Clue: Murder at Boddy Mansion

The Good
This review was updated on 12/5/2000

I received an e-mail from one of the lead programmers that worked on Clue: Murder at Boddy Mansion. Mr. Nash was kind to point out some information that I had missed in my review, and - in fairness - I'm going to change some of the factual information about the game. However, my opinion of the review stays the game.

Clue is yet another classic boardgame-to-computer remake that Hasbro Interactive has been cranking out for the past 2-3 years. The game is pretty straightforward. You take the role of one of the characters in the game (Colonel Mustard, Mrs. Peacock, Mrs. White, Mrs. Scarlet, Professor Plum, or Mr. Green) and you must deduce and solve the murder. You have a few clues to start you off with, and you must figure out whodunit. You move from room to room, suggesting the weapon, murderer and room. If you think you've figured out whodunit, you accuse the person, and see if you've won. Pretty simple, eh?

The Graphics are both a blessing and hinderance. First the good - The graphics used when you suggest/accuse are great. A separate cinema was made for each combination of weapon/room/person. And the cinemas were done very well.

The Bad
Now for the Hinderances.... This could take a while...

The actual game graphics are appalling. The Isometric 3/4 Down view of the manison (read: game board) is a failed attempt to make the game look more realistic. Because of the view, the walls of the rooms are rendered transparently so if your character is walking in the corridor, you can see him/her. But It just makes controlling the character and his/her movement very difficult.

The Sound/Music is not very good, with the exception of the thunderclasps. The voice-over is non-existent, but even then, when it does talk, it sounds like a cross between a B-Movie actor and Lurch from the Addams family. The music does nothing to enhance the game, so it is a moot point to discuss.

The Control is insanely stupid. I suppose the programmers were trying to simulate a 3D environment, but failed when implimenting a control scheme. Moving your character around with the mouse is very difficult, and as far as I remember, there was no keyboard control available.

In my original Review I stated their was not Top-Down Mode for play. As Mr. Nash pointed out to me, There in fact IS a top-down game mode, but I never was able to access it. My Apologies for the misleading information.

Another thing - The Free Walk mode (i.e. No Dice Rolling) is really a waste of programming code. They should have used it to make the Top Down Only mode.

The Bottom Line
I'm sorry about this one. I think Clue is one of the all-time classic board games out there. If you can find the Original Clue Computer game put out by Parker Brothers back in the 80's, Pick it up. It is a much, much better game - and It fit on 2 3-1/2 floppies.

The "Updated" Verison of Clue, In my opinion, is buggy, slow, and a waste of a Compact Disk. It's no wonder they were putting them on the General Mills cereal boxes. I wouldn't recommend it to any one. Your better off buying the board game, you'll have a lot more fun.

Addenum: Mr. Nash was kind to point out if I were aware of the options (ie, Top down Mode, etc.) I would have probably written a better reivew. That may have been the case, but unfortuantely, I still am not a big fan of the CD-ROM version of the game. Don't get me wrong, others may enjoy it, but I really didn't.