Clue Harry Potter

Awesome game! You need to play it a few times before you figure out all of the rules. The dark mark cards can apply to all players or one. Read the entire card carefully. If you have extra cards that are in Dumbledor's office you can go in and look at them they are not hidden.

Interesting changes to the original Clue:
-House Points! Everyone is at risk with the Dark Mark cards affecting specific rooms or people in corridors; when your House Points are zero you are out of the game. Makes it downright tense sometimes.
-Extra cards go in DumbleDore's Office. Go to his office and you can view them to exclude those from your list of suspect/item/location cards.
-The entrances to rooms shift from open to closed, making you change your path at times. Innovative dial system under the board shifts with the roll of a House die.

All in all, excellent for fans and non-fans alike! Though fans of the series will appreciate it much more.

This game encourages a lot of thinking based on how people make their repeated suppositions. So refreshing to see a game that is more than a franchise's attempt to garner money.

I've always been a fan of Clue but this game takes Clue to a new level of fun. The innovative board allows for constantly changing secret passages and clues. I love the "danger" of the dark deck and the risk of losing house points--if you get to zero you're out of the game. It's a super fun game for all ages.

I loved playing Clue as a kid and my 7 yr old got into it recently. So this seemed like the perfect Santa present. Turns out "he" was right--disregard the 9+ age recommendation if you've got a smart child (brag alert). This is still Clue but with some fun additions--it's not terribly complicated (takes about a game to get the hang of it), it's great for HP fans, but it's still got the essence of Clue. Overall, thumbs up.

I must confess I am a Clue fan first and a Harry Potter fan second. So, while I'm really happy with the adaptation of Hogwarts into a Clue board, I'm a little disappointed that the "whodunit?" aspect sometimes takes a seat to another gameplay aspect - House Points, which, when completely lost, cause a player to lose the game.

As far as Clue goes, it's still pretty standard - players need to determine the who, where, with what of a kidnapping mystery. Players take turns moving about Hogwarts, making and disproving suggestions. In terms of other versions of the game, it feels closest to the recently released Clue.

On the Harry Potter front, the game is really fun. More often than not, someone gets to turn a dial under the game board on their turn, which opens and closes doors and secret passages in Hogwarts. A very fun twist. The suspect and player cards adapt likenesses from the movies and are nicely done.

One aspect that can bog the game down, though, is the appearance of the Dark Mark, which exists on one side of one die, as well as within Hogwarts as the dials under the board are turned. When a Dark Mark appears, a card is drawn and players can lose House Points, and when a player has no more House Points, they lose the game. There are "Help Cards" that can prevent the loss of House Points, but there are just sooo many of them that no one ever seems to have the right one. In each game I've played, at least one player loses simply because of these unlucky die rolls and card draws, which is unfortunate. (Clue games are less fun when you've lost but still have to sit there to disprove suggestions!)

Longer story short, this is a neat and different version of Clue that should please Clue and Harry Potter fans alike. But thanks to the House Point aspect, it's the first version of Clue I've seen where so many people lose before the game is over!