nancy drew 7: ghost dogs of moon lake
Jan. 13th, 2024 01:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
porticoalright y'all it's dogs time
a couple halloweens ago i decided to replay all of the nancys that were about ghosts or hauntings, so this was pretty fresh in my mind. nevertheless it was still fun because not only is this one about dogs it's also about a speakeasy!
ghost dogs of moon lake sees nancy driving to moon lake, pennsylvania, a crescent shaped lake which we are told is within easy driving distance of philadelphia (there is a real moon lake pa but it looks like this). a photographer friend of nancy's dad's from river heights has just bought a house on the lake and called nancy for help after the ghost dogs start terrorizing her. most interestingly, the house was originally built by prohibition gangster mickey malone and it's his dogs supposedly haunting the place. mickey malone had 4 rottweilers and was totally normal about them. there's the dog cuckoo clock, the dog statues built into a cabinet over the sofa, and the dog's gravestones around malone's mausoleum, and that's just in the parts of the property that we can see. makes sense that the property might be haunted by these dogs! not to nancy, of course, but it's enough to send her friend sally running before nancy even gets there, leaving her trapped alone in the house on the lake to solve the mystery. just the way she likes it.
there are apparently only 3 other people at moon lake. i stole this from uh. big fish games? because i don't feel like posting each character individually. there's red knott, birdwatcher. can be found up a nearby tree but only at night. seems like a bad time to see birds but what do i know. he's ambivalent on the issue of the dogs' ghostliness he just wants them to shut up. there's jeff akers, moon lake's only park ranger. he's a native of moon lake and all he wants is more park acreage so he can be somebody's boss. loves to ticket people for minor infractions. thinks the dogs are just dogs and that they should be on leash. finally, there's emily, owner of the only place to buy anything in the park. ALL IN on the ghost dogs. loves to talk about moon lake's colorful history. gamely sets up a sort of barter system with nancy after nancy reveals that she has driven all the way from wherever river heights is without cash for some reason and therefore can't afford anything.
this is not a note-taking game. malone was literally only interested in his dogs so so long as you write down every detail about them you encounter you'll be fine to solve puzzles. beyond the dog puzzles, nancy is also recruited to do some bird-watching and bug catching. all of that is done in the forest trails next to sally's house, which you will be so sick of by the end of the game. nancy also gets trapped in the shed and set on fire at one point and has to escape by creating a sort of rube goldberg machine of yard implements. this playthrough was literally the first time in my life i managed to get out of that shed alive on my first try.
now, the good stuff: THE SPEAKEASY. the speakeasy is beautiful and lush and FULL of dog art. this malone guy knew what was UP. nancy only gets into the speakeasy after she tracks down malone's girlfriend from 1924, who has to be nearly a century old at this point (2002). her name is vivian, she lives in las vegas, and she rules. her interactive's track record of giving you rad old ladies to talk to on the phone remains unmatched. wonderfully, visiting vivian at the time you find her is her friend and yours, eustacia andropov, harry houdini's cousin. nancy is thrilled to speak to eustacia, who observes in surprise that nancy is not dead yet ("most people, i talk to them, the next day they are dead"). we love eustacia.
the endgame of this one i found so scary the first time i played it that i still remember it as scary today. i think it has to do with the culprit's intensity, and the fact that they come at you wielding a bone (presumably taken from their--spoiler: real--dogs' pen). this time it was actually not scary and very easy so i guess a person can grow. my favourite thing about the ending is the reveal that sally is thinking of adopting all of the dogs. so i guess the moral is There Must Always Be Four Rottweilers at Mickey Malone's Cottage.
a couple halloweens ago i decided to replay all of the nancys that were about ghosts or hauntings, so this was pretty fresh in my mind. nevertheless it was still fun because not only is this one about dogs it's also about a speakeasy!
ghost dogs of moon lake sees nancy driving to moon lake, pennsylvania, a crescent shaped lake which we are told is within easy driving distance of philadelphia (there is a real moon lake pa but it looks like this). a photographer friend of nancy's dad's from river heights has just bought a house on the lake and called nancy for help after the ghost dogs start terrorizing her. most interestingly, the house was originally built by prohibition gangster mickey malone and it's his dogs supposedly haunting the place. mickey malone had 4 rottweilers and was totally normal about them. there's the dog cuckoo clock, the dog statues built into a cabinet over the sofa, and the dog's gravestones around malone's mausoleum, and that's just in the parts of the property that we can see. makes sense that the property might be haunted by these dogs! not to nancy, of course, but it's enough to send her friend sally running before nancy even gets there, leaving her trapped alone in the house on the lake to solve the mystery. just the way she likes it.
there are apparently only 3 other people at moon lake. i stole this from uh. big fish games? because i don't feel like posting each character individually. there's red knott, birdwatcher. can be found up a nearby tree but only at night. seems like a bad time to see birds but what do i know. he's ambivalent on the issue of the dogs' ghostliness he just wants them to shut up. there's jeff akers, moon lake's only park ranger. he's a native of moon lake and all he wants is more park acreage so he can be somebody's boss. loves to ticket people for minor infractions. thinks the dogs are just dogs and that they should be on leash. finally, there's emily, owner of the only place to buy anything in the park. ALL IN on the ghost dogs. loves to talk about moon lake's colorful history. gamely sets up a sort of barter system with nancy after nancy reveals that she has driven all the way from wherever river heights is without cash for some reason and therefore can't afford anything.
this is not a note-taking game. malone was literally only interested in his dogs so so long as you write down every detail about them you encounter you'll be fine to solve puzzles. beyond the dog puzzles, nancy is also recruited to do some bird-watching and bug catching. all of that is done in the forest trails next to sally's house, which you will be so sick of by the end of the game. nancy also gets trapped in the shed and set on fire at one point and has to escape by creating a sort of rube goldberg machine of yard implements. this playthrough was literally the first time in my life i managed to get out of that shed alive on my first try.
now, the good stuff: THE SPEAKEASY. the speakeasy is beautiful and lush and FULL of dog art. this malone guy knew what was UP. nancy only gets into the speakeasy after she tracks down malone's girlfriend from 1924, who has to be nearly a century old at this point (2002). her name is vivian, she lives in las vegas, and she rules. her interactive's track record of giving you rad old ladies to talk to on the phone remains unmatched. wonderfully, visiting vivian at the time you find her is her friend and yours, eustacia andropov, harry houdini's cousin. nancy is thrilled to speak to eustacia, who observes in surprise that nancy is not dead yet ("most people, i talk to them, the next day they are dead"). we love eustacia.
the endgame of this one i found so scary the first time i played it that i still remember it as scary today. i think it has to do with the culprit's intensity, and the fact that they come at you wielding a bone (presumably taken from their--spoiler: real--dogs' pen). this time it was actually not scary and very easy so i guess a person can grow. my favourite thing about the ending is the reveal that sally is thinking of adopting all of the dogs. so i guess the moral is There Must Always Be Four Rottweilers at Mickey Malone's Cottage.
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Date: 2024-01-14 02:56 am (UTC)we LOVE EUSTACIA!
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