Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion

Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion

Developer(s) Engineering Animation Interactive (EAI Interactive)
Publisher(s) Atari Interactive, Inc.
Producer(s) Virginia Ellen McArthur
Shari Scigliano
Designer(s) Matthew J. Costello
Artist(s) Matt Von Brock
Writer(s) Matthew J. Costello
Composer(s) George Alistair Sanger
Series Cluedo
Platform(s) Windows
Release date(s) November 1999 (US)
March 2000 (Spain)[1]
Genre(s) Adventure game / Detective mystery / Puzzle-Solving

Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion (subtitled Mystery Series: Episode One) is a 1999 PC point-and-click adventure game based on the Cluedo franchise. It is known as "Cluedo Chronicles: Le Masque Fatal" in France and "Cluedo Adventures: Tödliche Täuschung" in Germany.

The game was distributed with a variety of different covers, the difference being the murder weapon prominently displayed.

Development

At this point, two other computer games had been released based on the Clue franchise (in 1992 and 1998), but this is the first one that "leaves the board game 'feel' behind and transforms into a murder mystery adventure game."[2]

Considerable care was taken in the rendering of the location backgrounds, "even down to the moving reflections in the shiny hallway floor of the mansion."[3]

There was a patch released to fix up many of the game's bugs.

The game was intended to be Episode 1 of the Clue Chronicles Mystery Series,[4] this ended up being the only one produced after the series cancellation due to the adventure game crash of 1999/2000. Cluedofan.com explained in an FAQ "Clue(do) Chronicles was intended to be a three part series; but unfortunately the combination of Hasbro Interactive shutting down and EAI deciding that games were 'not part of their core business;' meant that parts 2 and 3 weren't created and probably will never be."[5] This series of adventure games was meant to have the same look as the look as the Cluedo games, and each title was supposed to have a new case for the player to solve.[6]

Voice cast

Gameplay

"Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion" is a first-person perspective point-and-click adventure game, so features gameplay typical of the genre. The game is controlled entirely with the mouse, and the mouse pointer changes when you can perform an action, grab an object, or walk around. Selecting a character calls up notebook where there is a list of questions to ask. They are checked off and new topics appear as the conversation progresses. The main menu provides access to suspect biographies as well as game options and saving and loading. Inventory appears at the bottom of the screen where inventory objects can be manipulated or inspected, A 'clue' option is also provided for novice players to give hints if one is stuck. Puzzles include riddles and abstract challenges to get gems, a maze, and some limited inventory-based puzzles.

The game uses the game graphics engine as Clue: Murder at Boddy Mansion, a board game adaption that was released the year before.

Plot

It is December 31, 1938 and you're on board amid a select group of guests invited to a celebrattion. This unusual New Years party is being held on the private yacht of a wealthy and eccentric Ian Masque, Suddenly Mr. Masque mysteriously killed, and everyone is a suspect. Who could have done it?

The evolving storyline plays out in 4 acts in 3 unique settings (inside a dark and foreboding castle, on board the yacht Rhine Maiden, and in a thrilling cable car ride). New characters join the classic cast of six characters in a game that has 20 hours of gameplay, and is full of red herrings, mysteries and puzzles.[7]

Critical reception

PC Player (Germany) gave the game 62 out of 100, praising the reproduction of the "enjoyable short conversations" in this "excellent" German language edition. It commented the puzzles were "varied", and noted the ease of the puzzles by saying if one is not an "amateur detectives" they may "reject this case". The site also spoke negatively on "the imprecise mouse control, the lengthy walks, as well as the homespun presentation."[8] Computer Games Magazine gave the game 60/100, writing "When it is all summed up, Fatal Illusion falls into the vast category of average games. Nothing particularly enjoyable, but it's generally not painful to play. The experience can be related to taking a skiing trip and having an unforeseen blizzard force you to stay inside. You didn't get to have the fun of the trip, but at least you didn't break any limbs."[9] MetzoMagic gave the game 2.5 stars out of 5, writing "Clue Chronicles is quite an enjoyable little mystery with some entertaining puzzles and problems (personally I thoroughly appreciated working out the riddles and chasing up the gems) but it falls short of being a really good adventure game. Unfortunately, as well as the graphics glitches and some show-stopping bugs (you will need the patch before you tackle this one) it was let down by its relative shortness and its failure to capitalise on all the potential."[10]

