Murder Makes Strange Deadfellows

Murder Makes Strange Deadfellows is a standard "Whodunit?" mystery game. You play the role of Nick Steere, you and your family have gathered for the will reading of your great uncle Randolph Steere. After the will has been read a friend of Randolph tells of a newer will hidden somewhere in the house. Naturally, wanting the truth to be exposed, you set off to find the new will, and also find out if Randolph's death was really an accident (notice the game's title).

The twist in this game is that the house is full of ghosts who will aid you as well as scare you. The graphics have a comic book style, no animation, just pictures with voices that reminded me very much of reading a comic book. The problem is that the graphic artist was a bit lazy, so after a while you'll easily recognize the recurring pictures of the characters who seem to be just pasted on the background. Playing the game is very simple. You have a certain amount of "time" to search the rooms and gather clues, after the time is up (or you think you heard and saw enough), you choose the person or place that has the will.

Gameplay is almost non-existent, you merely click on the room you want to search and a non interactive sequence is triggered in which you discover the clues in that specific room in that time. Going to different rooms at different times yields different results naturally, however you never deduct anything from those clues. For example, in one occasion I saw a character enter a secret door, naturally by going to the room the character was just in you will open the door too and reveal what is behind it. However, it isn't necessary to view the other character open the door, if you choose that specific room in that specific time in the game you will ALWAYS get the same sequence of opening the secret door. In the end, poor graphics and boring gameplay (which consists of clicking on rooms and viewing a long sequence), ruin what could have been a very good idea.

Murder Makes Strange Deadfellows deserves mention as one of the first CD-ROM only games ever made .... it's a shame it wasn't more interactive.

Review By HOTUD