Murder
| Developer: Kingsley Harrison | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: US Gold | Sound: |
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| Year: 1990 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Adventure | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
5/10 | |
An interactive Cluedo game. You play as the detective in a manor where a murder has just been committed. Interrogate witnesses, gather clues, and find the culprit. You have two hours.
The blurb on the back of the box was tempting: “nearly three million unique murder cases”, “endless replay possibilities”, “realistic dramas: love stories, arguments, blackmail, inheritance issues, jealousy…”. On paper, it’s a very original atmosphere-driven game, presented in black and white like an old movie, where all the parameters are randomly generated each time, promising hours of crime-solving…
In practice? One thing to do: ask all possible questions to everyone you meet and cross-reference the information. Make sure to take notes, they won’t repeat the clue! It feels like being locked in with talking clocks, in the dream of a mad automaton. Communicating is just clicking through lists of keywords mechanically. In return, your interlocutors will throw out responses like “I have nothing to say” (99% of the time), or “someone went into this room or picked up this object at this time”. Deviation logic and nothing more. No context, no personality, no atmosphere. Spending hours doing word searches in a waiting room would be more fun.
And what do you want me to care that the cook picked up a magazine in the kitchen at 10:26? How does finding a fingerprint on a knife prove it’s the murder weapon (and that it’s the killer’s fingerprint to boot)? This game leaves me speechless. Where did I put my TV guide?
Two modern heirs: Unheard (2019) and Shadows of Doubt (still in development in 2023).
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