The Clue!
| Developer: …and avoid panic by | Graphics: |
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| Publisher: Neo | Sound: |
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| Year: 1994 | Difficulty: |
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| Genre: Strategy-adventure | Lastability: |
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| Number of players: 1 | Rating: |
8/10 | |
A German game (Der Clou!), translated into English (allegedly poorly, though I didn’t notice).
You’ve played detectives, reporters, and spies countless times; how about being a burglar for a change?
The story begins in 1953, London. You are Matt Stuvysunt, a greenhorn who has just arrived without a penny to his name. No worry, wander the streets and you’ll soon make some “enriching” encounters that will open up opportunities. You’ll start modestly by robbing a newsagent’s with a crowbar, but already the constraints of the trade will become apparent: do you need a vehicle? One or more accomplices? Equipment? Is the target protected by an alarm? By guards? Have you planned an escape route? And not least: how quickly could the police arrive on scene if something goes wrong?
As you’ll have gathered, you’re the mastermind, and the exercise isn’t limited to breaking a window and stuffing everything you can grab into a bag (though that’s part of it!). First, you’d be well advised to do some reconnaissance, identify the necessary skills (a safe to crack?) and recruit your associates accordingly. Then devise a plan, safely tucked away in your hotel room. It’s practically programming: determine each team member’s role and time each action. The idea is to bypass security as quickly as possible, grab the most valuable and transportable items, and ideally leave no trace.
There’s no time limit to finalise your plan. You can save it, create multiple versions, and come back to it later. Execution happens at the press of a button, and everything animates automatically according to your carefully thought-out instructions, like clockwork … except when something unexpected occurs.
Once your deed is done (successfully), you’ll need to fence the goods through your preferred receiver whilst staying under the police radar. Change cars regularly!
The heists thus follow one another, in whatever order you choose, however you want, becoming increasingly difficult but also more lucrative. Your ultimate target? The Crown Jewels, naturally.
The concept of preparing a burglary down to the finest detail is directly borrowed from another title: They Stole a Million (Amstrad CPC/Commodore 64/ZX Spectrum, 1986). They’ve dressed it up as a point & click adventure game (though for some obscure reason, the mouse click doesn’t work for me, so I played with the keyboard). In practice, you move from one screen to another using the basic commands at the bottom of the screen, observe your surroundings and converse with present characters, whereas in the original game, everything was done through austere menus. The atmosphere benefits greatly, even if the interface isn’t free from tedious menus. One detail annoys me: the dialogues don’t scroll when pressing enter; they cut off abruptly before you can read what follows.
The game spans 4 to 5 floppy disks: a hard drive installation is mandatory (or go for the CD32 version).
An expansion came out the following year (Der ProfiDiskette); I’m not sure if it was ever translated into English. In 2001, a 3D sequel was released: Clou 2, aka The Sting!.
Today, it’s reminiscent of Thief Simulator (2018).
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