Home of the Underdogs
About News FAQs Contact HOTU GoogleGroup Music Manuals
Category Applications Action Adventure Education Interactive Fiction Puzzle Role Playing Games Simulation Special Sport Strategy War




Support the EFF
Welcome How you can help
Browse Games
Welcome Random Pick
Welcome By Company
  Welcome By Theme  
Welcome By Alphabet
Welcome By Year
Welcome Title Search
Welcome Company Search
Welcome Designer Search
Recommended
Welcome Freeware Titles
Welcome Collections
Welcome Discord
Welcome Twitter
Welcome Facebook
Welcome File Format Guide
Welcome Help: Non PC Games
Welcome Help: Win Games
Welcome Help: DOS Games
Welcome Recommended Links
Site History Site History
Legacy Legacy
Link to Us Link to Us
Credits Thanks & Credits
Abandonware Ring

Abandoned Places

dungeoncrawlers.org

Creative Commons License


Game #2949
Hall of Belated Fame Inductee  Felony    View all Top Dogs in this genre
Adventure   Traditional first-person

Rating: 6.92 (14 votes)

Felony box cover

Felony screenshot
Two interesting murder mystery games that play similar to the popular Host Your Own Murder board game, CBS' Felony and Mystery by the Dozen are each a collection of twelve murder cases for up to eight players. The computer serves as a tool that provides case histories, autopsy and lab reports (when you request them), and aids in constructing a profile of each victim. The players (if you play solo, then you're just competing against yourself) are responsible for taking notes, looking up clues that the computer designates, and solving the case. Your goal in each case is twofold: identify the murderer, and collect enough evidence to convict him/her in the court of law. As a cop, you have several options at your disposal on each turn. You can interrogate witnesses/suspects, examine physical evidence, or go to another location on the game map. Each option takes up some in-game time, so you must budget and spend your time carefully to optimize the results. Choosing the order of actions is also important -- if you discover the shoe in the victim's bedroom before ordering the lab report, for example, the lab report will contain the analysis of that shoe. If you order the lab report before thoroughly investigating the crime scene, you may miss out important analysis and waste precious time.

For all the computing power at disposal, the games curiously rely on the *players* to determine the final outcome. Once you feel you know who the killer is and have enough evidence, the computer will tell you to look up the solution in the solution book that comes with the game. The computer will then spit out a rough rating of your sleuthing skills based on the time you took to solve the case. In a multiplayer game, trust is not a problem, because the first player who thinks he/she solves the case can announce his/her reasoning to the group, which can be cross-checked with the official solution. If you're playing by yourself, though, this paper-and-machine combination is not effective -- you can "cheat" by just announcing to the computer that yes, you did solve the case, in order to obtain the rating. But of course, no righteous sleuth will ever do that ;)

In the end, despite the dubious implementation mixing paper and computer, both entries in the short-lived "Mystery Master" series succeed in delivering twelve very well-written, intriguing murder cases that cover a wide range of subjects and motives. Strong deductive skills are required to isolate red herrings from clues, and then from minor clues to real evidence that will put the killer behind bars. Highly recommended, especially if you can find friends to play against and to keep your cheating tendencies in check :) Thumbs up for both!

Reviewed by: Underdogs
Designer: Unknown
Developer: Brainbank
Publisher: CBS
Year: 1984
Software Copyright: Brainbank
Theme: Organized Forces, Mystery
Multiplayer:  
System Requirements: DOS
Where to get it:
Related Links:  
Links:    
If you like this game, try: Murder by The Dozen, Fourth Protocol, The, J.B. Harold in: Murder Club

© 1998 - 2024 Home of the Underdogs
Portions are copyrighted by their respective owners. All rights reserved. Please read our privacy policy.