HeR Interactive’s 10th installment to their PC/Mac Mystery Adventure games based on the classic female detective, Nancy Drew! The Secret of Shadow Ranch released June 2004. The PC game is available on herinteractive.com and Steam as digital downloads.
To quote the game description from HeR Interactive, here’s what the mystery game is about;
Take a Wild Ride into Terror and Trickery to Rein in a Ghostly Secret!
Ropin’, ridin’ and revenge. A ranch vacation takes a terrifying turn when a ghostly horse appears in this mystery game. Is it driven by the vengeful commands of its long-dead master, Dirk Valentine? Or is a living villain behind the ranch’s string of bad luck? It’s up to you, as Nancy Drew, to figure out who’s wearing the black hat before your investigation is ambushed in Nancy Drew: Secret of Shadow Ranch!
Quick Navigation:
- Walkthrough (Coming soon!)
- Puzzles
- Environments (Coming soon!)
- Characters (Coming soon!)
- Inventory (Coming soon!)
- Bonus Content (Coming soon!)
This game was built on a proprietary engine internally, by HeR Interactive. It is loosely based on the book by the same name.
Set in the fictional region of Shadow Mountain, a long drive from Phoenix, Arizona, the entire mystery takes place at a fictional ranch known as Shadow Ranch, as it resides below the mountain by the same name. Bess and George’s Aunt and Uncle, Aunt Bet and Uncle Ed Rawley, have invited the three girls out for a vacation, but things go awry when Nancy arrives alone and Aunt Bet and Uncle Ed are at the hospital.
This mystery game is very exploratory, but also with flexible chores. Nancy agrees to help investigate the suspicious events and “curse” of Dirk Valentine, a historic outlaw, but she also agrees to help out with the ranch chores since the hands are short-handed. The player learns of a fictional old western love story where the infamous outlaw has hidden treasure for his sweetheart, but his cursed horse roams around at night, causing mayhem. Could the accidents and sabotage really mean Dirk is stopping you? Or is there something else going on at the ranch?
Other features:
This game was bundled in the Nancy Drew Fan Favorites Collector’s Tin, made and offered in 2010.
This game was also re-created in a book-game style for mobile apps, called “Shadow Ranch”.