In Secrets Can Kill, Nancy goes undercover to investigate the elusive thief stalking the nighttime halls of Bedford High. With her inside contact, gorgeous senior Daryl Gray, Nancy attempts to uncover the The world’s favorite teen detective is back, and she’s on the case. Nancy Drew Adventure Series; Secrets Can Kill; Secrets Can Kill (1998 version) SCK - Game Reviews (1998 version) If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want.

Secrets Can Kill is the first of many installments in the Nancy Drewpoint-and-click adventure game series by Her Interactive.^[1][2] Players took on the first-person view of fictional amateur sleuth Nancy Drew and solved the mystery through interrogation of suspects, solving puzzles, and discovering clues. The game is animated in 3D, but unlike later games, the characters are 2D. There were three levels of gameplay, Junior, Senior, and Master detective modes, each offering a different difficulty level of puzzles and hints, however none of these changes affected the actual plot of the game. The game was loosely based on a book of the same name Secrets Can Kill (1986).^[3]

An enhanced remake of the game, subtitled Remastered, was released on August 24, 2010. Sales of the original Secrets Can Kill were discontinued on August 1, 2010.^[4]

Plot[edit]

Nancy Drew takes a semester off of school to visit her Aunt Eloise in Florida. A student named Jake Rogers is murdered at the local high school, where Eloise works as a librarian. Eloise asks Nancy to investigate, so Nancy goes undercover as a new student and attempts to solve the mystery. Throughout the game, Nancy discovers that Jake Rogers was blackmailing several of the other characters by videotaping their misdeeds:

• Hal Tanaka took on additional coursework in order to be approved for a scholarship. He knew that if he didn't get the scholarship, his family would send him back to Japan. He slowly became overwhelmed and buried in work, so he decided to plagiarize an English essay from a school library book, which Jake caught on camera. Jake blackmailed Hal into doing his homework for the remainder of the semester, otherwise Jake would reveal the plagiarism to Hal's family.
• Connie Watson was struggling to get enough money for college tuition, so she decided to use her Judo expertise to compete secretly in a men's tournament (the prize money was significantly better than the women's tournament), which Connie easily won. Jake caught her removing her mask on camera, and subsequently forced her to date him.
• Hulk Sanchez was badly injured while playing football, so in order to continue playing and impress the college scouts, he decided to break into the local pharmaceutical plant to steal some steroids. After filming Hulk leaving the plant, Jake forced him to be his lackey.
• Daryl Gray's father was former U.S. senator Eugene Gray, who went bankrupt after some poor business deals. Daryl got involved in a drug smuggling deal with Mitch Dillon. Jake caught video footage of the transaction and thus demanded a cut of the profits that Daryl was receiving.
• Mitch Dillon was running a drug transport ring from the local pharmaceutical plant. When Jake caught video footage of a transaction between him and Daryl Gray, he attempted to blackmail Mitch.

Development[edit]

Characters[edit]

• Nancy Drew - Nancy is an eighteen-year-old amateur detective from the fictional town of River Heights in the United States. She is the only playable character in the game, which means the player must solve the mystery from her perspective.
• Daryl Gray – Daryl is the one who found the victim's body. He works part-time as a short-order cook at Maxine's Diner, and he is the school's student council president (taking the position after his father who was a Florida state senator). He is known as a rich, popular, pretty boy who drives a Porsche 911. He tends to be a bit of a flirt, but is he as wholesome as he seems?
• Connie Watson – Connie is a strong girl with an attitude and a dark secret. The player can always find her in the Student Lounge. She seems like a nice normal, if not tough, teenage girl.. or is she?
• Hal Tanaka – Hal is a foreign exchange student from Japan. He's very focused on getting a scholarship so that he can go to college and become a doctor. He is always in the study dome at the school. He seems intelligent, but is he smart enough to plan the death of the devious blackmailer known as Jake Rogers?
• Hector 'Hulk' Sanchez – Hulk Sanchez is a stereotypical jock who hopes to play college football, and the go on to play for the Miami Dolphins. However, Hulk needs an athletic scholarship to reach that dream. Are his future plans as stable as he says?
• Mitch Dillon – Mitch is the school's boiler serviceman and is not seen much in the game. He's as shady as they come.. did Jake get mixed up with him?

Cast[edit]

• Nancy Drew - Lani Minella
• Hal Tanaka - John Truong
• Hector 'Hulk' Sanchez - Rick Calvert
• Daryl Gray - Bill Corkery
• Mitch Dillon - Kenton Leach
• Connie Watson - Donna Rowry^[5]

Remake[edit]

Space empires iv. Secrets Can Kill was officially discontinued on August 1, 2010 due to compatibility issues with sound cards in newer computers. On August 24, 2010, Her Interactive released a remastered version of Secrets Can Kill with a brand-new ending and three-dimensional characters.^[6][7]

Reception[edit]

During the year 2001, Secrets Can Kill sold 28,050 units in North America, according to PC Data.^[8] Its jewel case re-release sold 41,455 copies in the region during 2003.^[9] In the United States alone, the game's computer version sold between 100,000 and 300,000 units by August 2006.^[10] Combined sales of the Nancy Drew adventure game series reached 500,000 copies in North America by early 2003,^[11] and the computer entries reached 2.1 million sales in the United States alone by August 2006. Kill shot clean. Remarking upon this success, Edge called Nancy Drew a 'powerful franchise'.^[10]

Critical reception for Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill has been mixed.^[12] The Washington Post panned Secrets Can Kill, criticizing it for not giving the player a good sense of the character of Nancy Drew and stating 'This sanitized game could get old pretty quick; I'd stick with the books'.^[13]Adventure Gamers gave the game two stars.^[14] The New York Times has dubbed the game the 'Un-Barbie of computer games'.^[15] The Sun Sentinel has praised the game, writing 'Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill is a wonderful game for readers of Nancy Drew mysteries and even past readers. It helps bring the characters alive, while injecting a bit of the player into the role.'^[16]

Commonsensemedia reviewed the remastered game and gave it a favorable review, rating it at five stars.^[17]

GBA release[edit]

• The game was scheduled to be released for Game Boy Advance in 2002, but was shelved during production of The Final Scene.

