When I was a kid, way back around the dawn of time (or at least before home computer games, which to some might amount to the same thing), the Hardy Boys books were practically required reading. With an insatiable curiosity and as many as 58 original hardcovers to choose from, I greedily devoured one mystery after another for teen detectives Frank and Joe Hardy. And while I’ve long since stopped following their exploits, the Hardy Boys have kept going strong, though the format, style, and even the brothers themselves have undergone some changes over the years, most recently appearing in a paperback series known as “Undercover Brothers”. Now they’re about to experience perhaps their biggest change of all, jumping from paper to pixels in their first PC adventure, The Hidden Theft.

Well, technically this is not the first time the Hardy Boys have been in a game, having previously made cameo appearances in a couple of Her Interactive’s Nancy Drew mysteries. But at long last, The Hidden Theft thrusts the boys into the starring roles themselves, and deservedly so, but how will they fare in their transition? During a recent visit with The Adventure Company, I had the opportunity to see the game in action, and while it’s too early to tell if the publisher has a winning new franchise on its hands just yet, the early demonstration certainly suggests that they’ve captured the spirit of the Hardy Boys quite nicely.

The most obvious question right off the bat is how the new game compares to the popular Nancy Drew series, since The Hidden Theft is primarily targeting the same kind of demographic. While not strictly a game for kids by any means, the first Hardy Boys adventure clearly has younger gamers and families in mind. Surprisingly, however, that’s pretty much where any similarity with the brothers’ famous female counterpart ends. Where the Nancy Drew adventures are first-person games with more focus on exploration and puzzles, the Hardy Boys game is presented in third-person perspective and is heavily story- and character-driven, making it a much different gameplay experience.

The all-new storyline centers around a break-in at the nearby Spencer mansion, where a fortune in bearer bonds has been stolen from an impenetrable safe, suggesting the thief has a direct connection to the Spencer family or its grounds. Naturally, as key members of A.T.A.C. (American Teens Against Crime, an organization introduced in the current novel series), it’s up to Frank and Joe to get to the bottom of it, but first they’ll need to overcome a few domestic hurdles. Like many teenaged boys (not me, of course), their behaviour has landed them in hot water at home, so their first feat of derring-do will simply be to reach a cell phone from their motorcycles outside without being nabbed by their mother. This early scenario introduces key members of the family, including parents Fenton and Laura, plus Aunt Trudy and Playback the parrot. Brief on-screen tutorials also ease players into the game’s mechanics, which are traditional in most ways, with one key exception.

The notable difference from most other point-and-click adventures is the ability to control the boys either together or alone at times. Normally they’ll travel together, with the player controlling older brother Frank, but sometimes they’ll need to split up, working in tandem to accomplish shared goals. Switching is just an icon click away and can be done manually any time they’re apart. There is only one inventory, but any object a particular brother would not naturally have access to at any given time is greyed out and inaccessible. In fact, discovering ways to exchange items when separated is one of the earliest challenges.

In all other relevant ways, The Hidden Theft will be familiar to anyone who’s played an adventure before, with intuitive controls and user-friendly interface. Left-clicking performs any actions offered by the smart cursor, double-clicking increases movement speed, and as you reach new locations in the game’s three central areas of Bayport (the brothers’ home town), Manhattan, and the Spencer mansion, they’re added to the instant travel map. The cell phone, once acquired, offers a quest log and journal hints, and of course a contact list which includes one Nancy Drew herself, now returning the favour to the boys in providing clues when the going gets tough.

It seems unlikely that most experienced adventurers will have much difficulty over the course of the game’s four main chapters, mind you. Gameplay leans heavily toward inventory puzzles, and items can be both combined and disassembled in the inventory. Making matters a little more complicated is that obsolete items often remain in your possession, so you’ll be lugging around quite a bit before all is said and done. According to TAC, the game will also feature about twelve different standalone puzzles of various types, including a memory mini-game like Concentration. You can’t kill the boys off no matter how badly you blunder, though one early puzzle does include a timed element. Even there, the challenge is so light and the repercussions so small that it won’t pose problems, and that’s reportedly the only one of its kind in the game.

Visually the game looks solid, though it certainly won’t be pushing the upper limits of your video card. Environments are very crisp and clean, with nice attention to detail, though some locations are surprisingly sparse. The game is bookended by dramatic comic-styled cutscenes, though the cinematics throughout the game itself are all handled by the in-game engine, which unfortunately tend to highlight the one obvious weak link: the animation. Character movement is rather stilted and sometimes even choppy, though this quickly stops being a distraction.



Where the production values really shine, however, is in the sound department. The pleasant orchestral soundtrack plays early and often, but even that takes a back seat to the vocal performances. As with TAC’s Agatha Christie series, here again the company recognizes the importance of quality voiceovers, particularly for roles that many hold dear. While I’d never heard of Hollywood talents Jesse McCartney or Cody Linley when they were triumphantly announced for the lead roles, I can easily confirm that they were great choices. Making the casting all the more important is the particular emphasis given to the relationship between the brothers. As any Hardy Boys fan knows, the two bicker and banter like any siblings do, which means there’s plenty of interaction between them. Fortunately, the script seems up to the task, as even in the abbreviated demo I witnessed some genuinely amusing repartee.

There are plenty of other characters in the story as well, though I didn’t see enough of them to form much opinion. As investigators, you’ll have to exhaust all conversation topics with each one, both for vital information and to push the plot ahead at times. It goes without saying that there’s much more going on than first meets the eye, and TAC promises enough twists and turns to keep players on their toes (and from the spoiler-heavy outline they shared with me, I’m inclined to agree with them). What I can tell you is that if you think your family is dysfunctional, wait until you meet the Spencers.

As always, the true test of quality can come only from the full game, but my early look suggests that The Hidden Theft is shaping up nicely as Frank and Joe’s interactive debut. The game also marks the first adventure from Chinese studio XPEC Entertainment, though the team is no stranger to popular licenses, as their previous credits include work on the Kung Fu Panda game. Fortunately, in approaching this title it seems they’ve grasped the key elements of such a renowned series. Like the books, it’s lightweight in challenge but substantial enough to engage, and most importantly, it effectively feels like a Hardy Boys mystery. Whether it’s able to sustain such an atmosphere throughout, and whether that’s enough to interest the…uhh… “veteran” adventure community is what remains to be seen, but we don’t have long to wait now, as the game is slated for release in North America at the end of the month.