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Clue, the classic Parker Brothers detective game, comes
alive in this new CD-ROM version. Murder at Boddy Mansion
features vivid graphics, 3-D characters, clever animations,
first-rate audio, and original music. As in the board game,
players compete to solve a murder by deducing the killer, the
murder weapon, and the location of the crime. For a clever,
canny, and compelling experience filled with rich characters,
settings, and loads of clues, Murder at Boddy Mansion is the
prime suspect.
From the Manufacturer
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Mr. Boddy has been murdered again! Now Clue, the classic
Parker Brothers detective game, comes alive on your PC. Murder at
Boddy Mansion features vibrant graphics, 3-D characters, clever
animations, stunning audio, and original music. Gameplay follows
the classic game in which players compete to solve a murder by
deducing the killer, the murder weapon, and the location of the
crime. For a clever, canny, and compelling experience, filled
with rich characters, settings, and loads of "clues," Murder at
Boddy Mansion is the prime suspect!
Features:
* Feel and mechanics of classic board game
* Carefully crafted 3-D models and motion capture
* Classic characters from board gam.
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Review
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If you've ever played Clue for any length of time,
you'll be amazed at how good this translation to the PC really
is. In fact, this is probably more fun than playing the board
game.
If you've never played Clue at all, the basic setup goes like
this: Six characters are at the mansion of Mr. Boddy, and through
some underhanded means, one of the characters has murdered him.
Playing one of the six characters, you move from room to room
making suggestions about who killed him with which weapon. The
suggested location of the murder is always the room in which
you're making the suggestion. Once the suggestion is made, the
other characters must show clues to disprove the suggestion if
they have any. Through a system of cards, the actual murderer's
name, choice of weapon, and location of the crime are chosen from
a deck containing all the character names, weapons, and
locations. The rest of the cards are handed out randomly to all
the characters. When you make a suggestion, anyone disproving it
shows you one of his cards that fills in one of the missing
pieces of the mystery. By analyzing who's making what suggestions
and knowing which cards you and others have, you try to accuse
someone of the murder.
You might be saying that all this guessing still isn't going to
get you excited about playing Clue. Here's where Hasbro
Interactive has gone the extra mile. It added a bunch of great
shortcut scenes that accompany the suggestions about the murder.
You'll be amazed the first time you see Ms. let whacking
someone with a lead pipe the size of Pittsburgh and hear the thud
as the metal makes contact with the victim. Playing this game at
work is one thing, but you really have to sit at home in a dark
room with a couple of friends to get the true feel of murder
solving. The cutscenes are different for each character and
weapon, so don't think that they're just repeated animations. For
a laugh, try suggesting Mrs. White with the rope, and you'll see
her wrestle a chair out from under her hanging victim.
The other features during gameplay are also worthy of praise.
Clue offers full animations of the characters walking from room
to room. While this is interesting for a while, you'll probably
want to play with the standard overhead view of the board. Along
with the animations is a really good soundtrack that includes
sounds of the storm outside the mansion and a forbidding butler
who calls out each suggestion as it is played.
There's really just one problem with the game. The suggestions
of the computer players go by so fast, that it's often difficult
to follow what's happening. The "autonotes" feature that takes
notes as to what cards you've seen doesn't record what
suggestions have already been made, so making educated guesses as
to which cards people don't have by their suggestions becomes a
pen and paper experience.
Overall, this is one of the best translations to the PC that
Hasbro has ever done. Beyond the simple fault of some extra
features that weren't implemented to their best effect, there
aren't really many faults with the game. There is one bug that
locks the game when a large number of characters are played by
the computer, but this happened rarely. Basically, if you love
the board game, you're going to want this version. And if you
haven't played the board game, buy this instead. --Tahsin Shamma
Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction
in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written
permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot Review
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