Nancy Drew: Midnight in Salem

Midnight in Salem is the 33rd game in the Nancy Drew point-and-click adventure series, created by Her Interactive. As Nancy Drew, the player assists Nancy's friend, Dierdre, in discovering the truth behind rumors regarding her cousin, Mei. Set in Salem, MA, the players use puzzle solving, interrogation and deduction, as well as clue finding, to unravel the tale of Salem's history and inhabitants. The game can be played, in its entirety, in both Amateur and Master difficulty.

This is the first game, after a multi-year hiatus, to be created on a new platform, and is the first game to feature a new voice actress portraying Nancy Drew, Brittany Cox.

Plot

Mei Parry, haunted by her past and unable to escape the controlling nature of her family, falls under suspicion of arson in the town of Salem.

The estate Mei is suspected to have damaged, was originally built by Judge John Hathorne, and belonged to Frances Tuttle until her passing. With property ownership under debate, citizens of the town put pressure to convict and arrest Mei for the crime. Dierdre, her cousin, quickly seeks out the help of sleuth friend, Nancy Drew, to aid in the discovery of proof to free Mei from all charges. Nancy uses her talent of wit and deduction to find the truth amongst folklore of witchcraft, supposedly paranormal experiences, and well-kept family secrets.

This installment was largely inspired by the 33rd book in the Mystery Stories series, entitled "The Witch Tree Symbol".

Development

Characters

• Nancy Drew (Brittany Cox)18-year-old sleuth assisting in the investigation of arson in the town of Salem. The game briefly features her boyfriend, Ned Nickerson, and father, Carson Drew, via phone call. This installment features Nancy as the only playable character, as the story is told via her perspective.
• Deirdre Shannon (Meaghan Halverson) High maintenance and short in personality, wearing her classic green blazer, blue blouse, and short dark bob haircut. She is the cousin of the suspected Mei Parry, and does everything she can to assist in the investigation, including calling her "fr-enemy", Nancy Drew.
• Mei Parry (Reba Buhr) Cousin of Dierdre, and younger sister of Teegan, Mei is a secretive teenager, featured in a grey hoodie, red branch print leggings, and a large scar covering half of her face. She is suspected of arson, and is choosing not to be a large help in proving her own innocence.
• Teegan Parry ( Elizabeth Maxwell) Older sister of Mei. She runs the historical museum in the town square, usually found there working on an exhibit opening soon.
• Olivia Ravencroft (Kiki Penoyer) Similar in age to Teegan. She runs the witch tour and novelty magic gift shop off the lobby of the museum, in Town Square. She is found both in shop, and advertising on the stage in the center of the Square.
• Lauren Holt (Raval Davis) Last living descedant of Frances Tuttle, living beside the burned property of the Hathorne estate. In comfortable jeans and sweatshirt, you can find her working at the apothecary in Town Square during normal business hours.
• Jason Danforth (Danny Gendron) Unruly son of Judge Danforth, Jason is known for his wealth and handsome presentation, and uses his privilege to his advantage. Can be found in khaki slacks near a sports car at the courthouse.
• Alicia Cole (Krizia Bajos) Highly qualified attorney working for Judge Danforth at the Town Square courthouse. She can be found in the office to the left of the entryway, and is in charge of the ownership passing of Hathorne estate to appropriate party.
• Judge Danforth (Daniel Riordan) Well established in the community, but seemingly scatterbrained, Danforth can be found in the righthand office of the Courthouse, and is responsible for making the decision of Mei's arson conviction.
• Frank Hardy (Jonah Von Spreecken) Featured in green puffer vest, this dark haired sleuth just happened to be mid investigation with his brother in Salem. He offers to assist in Nancy's investigation of arson.
• Joe Hardy (Robert Jones) Featured in jean jacket and voluminous blond hair, Joe and his brother assist Nancy in collection of clues in Salem.
• Other characters included in small segment: Carson Drew (Ken Boynton), Elisabeth Hirst (Melissa Mabie), Ned Nickerson (Scott Carty)

Settings

• Austria, featured only in the opening
• Salem in Massachusetts, main location for the duration of the game

Gameplay

Controls

This game features new controls for the Nancy Drew game series, including close up interaction and 360-degree turning capability of objects that are picked up. It uses a combination of both the directional click icons found in previous games, and a small range, click-and-hold-to-scan functionality.

Engine

This is the first release using the Unity platform from Her Interactive. For all other games, Her Interactive has featured an in-house platform. The jump to a new engine was intended to both allow Nancy Drew to become 3D gameplay, and assist in the marketing of future games on more than computer platform. This switch did call for updated computer requirements to run the software.

The last game on the previous system featured a minimum Windows computer requirement, as stated on their website, of:

• 1.5 GHz or greater Pentium 4 CPU or equivalent class
• 512 MB of RAM
• 3GB or more hard drive space
• 128 MB DirectX 9.0 compatible video card
• 16 bit DirectX compatible sound card
• 4x DVD drive
• Keyboard, mouse and speakers

Midnight in Salem, running on Unity, is stated as recommending a Windows computer system featuring:

• Operating System: Windows 10 64 bit
• Processor: Intel Core i5 (6th Generation) 3.0GHz
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia GTX-960 or AMD Radeon R9 270X
• DirectX: Version 11
• Hard Disk Drive: 10 GB storage space
• Keyboard, mouse and speakers

Team

This game, unlike its predecessors, was made largely by outsourced game development company, , Game production was directed by Stefan Srb, The story was created by Katie Chironis, Stefan Srb, Suzy O'Hara, and Michael Levall. The script was written by Bennett Smith, Emma Beeby, Michael Levall, and Julia Rose, and produced by Ralf Adam and Vera Frisch.

Release

The original release date, announced in May 2015 at the end of the previous installment, was Fall 2015. Upon the official switch to the Unity engine, the release date was delayed multiple times. First, it was announced a delay to Fall 2016. Second, this was followed by a letter in December of 2017 stating the release of Spring 2019. On May 1, 2019, a letter to consumers was released stating November 19, 2019, with pre-orders set for October 1. On October 1, Her Interactive released another statement stating a delay by 2 weeks. The game was finally released on December 3, 2019, for PC and Mac.

References

This article "Nancy Drew: Midnight in Salem" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Nancy Drew: Midnight in Salem. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.

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