my turns, I kept rolling so low that I wouldn’t hit any of the enemies in our way. One of the party members rushed into battle and was knocked down within a turn or two. As the only healer, I was going to heal him, except I got knocked down in battle because I rolled poorly. Two out of the five members were unconscious, including the only healer, and I genuinely was concerned we were not going to get through this. There were several turns where the remaining three heroes rolled so low that they didn’t hit any of the enemies. Eventually, the battle turned to our favor when two of the remaining players cast several cantrips with a natural 20 to help kill the remaining enemies. Eventually, I was healed with medical supplies from the payload we were guarding, and I was able to level up Zehiri to level #3. The DM felt so bad for us because we kept rolling so poorly.

As I review this session, I realize things could have gone way worse. I ended up rolling well on my death saves and didn’t roll a failure. When a character loses their hit points, they roll a death save. Rolling a 1-9 is a failed roll, while rolling 10-20 is a success. If you roll three failed saves, your character dies for good. If you roll a natural one on a death save, it counts as two failures.

Overall, it was a fun session, and now I want to find more Adventurers’ Leagues to play in. In the meantime, I want to write a thorough backstory for Zehiri, so I can have it prepared when playing in future sessions. Being new to playing D&D 5e, Adventurer’s League was a great place to get back to in-person roleplaying, and I’m looking forward to roleplaying Zehiri in the future.

Since starting this blog series, I find that I’m gaming more, which is a plus. As a bonus, we have been getting snow in Minnesota, and I love gaming in winter. There’s something cozy about playing a video game while snow is lightly falling outside. My husband is the same way; he has started his Minecraft Friday night ritual with his friends. Let’s roll into my latest gaming update.

Consoles

I’m still playing through LEGO Harry Potter 5 -7. I’m almost finished with the story, and after that, I will replay all levels to unlock the collectibles. I’m a completionist, meaning I love collecting trophies and achievements, depending on what platform I’m playing on. I wish I weren’t because I want to play Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy; however, I want to play LEGO Harry Potter first.

PC

I tried to play Sims 3 a couple of weeks ago, but I ended up getting bored after thirty minutes. I also tried playing Death and Taxes. Death and Taxes is a game where you play as the Grim Reaper, deciding who lives or who dies. It’s an interesting premise; however, I’m itching to play something else. I’m going to review my Steam wishlist and library and purchase a few other games to have on hand. I like having options in my Steam library.

Board Games

I haven’t played board games at all. I want to host a board game night sometime soon with friends or family.

Roleplaying

I have two exciting roleplaying updates. The first update is that I joined a new Dungeons & Dragons 5e campaign. My character will be a half-elf / half-human Blood Hunter with ties to an otherworldly god. I picked Eldritch Blast as one of my main attack spells. I haven’t named my character yet, as I’m still trying to find the perfect name. Our first session will be before the Christmas holiday.

The second update is how much fun I had at Adventurer’s League. Adventurer’s League is an ongoing campaign where you can play anywhere. Players can take their character to any game store hosting an Adventurer’s League. It’s a great concept because I could play at one store in Minneapolis and level up, then take the same character to a game store in St. Paul with my newly leveled-up character. I had a blast. Zehiri is my level #3 Tiefling Paladin, who looks demonic, yet she’s a complete sweetheart once you meet her. This session was intense because my character and our group almost died! It’s the closest I have ever come to seeing my character die. I’m going to write a separate post summarizing that session.

Miscellaneous

In my last post, I mentioned how I wanted to play Magic: The Gathering Arena for the new set, Crimson Vow. I haven’t played Arena as I ended up uninstalling it from my phone. The app version takes forever to load, and it seems like every time I open the app, there’s a new update. I have been very disconnected from Magic, and I have even debated giving up the game altogether. I hope Crimson Vow is just what I need to get back into the game.

Besides Magic, I bought a new wireless mouse for work, but now I intend to use it when I play games on my laptop.

I have been writing a gaming post at least once a month, which is perfect. It gives me enough time to play and have something new to say. As mentioned, I’m going to write a post about the Adventurer’s League session where my character almost died because that’s a funny story.