Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion
Sold Out		(Win95/98/Me/XP) (Retail) (CLUECHR1PR)
Discontinued

Hasbro Interactive

Game

ESRB Rating: Everyone - Ages 8 and up

Ratings:

from The Adrenaline Vault

A Mystery Adventure

Welcome to Fatal Illusion, Episode 1 of the Clue Chronicles Mystery Series, an expansive, richly detailed world where you actually solve the mystery!

It's New Year's Eve 1938. On board the private yacht of the wealthy and eccentric Ian Masque, you find yourself part of a "select" group of guests invited to an "unusual" New Year's Eve party. Each guest has a story to tell but their connection to you and to each other remains hidden. Something strange is bound to happen, and everyone is a suspect.

Get ready to put your best deductive reasoning to work and unravel the true story behind this game. Along the way you'll find challenging puzzles to solve and mini-mysteries to unlock. This is a totally engaging mystery adventure that is sure to keep super sleuths entertained from the opening scene to the exciting cliffhanging climax.

Fantastic life-like 3-D animation
Fatal Illusion takes players beyond the next level with rich 3-D animation and stunning graphics. Sweeping backgrounds come to life with expert detail so that every scene is an incredibly realistic gaming experience.

Story unfolds in 3 unique settings
Inside the dark and foreboding mountaintop castle retreat
On board the Rhine Maiden, Mr. Masque's strange private yacht
Hanging high above the ground during a thrilling cable car ride

Game Features:

• Quick set-up
• Evolving storyline plays out in 4 acts
• New characters join classic cast
• Red herrings, mysteries and puzzles
• 20 thrilling hours of gameplay

December 28, 1938

It's not everyday that I get invited to hob-nob with society's upper crust, especially on New Year's Eve. But today I received a personal invitation to attend an "unusual" New Year's Eve party hosted by a Mr. Ian Masque at his mountaintop castle retreat, "Chateau de Nuit." For the life of me I can't say I've ever met the man or know anyone who is connected to him.

I tried to do a little checking on my host but came up with very little. All I know for sure is that he is an extremely private man - almost secretive. I did find a small newspaper article showcasing his recently restored mountaintop retreat but it gave very little information about the man.

According to the invitation, Mr. Masque's personal yacht, the Rhine Maiden, will transport me and a "select" group of guests to the castle. During the river voyage we will see his latest acquisitions. I suppose I shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth, but "why invite me?"

Added to the night's festivities is an amateur magician named Martin Urfe, who will be performing his latest illusion called "Escape from Death." The title of that trick alone is enough to make me feel uneasy.

Who else is part of this "select" group and what are their stories? Something tells me there's more behind this invitation than just a party...

Requirements:

Windows 95/98/Me/XP: 133MHz Pentium or faster, 16MB RAM, 2MB SVGA video card, 8x CD-ROM drive, 80MB free hard drive space, keyboard, mouse.

Reviews:

The Adrenaline Vault by Bob Mandel

"Now Hasbro has taken a logical next step, introducing a full blown 3D adventure, Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion, created by the same developer. Using all of the original "Clue" characters--my favorite of which has always been Professor Plum--this new release plays like a mystery novel with tons of unexpected twists and turns. Optimistically tagging it episode one, the company clearly hopes it is the first of many titles. Although the connection to the original board game is somewhat loose, involving primarily similar characters and sleuthing to solve who committed a murder, this is a noble and clever expansion of the original theme that involves much more penetrating, complex, and, ultimately, riveting detective work."

"One of the successes of Clue Chronicles is that it keeps you guessing until the very end about what is going on, including who committed the dastardly deed. Most adventure offerings do not revolve around the mysteries surrounding a murder and, therefore, do not present this sort of a challenge. This release succeeds in walking the tightrope between letting you know so much that you are not kept off-balance, which would be a tragic flaw in a good mystery, and letting you know so little that you are engrossed in the story and on the edge of your seat to find out more. The biggest problem with this kind of orientation is that the replay value is minimal, as once you know the ending, it spoils what precedes it."

"One of the nicest features of Clue Chronicles is that it has an excellent built-in help system. There are three levels of clues available--a riddle, a suggestion, and the actual answer--to help if you are stuck. The inclusion of this aid opens the door for novices to the adventure genre to buy and play this game without fear of getting too frustrated because they cannot unravel one of the mysteries. Throughout, I found ample clues to the puzzles presented. Being able to refer to your log book as well as being allowed to ask the same questions of characters a second time if you need to helps out a lot. Although you don't know much about what is going on until the end, you will find the designers are always exceedingly fair in what they ask of you."

"When I first began playing Clue Chronicles, I was unimpressed and figured Hasbro Interactive had proven it still has a lot to learn. Yet I was eventually thrilled by gorgeous graphics, intelligent puzzle and gameplay design, and a compelling and complicated plot that is worthy of a great mystery novel..."

Just Adventure by Jenny Guenther

"Egypt, not long after the turn of the century. A shocking murder in a tent by an assassin with an impressive array of weapons that includes a knife, a candlestick, a rope ... (he uses the knife). Fast forward to New Year's Eve 1938. The world is on the brink of war, and a group of people find themselves thrown together on a mysterious yacht cruising the Rhine on the way to attend a mysterious party given by a mysterious host at his mysterious castle atop a mysterious mountain. Murder and mayhem. What does it all mean? You, as "Player," the private investigator, must find out. Your mysterious host, Ian Masque, mysteriously dies immediately after you hand him a Chinese puzzle box. You interview all of the usual suspects, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. Peacock, Miss Scarlet, et al., plus a handful of new characters tossed into the mix just for this game. And no, Mrs. White did not do it in the library with the wrench. I don't want to discuss too much more about the premise for fear of taking away any surprises. Suffice it to say, the story in this game is surprisingly tightly plotted--not what you'd expect from an adventure game based on a board game."

"Overall, though, despite what I just said, most of the puzzles were logical and fun. Most of the first act aboard the yacht involves talking to the characters and getting a feel for what's going on, why the characters are there, and why they have been thrown together to attend the party. The second act is purely mechanical manipulation as you repair a cable car to take you to the mountaintop mansion. The third act, the bulk of the game, is where the puzzles get really intense--you must get a clue from each "color" character and locate six jewels based on their clues. The puzzles are mostly pretty easy, but there are a couple of stumpers. I do confess to resorting to the hints more than once, maybe even more than twice, if the truth be told."

"Overall, despite its many flaws, Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion was a fun game to play, if too short (it took me maybe six hours), and so my final grade is a C."

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