The Clue!
1994
- point-and-click
- simulator
- strategy
- tactical
- adventure
- stealth
- single player
The story
An adventure game, assuming the identity of Matt Stuvysant, a burglar who is looking beyond just the clothes on his back and a hotel room on Holland Street, the player is tasked with finding accomplices, scouting potential targets, and plotting plans of burglary, down to the finest detail. Featuring the archetypal point-and-click interface during investigations, engaging in planning a job would alter the controls to include keyboard, using it to control the planned movements of the personnel.
What it’s like
Early-1990s Amiga-era point-and-click screens carry the investigation, with the scene-by-scene feel of a rented hotel room and the dusty, slightly clinical look of a city street you scout on foot. When the work turns to planning, the interface shifts into a keyboard-driven layout where you move your crew across a floor plan, so the mood moves from browsing to calculating. The vibe is sly, methodical and low-key, closer to a patient puzzle than a chase, with dice rolls and the wait for a job to go right giving it a tense, anticipatory hum. Pacing is slow and deliberate, built around research, recruitment and rehearsal rather than action. Its crime is theft and deception, with no gore and little physical danger; the stakes are about getting caught, not hurt. It suits an evening alone with a notebook-style puzzle mindset, a slow weekend session, or anyone who enjoys the planning phase of a caper movie more than the explosions. It is for players who want a cerebral, character-led heist with a retro, hands-on feel.
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