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Entertaining, Fun, February 19, 2014This definitely comes down hard on the narrative side of IF, with a light, linear story and explicit sex scenes that are integrated into the plot and don't feel tacked on. I felt that it relies a bit too heavily on genre conventions, and that those genres (YA series mystery and Cinemax film) don't mix entirely comfortably, but the game never takes itself too seriously or veers into making fun of itself or the material it pays homage to. The format, an interesting blend of CYOA and parser, kept things moving quickly and forward as events unfolded.
Well, with one exception: (only a spoiler if you're as obtuse as I was, in the very first scene) (Spoiler - click to show)I didn't realize I needed to read the newspaper to move things forward -- I read all of my news online -- and on my first play through never advanced the main plot at all. But even with my cluelessness (seriously, I failed about as hard as you can fail in a scene with two implemented objects, despite being given seven separate attempts to wise up), the game appreciated my efforts and rewarded my character with a nominal win (and some, shall we say, interesting scenery). So, while the story itself is strongly linear, there are a number of exit points that aren't the "optimal" ending to see on the way.
The title and some of the characters seem to be intended as a fairly direct reference to Nancy Drew, but I really picked up more of a "Made for TV Mystery of the Week" vibe. You know the kind of movie -- the one that's playing at two in the afternoon on a weekday, the heroine is feisty, attractive, billed by everyone around her as brilliant but can't spot that the guy she's just hopped into the sack with is a psycho stalker, and nobody ever gets killed, they're just kidnapped and made uncomfortable. Usually based on a cozy mystery book, often with the same title and character names, but generally bearing no resemblance to the source material in any substantial way. (The author of the book probably cried when she saw it.)
None of the above should be taken as a spoiler for this game, by the way, except maybe the "kidnapped and made uncomfortable" part but since that's in the blurb, it's not much of a surprise. Movies like that aren't usually totally unenjoyable, they're just forgettable and often disjointed; this game's plot, as slight as it was, actually held together very well and made sense in context.
I think "slight" actually sums it up, and I very much hope the author uses this format to make more games, ones with more confident and original stories.
Note on adult stuff (read this if you don't care for it): (Spoiler - click to show)You can pretty easily mentally replace everything between the start of a sex scene and the end of it with "fade to black" and not miss anything too important.