Game: Clue Mysteries

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ronster0 — 2008-10-31T03:27:52+00:00

Using the Mirror to reveal a clue.

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stormseeker75 — 2008-01-22T01:38:59+00:00

Inspector Brown's Police Station location

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stormseeker75 — 2008-01-22T01:38:14+00:00

Mustard Lodge location

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stormseeker75 — 2008-01-22T01:37:36+00:00

Rev. Green's Hampshire Church location

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stormseeker75 — 2008-01-22T01:36:46+00:00

Professor Plum's Castle location

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stormseeker75 — 2008-01-22T01:36:07+00:00

Scarlett Theatre location

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stormseeker75 — 2008-01-22T01:35:20+00:00

White Cottage location

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stormseeker75 — 2008-01-22T01:34:47+00:00

Tudor Mansion location

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stormseeker75 — 2008-01-22T01:34:07+00:00

Peacock Residence location

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stormseeker75 — 2008-01-22T01:33:23+00:00

Fair scene token

Thread: Wonderful game for the younger gamer

stormseeker75 — 2008-01-18T16:05:35+00:00

Clue Mysteries is another game in the famous Clue family. Only this time its a little different. Instead of players holding clues, players must visit the character's houses to gain information. With some new elements to add a "take that" feel, Clue Mysteries tries to find its own place in the Clue universe. But does this game deserve a place in your collection?

Rules

Before you go any farther, remove all knowledge of Clue rules from your brain. This is not Clue and it doesn't have very much in common with its relative.

To start the game, each player will choose a pawn and place it in the center of the board.

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Each player will receive a Case Book and an information sheet. This will be used to record clues as players receive them.

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One player will pick a case out of the rulebook and read the story out loud. Players will then set the locations to the appropriate numbers as listed at the bottom of the Case File.

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Once these are all set, place them near the board so that all players have access to them.

Shuffle up the Clue cards and place these near the board so that all players can reach them. Place the Scene tokens on the spaces indicated in the rulebook.

Player's take turns rolling the die and moving their pawns around the board. When moving you must move the full distance unless you are stopping at a location.

When you stop at a location, you get to read the clue on the back of the stand. Some clues require the use of the red decoder magnifying glass. Others require the key decoder and one even uses a small mirror. Its important to write the clue down in your Case Book for later evaluation because some of the suspects may be lying!

If your movement ends in a street without reaching a location, you may draw a Clue card. The Clue card has some sort of event which will take place immediately. Some of these affect the acting player and some may be used against anyone.

One key addition to the rules is the Scene tokens. These are the most important part of the game because you will have to move onto one of these to make an accusation and win the game. However, you can't pass through the Scenes while moving around and they will frequently get in your way. Some of the Clue cards let you move the Scenes around so they can actually be used against other players.

When you make an accusation, you check the Case File to see if you are correct. If you are, you win the game. If not, you must sit quietly while the other players finish. The first player to make the correct accusation is the winner.

Components

The components are what helps make Clue Mysteries a fun game. Theres a lot of color and pretty artwork.

To start off, the pawns are exactly the same as in Clue. It provides a nice familiar feeling to those of us who have played the original. The die is a standard D6 so there's really not much to talk about there.

The board is bright and colorful. The layout is nice and provides a few simple tracks around the board. Unlike Clue where you have a huge amount of possibilities, Clue Mysteries provides roads that you must walk on to get from place to place. Again, the artwork makes this one come to life with vibrant drawings and lush colors.

The Case Books are cute little cardboard paper holders and feature a rogue's gallery of all the suspects on the inside. It really makes you feel like a detective when you're holding it.

The location stands are really the focus of the game. While being the most important places to visit, they also have great artwork and provide a really interesting way for players to gather clues. When combined with the clever clue decoding tools, the theme is driven home in a fun way.

The Clue cards are small but are of adequate thickness. They're coated nicely and are quite plain, featuring a maroon back with the logo and a tan front with black text. Nothing special, but they do the job.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Clue Mysteries boils down to a roll-and-move race game. Players are racing around the board to collect clues so they can make an accusation. At first glance it would seem that rolling poorly would ruin your game, but thats where the Clue cards come into play. If you stop in the road, your get to take a Clue card and play it. Some of the Clue cards will help you directly by allowing you to move anywhere. Others will let you move an opponents piece to an undesirable location. And some of the others will let you move Scene tokens around.

Scene tokens can't be passed through for movement. You can place Scene tokens so that they inhibit your opponents' movement options. A token can't be completely surrounded, but you may be able to use 2 Scenes to close several options. Additionally, later in the game, you can move the Scene tokens away from your opponent and towards yourself. Even if you aren't sure of the culprit, you can deny your opponents the chance to end the game. This adds a great "take that" element that is missing from the original.

The Taxi spaces also help mitigate the luck of bad rolls. If you land on a Taxi space, you may move to any other space on the board. This can be really helpful if you need to get all the way across the board.

Compare it to...

Clue most obviously. Athough there are a lot of differences, the game still feels like a Clue game. Players are trying to gain information so they can figure out who the criminal is. Unlike its grandfather, Clue Mysteries is more of a straight-up racing game. There is not nearly as much deduction and bluffing as in the original. This game is much more random and luck dependant than the original as well.

Overall

For some reason I actually enjoy this game. Its not too bad for a simple roll-and-move game. The length is just right for the type of game this is and even an extra 10 minutes would be too long. But the designers got this one right on the money. The fun components add a lot of enjoyment thanks to their bright colors and playful artwork.

