Everyone loves a little murder mystery to spice up a boring night, which is why Clue has been an incredibly popular board game since the 1940s. But unlike many board games, the murder mystery format translates well to Zoom. Luckily, it's easy to play Clue online with the help of Zoom.
If you've never played it before (or seen Knives Out ), the rules of Clue are fairly simple. A murder occurs in a mansion with many shabby rooms, and your task is to find the murderer, the location and the weapon used. Miss Scarlett, Colonel Mustard or Professor Plum? Lead pipe, revolver or wrench? The correct combination is hidden in a secret envelope.
Your job is to move around the mansion, rolling the dice to see how far you can move on your turn. Each player enters a room that may be a crime scene and makes suggestions about what happened. You have three cards in your hand that eliminate all possibilities - for example, if you have the dagger card, it cannot be in the secret envelope. You can show these cards to other players to prove their theories wrong. The goal is to gather enough information and rule out enough possibilities to make a final accusation, usually as dramatically as possible. If you're wrong, you lose.
Like many board games, you can't use Clue's physical setup to play remotely - which is a shame, because those little daggers are adorable. But there's a good option: go online and investigate Mr. Bodie's murder in the splendid Tudor Mansion. So how do you make it work remotely?
There is a free version of Clue on ArcadeSpot, but it doesn't allow multiple players in different locations to play together, so it's only useful if you're playing alone at home. Otherwise, you'll want to invest in Hasbro's Clue app, which sells for $3.99 on the Apple Store and Google Play, and $11.99 on Steam. It can also be played on your Nintendo Switch.
As with many online multiplayer games, you can choose to pair up with strangers (up to five other people), or play the game with your friends. It's a very intuitive gaming experience, very much in the style of a board game. Players are arranged at the top of the screen, and every guess and move is played on the on-screen board. The clue sheet updates automatically as various tidbits are revealed, but you'll also need to take notes on the in-game notepad, as it won't keep track of which cards you reveal to whom.
The downside to the Clue app is that, while it features some pretty amazing audio, such as the sound of a revolver and dramatic gasps, it doesn't include video or chat to communicate with other players. But it's so easy to run Zoom at the same time, so you can see everyone's faces and make those super dramatic statements with energy. (Bonus points if you coordinate your Zoom background and outfit.)
If traditional Clues settings are boring to you, Hasbro also offers the Clues Online Season Pass, which includes 10 new boards including Sherlock Holmes and Watson’s Victorian London settings, Old Hollywood, Wild West, Ice Palace and Agatha Christie style Egyptian excavation site. While these options include new characters and art, the dynamics of the game remain the same and there are no new rules. There's a lot of content, but the price is $34.99, so it's probably only for serious Clue fanatics.
