Cluedo (PC) > Reviews (8)

Here's another classic board game is available on CD-ROM from Hasbro Interactive - CLUEDO (known in the USA as Clue). I can remember many rainy days where this was the board game of choice, when I was a kid. Why this, and not Monopoly? This game is shorter, and to tell the truth, sometimes you just don't want to spend hours and hours with a game. So, let's take a look at this game that is now available on your computer.

First of all, the graphics are absolutely stunning. They went whole hog with this one, and left nothing to the imagination (some people wouldn't think that a good thing, however). But using all these graphics when playing a game can slow you down. Obviously, you can turn the heavier ones off, so that's not much of a problem - but still... even that way, it is a bit on the slow side. So, if your computer is a bit old like mine, be prepared for the problems I'll be noting in this op.

The music and sound started out to be fun and complimentary, but after a while, they began to annoy - so we turned most of that off, too.

Clue isn't the simplest of games to play on the board, and has proven to be even more difficult to transfer to the computer. One of the major drawbacks of most multi-player computer games is the ability to cheat - and this game is nearly impossible to play on the computer with others without cheating.

What I mean by cheating is seeing the clues meant for only other players to see. If you know the game, the idea is for each time you enter a room in the mansion, you make a guess as to who the murderer is and with what weapon in the room you have entered. The other players then are supposed to tell the guesser if they can prove them wrong or not, and then shows - only the guesser - that bit of evidence (a card in his/her hand proving that it isn't one of the ones in the solution packet).

When more than two players are playing on the computer, it is way too easy for the other player to see the card disproving the guess. Also, with the board game, you are given pages where you can write down the information you know and learn during the game. On the computer, other players can easily watch what a player puts down on these pages unless they walk away from the computer altogether.

I haven't tried to play this game on-line with other players yet, but I'm sure that these problems are lessend under that platform. Playing on your own against the computer does partially solve this, and you can decide in advance what level each of the other players are. But even making the other players experts doesn't make them really smart enough to make the playing all that much of a challenge - they just don't know how to bluff, and if they don't know how to bluff, they can't lead you astray and give themselves an advantage. How much fun is it to play against only opponents that are dumber than you are?

Starting to play this game isn't easy (and yes, I admit, I hate reading instruction books), and it took some fiddling around to get going and figure out how the game works and how to change the options.

This is a real minus, and the programmers should take this into future consideration.

Finally, as I mentioned before the program is heavy even after you change the options to set the graphics at a minimum, and we've had problems with the game freezing up on us. This may just be our computer (OK so our video card is basic), so if others have tried this without this happening, I'd be happy to hear about it.

Also, when we played against only computer opponents, at one time the program decided to disregard anything we did unless we made a suggestion for an arrest warrant (usually the thing that, if correct, ends the game). We were able to make an incorrect guess there and tell the computer to check manually and then it let us continue the game - go figure.

All in all, I'd say that as a novelty, it was fun to begin with, but even though it was inexpensive, I'd save my pennies for the board version (which, of course, we went out and bought a new one of, after we had tired of the computer version).

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Technical Stuff:
This game is rated "E" - meaning it is suitable for anyone of any age.
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