I can't honestly say I recommend this to gamers. For me, this one scores a 6/10 but I enjoy this one more than I should. Where this game really shines is for kids in the 8-10 range. There is a good amount of reading and writing required, so younger kids probably won't be able to participate. But for kids in the target range, this game will serve to build good gaming skills. It requires some critical thinking, but not too much. There's plenty of fun to be had while honing their gaming skills. For kids 8-10 I rate this game 8.5/10. I think they'll really enjoy it and will probably come back looking to play it over and over again.

I recommend this game to someone looking for a really light game to play with non-gamers and especially for people with kids 8-10. This game can be found for about $12 and it will certainly provide a lot of fun for the money.

Thread: Re: rules to make this game better

Fusionguy1 — 2007-01-19T22:43:03+00:00

The best thing to do would be this:

At the start of the game, each player is delt three clue cards. At the end of each of thier turns, they may play one of these cards and draw a replacment.

You would have to change cards that say "Lose your next turn' to say, "choose a player to lose thier next turn", and cards that force you to reveal information now force other players to reveal the relevant information.

Thread: rules to make this game better

tony_rosano — 2007-01-15T20:29:15+00:00

this is a good (non-gameing)family game.
My girlfriend and i are avid gamers so we tweak games to bee less luck based.

our game geek tweak to this one was:

change the rule that a taxi will take you to any square, to....

a taxi will take you to another taxi tile.

thus this limits the bonus moves you get from the taxi. this seems to make the game reduces the luck reward. Giving more emphases on the logic skills.

Thread: Negative Review

Fusionguy1 — 2006-12-13T13:14:33+00:00

Clue mysteries is an updated version of clue pudlished by hasbro. The box says 2-6 player, but that's not quite true. It can be played at any age, as long as all the players can read.

When I ,first came across this game, I was rather excited about it. 50 senarios! Wow! My thought was that it might help my relatives get to like board games better. When we first played, I thought it was and okay game, but let me tell you- it wears off fast.

The game is similer to clue in that a crime has been comitted. Unlike the first clue, there's no murder. Instead, you'll solve one of 50 pre-set crimes, in which you will hunt for many dangerous criminals... like the guy who forgot to pay the parking meter! Horror of horrors! I'm sorry but this dosn't seem to have the same zing as solving a murder mystery. It you can find out who comited the crime, and where they are hiding, you win the game.

Each of the 50 cases has a few wittneses you can travel around the board and interview. These witnesses are at thier houses waiting for you. Here's the thing- when these houses are set up and put on the board, you can't see anything that's going on! We just set the huoses off to the side, which made finding the right one a pain.

You start in the town center. Each of your turns you roll a d6 and move that many spaces. If you land on a house, you can interview the witness. If you land on a car space, you can move anywhere you want. If you land anywhere else, you draw a card from the clue deck. Here's my next problem with this game- the clue cards. I love having chance in my games. But this deck of cards is simply too disruptive and chaotic. In one game I was well on my way to solving the mystery, and headed for the final witness I needed. I drew a card... "Wait, i have to go to professer plum's castle? That's al. the way on the other side of the board!" I had a lot of trouble making up the lost ground. The cards can send you or anyone else anywhere on the board, cuase you or anyone else to lose a turn, force you to reveal information, or place sence tokens on the ground. These cards are simply to random and disrupting, and will spoil the best laid plans. Some luck is good, but this is too much of it.

If you can make it to the huose of the witness you want, you get to read thier clue. Some of the witnesses may lie, however, and you have to go to the police station to find out who. You also have to figure out where to crook you're after is hiding, and you can find that out from a single clue. This brings me to my next beef with this game- no logic or deduction at all. Talking to all the witnesses wil always tell you who did it and where they are hiding. No thinking involved. The game could play itself!

About the only interesting idea in this game are the sence tokens. These tokens block movement, and the crook is hiding on one of them. You can't move onto one unless youre making an accusation, when you have to be on the right token and guess the right person. These tokens are put out by the clue cards. This probaly the best part of the game- trying to place the tokens in places where you will benifit. If you know who did it and where they are, but the right token isn't out, you have to try and get one out. But even this spark of hope dies when you realize that the rules explicetly forbid the best strategies for these tokens. You can't completely block off a person or house! Look, I know kids might not like that, but it would be a big improvment.

The bits in the game arn't great either. The box says 6 people can play, but it's really only 5. Why? One of the peicies is burnt orange. Another is slightly less burnt orange, You'll never tell the differance in a game. The houses and board feel like they would fall arpart if you breathed on them, just look bad. the cards and seane tokens are okay, but there's nothing great about them.

In conclusion, this game is just not a good choice. I wanted to like it; I really did. But the lack of a good story, luck, mechanics, and bit all add up to a game that is simply not that great.

3 out of 10.

Thread: An updated version of Clue

BillJ1967 — 2006-11-25T03:15:49+00:00

I played this game with my two nephews (8 & 11 years old) and my brother-in-law. The game embraces the same mechanics as the older version except that in those instances where a player does NOT reach a clue location. At that instance, they draw a card (which either sends them to a clue location, or produces some other mayhem - such as moving blockades in front of other players.

The game plays very quickly because of the rapid acquisition of clues. But be careful! Unlike the old game which had valid information about the mystery, the suspects can lie or manipulate their alibi. So, younger children will have to keep both their READING and LOGIC skills fired up throughout the game to deduce the mystery.

I found the game to be pretty straightforward, and a little dull. But, my nephews enjoyed using the decoder tools (A "Password" like visor to see the clue, reverse printed clues which require a small mirror, and a crytographic key that extracts key letters from a large field of them). The key for winning this game was close reading and patience. Both of my nephews misread their clues (e.g. ignoring the word "Not" as in "I was not on the Bus") and got the accusation wrong. After my brother-in-law also blundered, I acquired the remaining clues and made the correct analysis. I won the game, but it was not riveting stuff. The next time the nephews ask me to play, I'll decline and suggest one of the Carcassonne games instead.