References[edit]

1. ^Wells, Audrey (September 6, 2012). 'Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill'. Just Adventure. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved January 10, 2019.
2. ^Benson, Millie (April 3, 1999). 'Computer game lets girls play at Nancy Drew'. Toledo Blade. Block Communications. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
3. ^'Nancy Drew Secrets Can Kill'. Her Interactive. Archived from the original on July 5, 2013. Retrieved May 27, 2013.
4. ^New York Post staff (July 12, 2010). 'The un-Barbie of gaming'. New York Post. News Corp. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
5. ^'Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill IMDb'. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
6. ^'Nancy Drew Secrets Can Kill Remastered Girl Games Online'. Her Interactive. Archived from the original on July 8, 2013.
7. ^'Secrets Can Kill REMASTERED Released!'. Archived from the original on November 4, 2010. Retrieved May 30, 2013.
8. ^Sluganski, Randy (March 2002). 'State of Adventure Gaming - March 2002 - 2001 Sales Table'. Just Adventure. Archived from the original on June 19, 2002. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
9. ^Sluganski, Randy (March 2004). 'Sales December 2003 - The State of Adventure Gaming'. Just Adventure. Archived from the original on April 11, 2004. Retrieved April 13, 2020.
10. ^ ^abEdge Staff (August 25, 2006). 'The Top 100 PC Games of the 21st Century'. Edge. Archived from the original on October 17, 2012.
11. ^Sluganski, Randy (April 2003). 'The State of Adventure Gaming'. Just Adventure. Archived from the original on April 7, 2003.
12. ^'Kidsday: Toys and games for the holidays'. Newsday. December 15, 2010. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
13. ^'Screen Shots'. The Washington Post. April 16, 1999. Archived from the original on April 15, 2016. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
14. ^'Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill (review)'. Adventure Gamers. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
15. ^Vickroy, Donna (September 10, 2006). 'This one's for the girls'. The Sun- Naperville, FL (subscription required). Archived from the original on April 14, 2016. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
16. ^Ku, Lien-Fong. 'With A Computer, You, Too, Can Be Nancy Drew'. Sun Sentinel. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
17. ^'Review: Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill! (Remastered)'. Commonsensemedia. Retrieved October 12, 2014.

External links[edit]

• Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill at MobyGames

Revisit the Nancy Drew game that started it all.After 22 games and over a decade, Her Interactive has decided to revisit the game that started it all. Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill Remastered is exactly what it sounds like: an updated version of the 1998 game of the same name. And in spite of its age, the game actually plays surprisingly well, and the new additions make it well worth a play for series veterans. However, Secrets Can Kill Remastered also reveals just how little the Nancy Drew games have changed over the years, as it plays almost identically to its numerous sequels.The game begins with Nancy going to visit her Aunt Eloise in Florida. But of course, being Nancy Drew, the visit has nothing to do with seeing family or taking some time off. Instead, she’s going undercover to investigate a mysterious murder at a local high school.

She’ll come across a handful of students — ranging from a cocky jock to an uptight hall monitor — and will partner up with a somewhat unhelpful detective. Though short, the story takes plenty of interesting turns, and ends on a surprising twist that you probably won’t see coming.

Secrets Can Kill is almost entirely about searching for clues. As Nancy explores the school, she’ll come across an incredible amount of secret, hidden messages. They’re everywhere. And it’s not only a lot of work to find them all, but also to figure out just what they mean. The codes can be rather complicated and require some careful thinking to crack. In addition to finding and solving hidden messages, you’ll also have to interrogate several students, each of whom has their own particular motive for committing the murder. There are even a few timed puzzles, which will result in a “fatal error” if not completed on time.

Thankfully, there’s little in the way of punishment for failing these puzzles, you’ll simply be able to restart from where you left off. As with all Nancy Drew games, everything you’ll need to do is laid out in a nice, simple to-do list.Even though there are lots of clues to find, one of the most disappointing aspects of Secrets Can Kill is just how small it feels. There are only three locations, and two of them are pretty small. So the majority of your time will be spent in the school with only the occasional trip to Aunt Louise’s or the local diner.This remastered edition of the game features a number of new features, most notably a brand new ending. The detective who teams up with Nancy is a new character, and though his place in the story initially feels small, he ends up playing a very large role that changes how things end.

Fans of the original will also notice that some of the puzzles have been changed, and there are frequent, subtle references to past games.Visually, Secrets Can Kill has been given a 3D makeover that makes it look just like its more modern sequels, which means it looks solid but not spectacular. There’s also a new soundtrack and some uneven voice acting to go along with it. While Nancy sounds the same as ever, many of the other characters just don’t sound right, in particular some of the students who sound much older than they should. There are also some awkward bits of dialog where Nancy will intensely question another character, and then finish the conversation with a cheerful goodbye.

It’s not a huge deal, but it is noticeable.Considering how old the original game is, it’s pretty remarkable just how modern the remastered version of Secrets Can Kill feels. It may be smaller and shorter, but other than that there’s little to differentiate the game from more modern Nancy Drew games like Trail of the Twister. And the new features, especially the new ending, make it worthwhile for fans who already played the original. It won’t win over anyone who hasn’t liked the past 22 games, but Secrets Can Kill is classic Nancy Drew.