The Hardy Boys: The Perfect Crime - But Not That Perfect Game

 

The Hardy Boys: The Perfect Crime is one of the latest realeses into the hidden object genre. The game being developed by Trine Games and published by JoWood does have its pros and cons.

 

 

The Hardy Boys – Nancy Drew's teen boy detective counterparts from the books and TV series – are on summer break from school when they encounter crimes happening around Baytown.

 

The game breaks the story into chapters beginning with a missing motorcycle that must be found.

 

The detectives interact with community through dialogue bars that scroll up, which is very annoying and hard on the eyes.

 

The story isn't a bad one and most of the characters' personalities come through the conversational dialogue, but it's strange to only see the main characters' faces in the dialogues and not within the scenes.

 

Most of the game consists of finding hidden objects with some becoming a key piece of evidence. At least some of the objects to find have some connection with the story, but too often objects appear tiny and unrecognizable.

 

 

If you like to be tortured, quit The Hardy Boys: The Perfect Crime in the middle of a scene. When you return, you have to start over.

 

The game contains mini-games that fit with the story, like putting together torn paper only to not be able to read what it says because the game returns to the scene as soon as you make the last match.

 

The hint system. Your guess is as good as anyone's is. The game never makes it clear how many hints you get or if it needs to refill. It may give three hints per scene, but we're not 100 percent sure without any numbers or instructions.

 

The graphics quality fares no better. Many objects look unprofessionally resized, giving them a warped or blurry look. The game comes with timed and untimed modes, which appear in the options. You must select the mode before playing the game.

 

The developer that does the Nancy Drew series has nothing to do with the Hardy Boys: The Perfect Crime. 

 

 

 

 

 

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