Tap-repeatedly wrote "Fatal Illusion’s interface was cumbersome. The backgrounds and locations were richly detailed, but the directional movements and what you can look at are severely limited." Though it wrote "most of the puzzles were logical and fun," it criticized the repetitive music, as well as the voice acting for having bad accepts and sounding like it was being read "from a script into a microphone in the conference room." Giving the game a score of 80/100, the site concluded "Overall, despite its many flaws, Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion was a fun game to play, if too short."[11] The Hungarian site PlayDome gave the game a positive review, complimenting its "beautiful surroundings," "no easy solutions," and excitement," concluding that it is a "good-hearted adventure game for all logic-oriented detectives."[12] The Dutch site AdventureIsland wrote that the story "in itself is fun invented only is it not a Cluedo story," and that the gameplay had too many bugs to be enjoyable. It added that the puzzles are not very difficult and sometimes self-explanatory, the graphics look very good, and the music (thoguh sparse) is very attractive and fits well with the graphics. The site gave the game a rating of 5 out of 10.[13] The Russian site NQuest game the game 74 out of 100, commenting "with good graphics and a good detective story the game has the best traditions of the genre: the murder, collecting evidence, and questioning suspects."[14]

Bob Mandel of The Adrenaline Vault gave the game 4 out of 5 stars, concluding "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..."[15] Jenny Guenther of Just Adventure noted "the story in this game is surprisingly tightly plotted--not what you'd expect from an adventure game based on a board game," and noted "despite its many flaws, Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion was a fun game to play, if too short," grading the game a "C."[16] Reviewing the Spanish version of the game, blogger Do. Lloret de Mar wrote "The main virtue is that the game has been translated into Castilian, including some of the graphics and animations that we see to go finding the issue. Otherwise the voices are in English. The translation is quite good and we found everything perfectly. Perhaps there is too much text to ask people, but it is still something typical in adventure games." Ambivalent to the 3D graphics, animations, music, and special effects, the site also commented on the game's "interesting puzzles" and its shortness.[17]

The Inn at Death's Door

The Inn at Death's Door was an 4-part free solvable online mystery prequel to Fatal Illusion. The text-based detective mystery mini-series included the chapters "Episode One: The Magic Box", "Episode Two: Chasing the Fox", "Episode Three: One Death Less, One Death More", and "Episode Four: Race for the Truth". The premise is "An assortment of eccentric guests gathers at a Swiss inn. One of the guests disappears, then reappears dead at the bottom of a ravine. The body proves to be a hoax, a stuffed mannequin. Then a real murder occurs, the poisoning death of the inn's only maid." The solution is on the Cluedo fansite Mysterynet.com[18] The site wan a contest asking participants to "solve the mystery and write how you solved it", with the deadline being Dec. 3, 1999. The winning entry won a Mystery Weekend for Two prize pack.[19][20]

References

  1. ↑ "Google Translate". Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  2. ↑ "Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion Review by metzomagic.com". Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  3. ↑ "Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion Review - Tap-Repeatedly". Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  4. ↑ "Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion Introduction". Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  5. ↑ "Cluedo / Clue Frequently Asked Questions". Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  6. ↑ "Google Translate". Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  7. ↑ "Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion - from CDAccess.com". Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  8. ↑ "Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion for Windows (1999) MobyRank - MobyGames". MobyGames. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  9. ↑ "Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion for Windows (1999) MobyRank - MobyGames". MobyGames. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  10. ↑ "Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion Review by metzomagic.com". Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  11. ↑ "Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion Review - Tap-Repeatedly". Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  12. ↑ "Google Translate". Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  13. ↑ "Google Translate". Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  14. ↑ "Google Translate". Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  15. ↑ "Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion - from CDAccess.com". Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  16. ↑ "Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion - from CDAccess.com". Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  17. ↑ "Google Translate". Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  18. ↑ "Clue Game: Clue Chronicles - Fatal Illusion". Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  19. ↑ "Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion Characters". Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  20. ↑ "Clue Chronicles: Fatal Illusion Contest Info". Retrieved 10 September 2014.

Further sources