Game Mechanics, namely control schemes, is usually a fairly simple section in most point-and-click adventure game reviews. The system has been around... well, since you could actually point and click in games. It's been fairly refined over the years, so you'd think this would be a fairly standard setup, but for some reason,
The Hardy Boys: The Hidden Theft deviates from the norm in some places that really makes the game awkward at times.
For one, actually selecting an item in your inventory and closing the window just feels odd. Maybe its the need to double-click some objects in order to open them, but others a regular single-click will equip it, and you need to right-click in order to bring it up as well as close it (yes, even when you've selected an item). Other issues involve trying to move from screen to screen. At times, finding the area where the cursor turns into a pair of feet was almost as much of a pixel hunt as finding items to put in your inventory.
While The Hidden Theft isn't quite as refined as the Nancy Drew series (then again, Her Interactive has had almost 20 games to get their system down), it is still a good start, and there is definite room to grow with future mysteries. Fans of the books should look into this game, and fans of adventure games in general shouldn't shy away from it either. While the puzzles themselves aren't all that tough, the story is rock solid.
