MURDER CLUB

 Bill Robbins has been murdered, and it's up to you, J. B. Harold, to discover
"whodunit." During your investigations, Robbins's lifestyle begins to take on a
seedy aspect: He was a philanderer and a ruthless businessman. And while you
might find yourself thinking, "This guy got what he deserved," your job is to
uphold law and order.

 MURDER CLUB, by Riverhill Soft Japan, is touted as "Japan's most popular
mystery game." After playing for a good four hours, I can't see why. Yes, it has
an involving plot, but that's where the game's charm ends.

 There is no parser. Instead, you're presented with a list of actions (a la
STARFLIGHT), and each action includes a list of questions. After selecting the
action, you are given a menu of possible questions you may ask. If you hate
wrestling with game parsers, you'll love this feature; however, this is one of
the major drawbacks of MURDER CLUB: You have to re-select the action in order to
continue.

 For instance, you select the "Question Person" option when you first meet a
suspect. Next, you select one of the available questions you may ask the person
(e.g., Name, Age, Hobbies, etc.). When the suspect has answered the question you
select, you must choose the "Question" option again in order to continue your
questioning. This may not sound so bad, until you consider there are 33
characters -- each with a menu of eight main topics. Believe me, you'll wear out
the up- and down-arrows on your keyboard. It would have been much better if the
Questions menu remained on the screen until you pressed, say, ESCAPE to exit the
routine.

 The "sparkling graphics" mentioned (and shown) on the back of the game box are
mundane, at best. It's obvious that American game companies could teach
Riverhill Soft Japan several lessons in what constitutes even good graphics, let
alone "sparkling" ones. Characterizations range from amateur to interesting --
as though several different artists worked on the project. I played MURDER CLUB
on a CGA. I'd hoped that the EGA version would display crisper graphics;
however, that wasn't the case. The sole difference between the two graphic mode
was the addition of color; otherwise, CGA and EGA were the same, in terms of
resolution.

 The only animation in the entire game occurs during the game loading sequence:
You get to watch the "O" in KYODAI change to their logo. There is sound (AdLib
cards and Tandy), which can be toggled on or off, and a melody
(horrendous-sounding on my one-tone PC) that plays during the loading process.
(Thankfully, the sound toggle is available.) You must sit through the opening
graphics every time you start the game; there's no way to bypass them, although
the documentation says you can press the spacebar to skip them. And after the
opening sequence has finished, you'll see a pair of legs forever until you press
a key to start the game.

 While VGA monitors are supported, the graphics display in EGA resolution only.
Also, the Tandy 1000's 16-color palette is supported. The instructions say that
384K of memory is required, but I was able to play the game with only 256K.
MURDER CLUB will also run on monitors with Hercules monochrome cards; it can be
played via keyboard, Microsoft (or compatible) mouse, or joystick. I preferred
the keyboard, but others may prefer one of the other two options. PC-DOS or
MS-DOS 2.1 or higher is required.

 MURDER CLUB's diskettes (three 5-1/4") aren't copy-protected. You may play the
game from your floppy drive, or install the game on a hard drive; however,
playing from the hard drive requires that you insert the original "Disk 1" every
time you start the game. This is an acceptable method of copy protection, given
the limited verbiage in the documentation. You can also make copies of the
diskettes for archival purposes. The authors suggest you copy the game disks to
a 1.5MB disk to minimize disk swaps, if you're going to play the game on a
single drive computer. I found this interesting due to the fact that, in order
to perform this feat, you would normally have to copy the originals down to a
hard drive before you could copy them back to a high density disk. Why not just
play from the hard drive?

 If you have a 3-1/2" disk drive, there is a coupon in the box that you may send
in (along with your original diskettes) to exchange your disks. There is no
charge for this service; however, read the front of the box carefully to make
sure you avoid delays in getting the proper format.

 The documentation has a page for each of the characters you'll interrogate, and
blanks for filling in what you learn about them; lists of the various menus for
each of the phases; introductory letters to J. B. Harold; and complete
installation and interface guidelines.

 If you play from a floppy drive, you must have a blank, formatted diskette on
which to save your game. Hard disk players' games will automatically be saved to
the MCLUB subdirectory. After saving a game, you can see how you're progressing
in five different categories: Collecting evidence, general investigation,
interrogation, vital information, and total investigation. You'll also be given
clues at this point about things you may have overlooked.

 One interesting angle in MURDER CLUB is the investigation phase. As you
interview more and more people, someone you've already questioned will have
additional information to give you. For example, at one point, you learn the
color of the car seen leaving the scene of the crime. Now, everybody you've
already visited will have "Car" under their "Ask for Information" menu. Also,
suspects who aren't forthcoming with everything they know will answer more fully
if you ask them at a later time. So, as you can see, you'll be visiting the same
suspects over and over.

 As you continue your investigation, you'll be able to ask for search and arrest
warrants. If you try to get a warrant before the game feels you've earned it,
your request will be denied. This is especially frustrating when you _know_
somebody's lying, or you've learned contradictory information. I found it
aggravating that I couldn't request a search warrant for someone's room, even
though I was able to obtain an arrest warrant for him.

 MURDER CLUB could have been a much better game, both graphically and logically.
The plot's twisty, the clues are obtuse, and the method is maddening. But you
don't have to be a super sleuth to win this one: Brute force and patience are
enough.

 MURDER CLUB is published by Kyodai and distributed by Broderbund.

*****DOWNLOADED FROM P-80 SYSTEMS (304) 744-2253