Review by: Neilie Johnson

There are two amazing things about the Nancy Drew Adventure games; how frequently they come out and how consistently good they are. Developer Her Interactive releases a new high-quality adventure every six months and Nancy Drew: Warnings at Waverly Academy, the second for 2009, (after Nancy Drew: Ransom of the Seven Ships) continues the trend.

In her latest adventure, Nancy goes undercover at highbrow Waverly Academy where a mysterious personage calling him or herself “The Black Cat” is menacing students with threatening notes and subjecting them to various “accidents”. Per usual, Nancy must make the rounds of the school and get to know all of the suspects—er...students. By the end of the first day she realizes that in the academy's competitive, clique-ish environment, nearly everyone has a motive for misconduct.

The game follows the traditional “interview and investigate” formula as Nancy begins to unravel a strange connection between the Black Cat incidents, one of the original Waverly founders and a legendary story by Edgar Allan Poe. Gathering clues in such a highly-monitored location (literally—there's actually a hall monitor named Paige just itching to give out demerits) is no simple thing and Nancy has to use all her wit and powers of persuasion to do it. A big part of that process is making nice with the other students. Unfortunately for her, that often means doing their homework for them or running to get them snacks.

One of best things about the Nancy Drew games is how well the puzzle elements are integrated into the design. Occasionally you'll see an arcane “ancient symbol” style puzzle but most of the time what serves as a puzzle is a perfectly believable practical activity. Since Nancy's in school this time, the puzzles revolve around school; she's assigned to work in the school snack shop and every day she must open it and fulfill at least five food orders. Hearkening back to the food prep of other games, this job provides a somewhat familiar mini-game wherein Nancy assembles lunch trays for teachers and students. If that seems like a pointless task, know this—if Nancy fails to perform this duty, she'll receive demerits. And if she receives too many of these for breaking the rules or dereliction of duty it's game over.