Clue VCR Mystery Game

Game Review

Reviewed by Matt Costello


Parker Brothers
P.O. Box 1012, Beverly, MA 01915
Released: April, 1985
Price: approximately $40.00
Complexity. Beginner
Solitaire Suitability: Low
*****

I was not prepared to like this game. The idea of slapping an expensive video cassette onto a popular board game like Clue spelled "gimmick". I just couldn't see a way that a game with such limited play value could be worth the money.

Well, surprise, surprise! Yes, the game is expensive, retailing for around $40, but some extremely clever design work went into VCR Clue. And the videotape itself, featuring its eclectic cast of murderers, is highly amusing.

VCR Clue features the familiar crowd of suspects featured on the current Clue boardgame box. Colonel Mustard (of the Royal Fusiliers, retired), dotty Professor Plum, slinky Miss Scarlet, and all the rest of the fun-loving group appear in the flesh, wandering through the mansion of the late Mr. Boddy. A new character, a butler named Didit, serves as a chatty guide to playing VCR Clue. While thunder crashes around the manse, Didit suavely explains how to play.

The object of the game is to be the first to figure out who murdered whom, with what, and where. The winner must also be able to name each player's own character. The video cassette contains three different mystery cases, each of which can provide up to six different games. There's also an introductory game that teaches players the basic rules of VCR Clue.

Each mystery case features the nine suspects wandering through the mansion and gives clues as to whether they are the murderer, the victim, or an innocent bystander. Since each case provides the clues for six different murders, the actual scene of the crime is never shown.

The key to the game lies in the Suspect and Clue cards. It is through their use that the designer has made the most of the video cassette. Players are dealt a suspect card that tells them which character they are in the upcoming mystery. The remaining suspect cards are shuffled together with the Clue Cards. Clue Cards may contain clues about the murder under investigation and what scene in the tape the clue relates to. For example, it may say that neither of the two people discussing red peppers in scene three are murderer or victim. They're just a pair of enthusiastic gourmands.

Other Clue Cards let you do a variety of interesting things. You may have to: Read a Clue Aloud (thereby letting everyone know what you know), Steal a Clue Card, Replay a Scene (very helpful when you forget just who was wearing the carnation in the first scene), or Bury 1 to 3 Clue Cards (and prevent them from being stolen or read). One Clue Card gives you the option of asking for a personal identity fact from a player.

The player then has to tell you something about the suspect that they represent. You could say that you're male, or bald, or that you were reading the newspaper in the den. Trivial facts ("I'm a human") and repetitions are not permitted.

The game proceeds by rounds, which consist of watching a scene from the cassette, followed by each player playing a Clue Card. Careful observation of the confusing action on the cassette and retention of a myriad of small details are very helpful. One might often wish to be blessed with the hyperactive "little gray cells" of Agatha Christie's star detective, Hercule Poirot.

Fortunately, Parker Brothers provides a terrific Detective Factsheet, which can help make all the information manageable. There's a place to mark off each suspect as they are eliminated from the list of possible murderers and victims. Another area lets you do the same for the rooms of the mansion and the weapons. There's also a large space for notes, which I strongly recommend that you use. Unless you have a photographic memory, important details will fade into oblivion. After all, who's used to paying attention while watching TV?

When you think you're ready, you announce on your turn that you're prepared to make an accusation. You write down the murderer, the victim, the room where the murder took place, and, of course, the murder weapon. Then you take a red filter to examine the solution hidden in the back of the rule book. If you are right, you must then tell each player what suspect they are. If everything is correct, you then announce to everyone the solution to the case.

If you're wrong (and it's oh-so-easy to mistakenly think you've got it all figured out), you then add your cards to the discard pile, grab some potato chips, and watch everyone else play.

There are other rules involving the use of Clue Cards and the ending of the game that add a high polish to this gem of a game. But in its basic form, the game is fast-moving, simple to play, and incredibly tense. Each mystery case takes an hour or two, and the games gradually become more difficult as you work through the cases. The Will is the easiest case to solve, The Search is more difficult, and The Secrets is quite challenging.

The only aspect of the game that I didn't like was the free-flowing nature of each case. The murder is disconnected from what happens in the video cassette. For example, Col. Mustard may be dead, but he appears throughout the six scenes (because in the next game he may be the murderer). The murder is thought, then, to occur after the six scenes of suspicious scrambling. But the tape is so rich in atmosphere, humor, and good-natured overacting that such unreality becomes unimportant.

It's been a while since I've had this much fun playing a game. It may be expensive, but, believe me, it's worth every penny.

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© Copyright 1985 by Dana Lombardy.
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