CLUEDO CHRONICLES - FATAL ILLUSION CD-ROM (2001)
CLICK ON THE THUMBNAILS TO OPEN THE LARGER PICTURE
This 3 CD-Rom game has many good points but a few downfalls which we will come to later.
Beginning on a luxury cruiser we meet the guests of Ian Masque a wealthy collector of Egyptian artefacts who owns a large chateau on top of a mountain in the German Rhine Valley. The date is 31 December 1938.
Along with the six usual suspects there are four new characters. Martin Urfe, an amateur magician, Marina Popov, a Russian expatriate who is a trained hypnotist and has a good knowledge of esp, Sabata, a Spanish Artist whose clairvoyant paintings are world famous and Dr. Julia Kell, a German psychiatrist.
You play an amateur sleuth who has been invited aboard the cruiser. As you move around the boat you can interview the guests to learn more about the mysterious Masque and the reason for the gathering. A magnifying glass icon is used throughout the game and moving this onto a suspect and clicking brings forward a list of questions you can ask.
When Masque falls dead you have to use your wits to stop the now runaway boat. Various artefacts can be found around the boat which can aid you in this quest.
The second chapter of this story takes place in the terminal of the cable car that enables the guests to reach Masque's Chateau. Here you have to get the cable car working and transport the guests to the chateau.
Finally, the third chapter takes place in the chateau itself. Here you learn that Scarlet, Green, Peacock, White, Mustard and Plum have all been given riddles to enable them to find a jewel allocated to them. You set off to try and find all six. Once again various items can be found to help you find all six.
Now, I'm afraid I come to the downfalls.
Throughout the game you can click on the CLUEDO icon at the bottom of the screen which will offer hints at certain points. Normally three are given. The first is not that much help, the second gives you a slightly better chance, the third is very nearly the complete answer. Now, maybe it's me, but I find that some of the items to be found are nearly impossible to find without the third hint. Maybe people who spend their life playing computer games may find it easier but as a one off for me it's annoying to have to look up the answer all the time.
The search for the jewels is fun. The Mrs. Peacock jewel is the hardest to get. You have to roll a ball down a board and into various holes and then emerging somewhere else on the board. I was doing this for ages, even with full instructions on how to do it, before I managed to complete it. A TIP. Maybe it's my computer but while trying I had AOL on in the background. Once I closed that and all other applications I found the puzzle worked.
After collecting the jewels and returning them to each character, a séance is held. During this, a ghostly figure appears and steals all the jewels.
From here on I do not want to give too much away. If anyone is really interested they can e-mail me at peter.titshall@ntlworld.com to find out who is the guilty party and how the story ends. All I can say it is highly explosive :)
Another slight downfall is the chopping and changing between the three CDs. The graphics are pretty wonderful hence having chunks of the action scattered around the three CDs.
Mind, I did find some of the characters pretty creepy and they always seem to be in the same position. Even after the fatal illusion of the title where Urfe dies during a magic trick, when you start investigating all the characters are back in the same places e.g. Plum spends almost the entire third segment staring at a glass case in the artefacts room.
But still, highly enjoyable.