KMGR of "Clue"

Image via WikipediaThe classic Parker Brothers game gets to the mobile phone! Is it good enough? Quite good, actually!

For those of you who have no idea what Clue is, it's basically a murder mystery with you as the inspector. However, you're not the police... You're a reporter for a tabloid paper who must break the news ASAP, and you're given a short amount of time (less than 100 minutes) to question suspects, find clues, and figure out who killed Boddy where with what (i.e. who, what room, and what weapon).

To make it "fair", there are rules. The information suspect gives are always truthful, but may be useless at first glance. You also have to take their statements and parse it into where clues may be hiding. For example, if a suspect said something about "musical instruments", you'll have to check the various rooms for trumpets, piano, and so on. Searching those items will yield additional clues. And each room can only contain ONE suspect and maybe one weapon. However, each "movement" from room to room costs time, as does the questions and searches. If you run out of time, you can ask the editor for more time, but you will lose 1 of the 4 possible stars for solving. The other three stars are for getting the who, where, and what correct.

To help your crime solving, you are issued with an all-purpose notes, which records everything important you found, both from scene and from suspects. You also get a crime map, which you should use to construct who was where when with what, as your final accusation is done with the map. Finally, you also have a list with which you can eliminate suspects. For example, if one suspect tells you that the murderer is a man, you can eliminate all the women as suspects. Similarly, if a suspect tells you that the murder weapon is a blunt weapon, you can eliminate the gun, the razor, and the axe from the suspect list. That should narrow down the possibilities considerably.

There are ten cases to solve, each of increasing difficulty and complexity. Beginning cases are simple enough, but later cases will involve a dozen rooms, six suspects, and six different possible weapons, and you will need to be very efficient with your questioning and clue analysis to find the suspect.

The interface *could* be better designed and more user-friendly, as hotkeys could have been assigned to bring up the notes, crime map, and eliminate options. Instead, you must choose them from the menu each and every time, and it's not possible to switch between them. You must quit out of each and load the other. Also, you also wish that the notes allows some organization other than by suspect.

However, the cases are infinitely replayable as the house layout (yes, it DOES matter), the distribution of suspects and weapons, and the actual solution is randomly generated each time, and the game automatically saves your progress if you quit the game.

The problem with this game is it does depend a little on luck... As you question suspects and they reveal clues, you may need to back track, and that takes "game time", which you have very little of.

Graphics are good, but there's only so much of the same scenery you can take, as the look of each room does not change, while the layout of the house can change. Music... is forgettable, and there really isn't much of a sound effect needed.

Overall, if you need something to challenge your brain, this game will do very nicely, and it's much more fun than those "Brain Challenge" games. But the interface issue means this can't get top award.

Overall rating: 7.5 out of 10
Pros: random case every time you play, variety of cases, auto notes
Cons: interface issues, can be a bit repetitive, depends a little on luck