Hunt A Killer Nancy Drew - Mystery at Magnolia Gardens, Immersive Murder Mystery Game, Examine Evidence, Eliminate Suspects, Catch the Culprit, For Aspiring Detectives, Game Night, AMZ Exclusive

Such a fun and challenging party game. I highly appreciated all the real clues and parts. It gave the game a really authentic feel and made me feel like it was worth much more than what I paid. I would hands down do this over an escape room any day. Definitely more intimate and challenging!

I got this for my MIL for Christmas because I like to get her gifts that involves spending time with us. She loved playing this game and made for a very fun few hours one evening. We got some food and made it into kind of a murder mystery dinner

Normally, I would not have bought this game. However, I saw a review on Youtube and decided to try out the game while it was on sale. Some other crime-solving games I have played previously include Exit, Unlock, and Sherlock Files, Clue, and Box One.Often, mystery-solving games involve mainly cards. This one has several physical objects, although I would argue you only really needed one. I think this drives up the cost of the game and it isn't necessary unlike in Box One where the item really contributes to the puzzle.The story is interesting and straightforward which I liked. I dislike that some of the stories go off on wild tangents like in the Unlock series. I was wondering if this game was related to the CW TV series; It's not - it seems to be good 'ol Nancy Drew which is a good thing in my case, though I never read the series.I did not follow the instructions exactly and looked at the clues in the order I wanted to and it was fine - maybe not the most straightforward but more pleasant. I have a medical background and I appreciated the lack of wacko science which some board games try to do.The puzzles were mostly easy and straightforward. Everything is solvable and reasonable. Some things don't make sense...like why a code would be present or why would anyone write down certain things...but oh well. I think I solved the case in an hour, but I really wanted to figure out two puzzles - I eventually solved one which involve dots. If you get stuck, I highly recommend turning up the white light because you might be missing important details. If you're color-blind...You might need a non-color blind friend. Everything you need to solve the puzzle is in the box. You don't need the internet. You might want to use something like a pen and paper. I used graph paper.Another puzzle I gave up on and got some hints from the website. The website listed in the manual is obsolete – Just google the game title AND "hint" which should get you to the Hunt A Killer website and from there you can navigate to the hints. That puzzle was over-engineered and unnecessary but I concede I didn't solve it completely. I don't think there was a puzzle that I haven't seen some variation of before unlike in Box One has some pretty interesting, unique puzzles.There is a lot of reading and some words may not be in the vocabulary of a 4th grader, so I think this game is more geared towards older kids, teens, or adults. It helps to stay organized and to take notes or work out problems on paper, but the puzzles aren't really logic puzzles.. The game is reset-able so you can pass it along to someone else.Compared to other similar games, I would rank Exit/Unlock > Box One > Sherlock Files > Clue > Nancy Drew in terms of "Fun". I think I wanted more of a challenge from the puzzles and less redundancy. However, the production is well done, there were no errors, and the theme is more approachable for families compared to Sherlock Files. I liked that the puzzles weren't weird or ridiculous like in Exit or Unlock. Overall, I think the puzzles were interesting but not mind-blowing. Even then, I still spent more time than I needed to (3 hours total). I would recommend this to teens/adults or middle school-aged kids with some adult guidance.

Super fun game that my family and I loved

For Context: My partner and I have purchased and completed 3 other games from this company. This particular box was designed with new/less advanced players. My partner managed to solve the most important puzzle while I was still reading the suspect information aloud! That is to say, if you are a puzzle-solving whiz or a veteran of these games, consider choosing another box.Here's what I liked: The paper products included with the box look great and are of excellent quality, (including the little trinket that's included in every game!) and we really enjoyed the wonderful character art for each suspect. These sort of games usually use stock photos or very basic headshots, so these were an extremely welcome addition. For the mystery itself, the information is straightforward and leaves a clear solution once all data is collected. We felt confident in our answer as opposed to some of the other cases where it isn't very concrete like the Motel box which makes huge leaps in logic and assumptions to arrive at the correct solution.Here's what I didn't like: This case has very little to do with the titular Nancy Drew. If you are buying this as a gift for a real 'Nancy-Head' in your life, they may be disappointed. Nancy is hardly involved with the case other than an introductory letter, her initials being printed on some of the collected evidence, and an optional epilogue letter you can see after completing the game. Nancy Drew could be completely removed from the game and the story would be unaffected. Another issue is that several of the puzzles reveal redundant information (not misleading, redundant). This was frustrating as my partner and I were confident we had the right answer but didn't want to check the solution until we had completed all puzzles, only to find that the final puzzles we tackled revealed things we already knew and we had essentially wasted our time. There's also one puzzle in particular that makes very little sense without the provided online hints, both narratively and mechanically.Other than those few issues, we loved our time with the game and will definitely be purchasing another box in the future!

I love Nancy Drew. I do not care that people complain about her perfect life and perfect her and whatnot, she was a strong capable female in a time when women were thought to be anything but by men. The backstory of the stratemeyer syndicate is sketchy, especially when the founders daughter took over and claimed to be Nancy’s ghostwriter from the start. However I look to Mildred Wirt, the original of most of the first 25 for the character built and Mildreds badass life as well and I see the strength of the character rather than the miss perfect criticism.All of that being said, I think it’s awesome that Hunt a Killer made a Nancy Drew version. It’s a good game, but it is definitely at a level that tween girls would be able to solve it. As an adult, I would have preferred it be a tougher mystery, but I get it. I am not giving any of the game away, but since you are probably a Nancy Drew fan or a tween girl buying this game, I am sure you will like it either way and I do recommend it.Nostalgia is a wonderful state to work with sometimes, this is one of those times.