Game: Clue: Murder By Death
Genre: Adventure, Simulation, Board Game, Strategy
System: Nintendo Switch (Also on Steam (Windows, macOS), Xbox and PS4/5, coming soon to Mobile)
Developer | Publisher: Cocodrolo Games | Dolores Entertainment
Age Rating: US Everyone | EU 3+
Price: US $19.90 | UK £18.00 | EU € 19,90
Release Date: February 13th, 2026
Review code used, with many thanks to Big Games Machine.
Inspired by the likes of the board game Clue (or Cluedo), the film Murder by Death and the great crime writer Agatha Christie, you get to embark on your own whodunnit in Clue: Murder By Death.
Will this be a game worth dying for?
There’s Been a Murder
Clue: Murder By Death starts with a short cutscene, showing the butler, Benson, phoning your main character, John Smith, and asking that you come to the mansion of Lord Anderson. There has been a murder; Lord Anderson has been found dead on the library floor. It was his specific instructions that, should anything happen to him, you would be called to find the culprit. However, with Scotland Yard en route, you only have 2 hours to find out who murdered Lord Anderson.
As Lord Anderson’s mansion is rather large, Benson suggests you recruit two of the household to help you in your investigation. This is a clever twist on the traditional whodunit; potentially recruiting the murderer to help solve the crime! You will need to play Clue: Murder By Death several times, selecting different companions, as each character will observe the same object in different ways and will have different conversations with the other suspects depending on their ranking within the household.
Once your helpers have been recruited, you will have a short tutorial explaining movement and taking objects. I had to restart the game several times at this point because I kept accidentally skipping the tutorial. I moved my character, John Smith, to the appropriate place indicated at the start of the tutorial, but then I didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t until I played in docked mode that I could see a slither of text in the upper corner, guiding me to return to Benson to hear more.
Once the tutorial is completed (or skipped), you start your investigation.
The Pros and Cons of Clue: Murder By Death
The graphics in Clue: Murder By Death are great, and the 3D dioramas for each room or corridor work well as you navigate your character around the mansion. Each room has lots of detail and several objects to observe and some to take. However, you only have three pocket spaces and playing as John Smith, who is already carrying a magnifying glass and flashlight, limits you to collecting just one additional item (unless you drop something). Some of the other characters are also carrying items by default, like Benson with a master key (very useful!).
Observed items, like the Viking helmet, become part of the list of murder weapons, so it’s important to look at or take these items, else you might not capture the weapon needed. Some of the items would only appear after certain conversations, so you need to retrace your steps multiple times.
During your first playthrough, the map will fill in as you explore the house. Subsequent playthroughs will have as much of the map completed as you had previously explored. Accessing the map is slow, but necessary, as moving between rooms alters the orientation; you always look towards the centre of the mansion. There is a compass shown on screen, but it’s only for decoration. Moving between characters is quick if they are in the same room, else tedious if the game has to swap between locations, and walking is slow.
At the end of the 2 hours, you will need to present the case, naming the murderer, weapon and reason. However, you can try closing the case at any point during a playthrough of Clue: Murder By Death, and if unsuccessful, you can keep playing.
As well as the suspects, there are other household staff to talk to, and questioning is as simple as approaching the individual. All of the conversations are stored within the investigation log, as well as information about your main character, John Smith and your two assistants. Initially, I thought it was going to be enjoyable to play multiple times, with the different characters, but it lost the excitement very quickly, as I couldn’t remember who I’d questioned as who. It would have been helpful to have all the suspects listed in the investigation log, along with their role and relationship in the household.
This is usually the point where I say that I can’t reveal too much of the story, so as not to spoil the plot of Clue: Murder By Death. Unfortunately, I didn’t get far enough to discover anything, as the game kept crashing. In fact, 6 of my 7 playthroughs ended in a crash, all at different points with different characters. Adding to that, there were numerous typos and grammatical mistakes, as well as mistakes in identity within the character conversations. There is some mild language used, which is out of character for the individuals.
Gameplay
The movement controls are straightforward, and the observe, take, release, map and character swapping are given on screen. However, it’s exceptionally difficult to get to the investigation log. I opened the log by chance when I accidentally pressed a key, whilst the clock was visible. It then took another hour to work out how to reopen it! Viewing the clock was not very responsive; it would sometimes appear automatically, but using the + to open it needed several attempts. Within the investigation log, navigating the case notes was frustrating, but you can pin and colour important conversations. It was also difficult to align my character with objects to interact with, again sometimes descriptions would appear automatically, but not every time.
There is limited touchscreen functionality, which works quite well, but you can’t move the characters via this method. Unfortunately, I found the writing just a little too small on the Switch Lite screen.
Clue: Murder By Death autosaves, but there is only one game instance. Once the 2 hours are up, you will need to start a new game to continue.
As mentioned, there are numerous issues with the pre-release version I played. Hopefully, some (if not all) of them will be corrected for Day 1.
Conclusion
Clue: Murder By Death has a great framework for a video game. Appropriate graphics and a clever use of different dialogue give the game an authentic feel, more than just a remake of a classic board game.
However, with slow loading times and character movement, it misses the mark and leads to cumbersome and frustrating gameplay. Clue: Murder By Death would have benefited from more user testing and proofreading to capture the typos and grammar mistakes. Although I initially liked the game, the game-breaking crashes mean I really can’t recommend it at this time.
Final Verdict: I’m Not Sure 
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