Nancy Drew: Secret of the Scarlet Hand
What happens when every Curator’s worst nightmare comes true? You thank the glyphs you brought Nancy Drew in as a Deputy Curator! When Beech Hill Museum in Washington D.C. takes possession of a mysterious Mayan monolith as part of a magnificent exhibit all about the ancient culture, you might think everything will go smoothly right? Wrong! Not only is one of the museum’s finest pieces stolen right from under everyone’s noses but the head translator takes a swan dive off the pyramid and loses his memory! Now Nancy has to scramble to keep this exhibit from blowing up, uncover the secrets of a long hidden figure and stop a dastardly thief from unearthing their ancient secrets.
“Semper Ubi Sub Ubi!”
This was the very first game I ever played from this series and it still hits me hard in the memories. There’s something wonderful about having played a game so many times, you can recite almost the whole script and yet there are parts that still have me grinning from ear to ear. I remember being 10 or so and my dad showing me something he’d gotten me. Now I hadn’t been playing puzzle games for very long and I’d never even heard of Nancy Drew. I’d been playing the Ravensburger Famous Five games and enjoying the hell out of them, but I was also developing my love for mythology, ancient civilisations, the past and how it reflected upon the future. So imagine my delight when my dad presented me with the two things I adored, mysteries and history.
I hesitate for a moment to jump right in but, as I’ve mentioned a few times before, I was very dumb back then. So this is the moment when I must make a tiny confession. I only finished this game properly when I was in my 20s, give or take and yeah, you guessed it, I used a walkthrough. I knew what I had to do, but I also had the attention span of a lemming so actually doing the work and jotting down clues was simply not in the cards for me. But still, I’m immensely proud to say that I finished this game, though the end reveal still scared the hell out of me! I am just not okay with seeing some stuff and those who’ve seen the end know what I mean.
“Nancy Drew, I presume? I’m Johanna Riggs, welcome to Beech Hill!”
Right off the bat, you’re introduced to Johanna, the head Curator at the museum as she inspects the lock of a display case that holds the museums most important piece, a carving of a Mayan King. Johanna is no nonsense, dedicated to her work and has an endless passion for all things historical. I used to think that there was nothing in the world that I would want to be more than a Curator and whilst the profession isn’t quite as high on my list of life goals as it used to be, I still have immense admiration for people who get to work with all different kinds of artefacts. You’re introduced, by name than by face, to Taylor Sinclair, Henrik Van Der Hune and Alejandro Del Rio, all characters you’ll meet as you work through the list of tasks Johanna sets you on.
First, I have to address the museum because though you can travel a lot more than in the other games, using the subway to travel to locations such as Nancy’s hotel room, Taylor’s office and the Mexican consulate, the museum is your H.Q and becomes another character in the story. You can look through each of the exhibits, gaining info that will help you immensely with the tasks and the games in the pyramid. Beware though if you try and tackle these early, there will be a lot of backtracking to the various exhibits if you decide not to take notes. If you ever feel like starting a clue notebook, as I’ve seen plenty of fans do, this is definitely a good place to start. By the way, I have yet to see a clue notebook that doesn’t look absolutely stunning! If you’re the creative type, there’s your next project.
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If you go around the side of the pyramid, you can see the monolith for the first time and take in the ambiance of pan flutes, drums, Spanish guitars and haunting vocals. Maybe it’s the nostalgia in me but it brings to mind those old Utopian scholastic videos of flying through museums as pan flutes play and the world seemed to be so much bigger. Give just the soundtrack a listen and you’ll see what I mean, if you grew up with reading a lot of DK encyclopaedias like I did. There’s very little else that will set the mood of mystery and exploration better than some well chosen music.
If you happen to linger before the museum, you can meet Taylor Sinclair and though the conversation with him is short initially, he dumps a steaming hot mystery at your feet. He tells you of Prudence Rutherford who had her necklace stolen in Topeka, Kansas and of a theft from the Chaco Canyon Cultural Centre in New Mexico. If you’ve taken a look around the space surrounding Johanna’s office, you’ll have heard these names before but now things are starting to come together. But if you’re the more work-oriented type, after you take a stroll through the museum, there’s Henrik in the lab. He’s the head translator of the museum and has his own secrets, more than just what his face looks like without that mask on.
The task list is pretty easy, provided you do some snooping and amazingly, you can get most of it, if not all of it, finished before you have to see Taylor. Of course, one of these tasks involving the discovery of the fandom’s urban legend, Sonny Joon, a figure you’ll catch glimpses of more through the other games but is always a delight to see. His obsession with all things alien and koko Kringle chocolates have cemented themselves in the series as instantly recognisable. The stories of his antics in the museum can be gleaned from Henrik but if you pick up his notebook and the floppy disk, proof of how old this game is, you’ll find an excellent guide to the museum and some of the puzzles.
“Did you know the deputy curator before me?”
“Hurricane Sonny? I’m afraid I did. If he wasn’t losing paperwork, or setting off the fire alarm, he was cornering our visitors with his theory that the Maya were abducted by aliens.”
Another of the tasks takes you to the Mexican consulate where Alejandro Del Rio gives you a history lesson on the conquistadors and his less than positive feelings towards both Johanna and Taylor. You don’t spend as much time with him as you do with the other characters, but he’s still a welcome well of knowledge for the later game. Lastly, you can visit Sinclair and his frantic ping-ponging between moods might put you off but something about the dialogue and the delivery makes me grin. Maybe it’s just because I’ve heard it so many times. Something I really appreciate about the beginning of the game is that you’d be forgiven if you were fooled into relaxing, just ticking things off on the checklist as you waited for the action to happen. However, don’t forget what happened in the past when you decided to trust someone who dealt with art and antiques. Side note, another name is dropped here that doesn’t show up quite as much as Sonny’s, that being one Poppy Dada, an artist and a figure I actually wish they would bring back for a future game.
Unfortunately almost as soon as you get back to the museum, the carving you saw at the beginning is snatched, Henrik disappears and the real game begins. A ghastly red handprint is left at the scene of the crime and whilst you’re investigating the page, trying to translate the glyphs on it, Henrik takes a nose dive off the pyramid! Now you’ve got to help Henrik get his memories back, piece together just what is happening at the museum and hopefully catch a sticky fingered thief red handed.
Finally, on the subject of the puzzles, this game is where they are thrown front and centre. As your allies dwindle in number, you need to keep your eye out for clues and guides on how to perform certain tasks. There is almost always something to look at, something to note down and it almost always comes in handy. If you’ve got the patience and the know-how, you can usually find your way through with enough tries.
I’m immensely glad that I got to start at this point in the series. I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere close to where I am today without these books.
