Let's start with the obvious: most of the screens shown above are cutscenes and the two that aren't have a rather flattering camera position, zoom, and angle, as you will notice if you watch any Let's plays. Contrary to what these pictures suggest, you play in third person with the camera behind and above you.

Personally, I felt the game is a bit too short for a RPG, skills are a bit rudimentary, dialogs not very memorable (I found myself skipping many of them), fights a little repetetive, and the story is a bit too classic rebel vs evil establishment. On the technical side, I noticed no show-stoppers, no major bugs. For the price, it is perfectly good entertainment.

The first part of the game starts with you as a prisoner running errands for various fellow inmates, and is almost too full of great cutscenes. However, you will see less and less of those as you progress further into the game. Each act has you explore a different area. Once the act is complete you usually won't return there, so make sure you finished all you wanted to do before you move on with the main plot.

There are two major factions that are relevant to the plot, and some side quests. For the most part, the side quests are just to set the mood and are rarely relevant. Lots of backtracking, especially in the first part of the game.

Fights are not always necessary, as sometimes you have the option to talk yourself out of a situation.

There are a number of different endings, depending on your choices.

Overall, this is a good game that shows great ambition, but ultimately falls short due to some bland writing, bland characters, and bland story that is too much cookie cutter to be memorable.

However, for the low price I still recommend it for a rainy weekend of good entertainment.

When it comes to Nancy Drew games, I have played them a lot of them if Not all. My adventures have led me to solve tough puzzles, interrogate suspects, and catch some devious criminals. I guess you can call me a Nancy Drew Veteran.
When I finished "Ransom of the seven ships" several months ago, I was very satisfied with the mystery. All the core gameplay elements from the classic ND games that we all know and love were there. No more tedious mini games and chores! The Nancy Drew franchise has taken a turn to an older, more mature audience, and it is most certainly the case for Ghost of Thornton Hall.

Nancy Drew's 28th mystery takes her to the Thornton Hall Residence on Blackrock Island, where Jessalyn Thornton, the youngest member of the Thornton family, has inexplicably gone missing! Left with only Jessalyn's dead cellphone, a group of wacky family members, and a malevolent ghost on the loose, Nancy must try to keep her sanity in-check, or risk having a mental breakdown from all the house's scares and dangerous traps. I'm not joking either. Thornton Hall is literally filled with one dead end trap after the next. This is Nancy's most morbid case yet. As many have mentioned, the game does revolve around solving two mysteries: finding out the truth behind Jessalyn's disappearance, and bringing to justice Charlotte Thornton's death, which happened a decade prior to Jessalyn's disappearance.

I must applaud the animator's work, the graphics in this game were simply put, amazing. From all the interactive environments, to the emotional cutscenes, and even the characters themselves, one could tell that a lot of work was put into each individual deatil. While the outside of Thornton Hall is eerily spooky, the inside is just plain breathtaking. The Thornton cemetery was also an interesting place to explore, filled with ominous fog and one archaic crypt.

When it comes to the plot, the historical Civil War references took a back seat and HeR focused the core gameplay on the development of the characters. What made the game so intriguing; however, was the fact that each of the characters were all hiding a dark secret surrounding the night of Charlotte's death. I'm not going to spoil anything, but it is very rewarding to interrogate the Thornton family and feel so captivated by how believable and dramatic they are. The plot and role development really shines through in this installment. Overall, I found the plot to be very smooth. Everything transitioned perfectly well and nothing seemed out of place or just thrown into the game to make it longer. While I would have liked more places to explore inside the Hall, (after all, the outside of the place is huge!) or even around the island, HeR did a good job on tying up loose ends and justifying why the Hall was so small.

The soundtrack in GTH was also very memorable. (as is the case for all the Nancy Drew games) I particularly liked the songs played inside Thornton Hall. The outside songs were good too, but I sometimes felt that I could not hear them enough. The ambiance of the game overall fit the soundtrack perfectly though, and I wouldn't expect anything less from a Nancy Drew game.

HeR Interactive has also added plenty of new features to the game as well:
+Reformed Achievements System. Players can now track their achievements in the game whenever they want! Whenever you earn an achievement trophy, you even get subtly notified about it as well.
+Fast Forward. Ah, the feature that we've all been waiting for. Players now have the ability to fast forward entire conversations with suspects. So if you've played the game already, or you're faster at reading than listening, you no longer have to wait long periods of time for the characters to finish talking.
+Plot Adjustments to Choices. I don't want to spoil anything, but this game takes your choices seriously. This player input ultimately affects the overall ending of the game as well. Yup, you've heard me, this game has multiple endings.

Honestly, there wasn't too many gripes that I had in GTH:
-While the inside of the Hall was beautiful, some of the places were a little too dark for me. Literally. I understand the game was trying to be scary. It was just a pain to make sure that my laptop was running on its highest brightness to play.
-Some of the suspects were a little too forgoing with their secrets. HeR should make the interrogating a little more choice based. If the player makes a mistake, why not just play the "You made a fatal error" screen and try again?

Fire so red, night so black, dear sweet Charlotte, please come back...Ghost of Thornton Hall will not disappoint. If you loved games like Ransom of the Seven Ships or Warnings at Waverly Academy from Nancy's last games, you will most definitely love this one.